Rich with history: Localities hope to cash in America’s past

President James Monroe lived fewer than three miles from his lifelong friend Thomas Jefferson, and his home has always been in the shadow of Monticello.

But a federal historic designation, the Journey Through Hallowed Ground, is helping to give Ash Lawn-Highland, Monroe’s former residence, the public relations boost it needs to flourish on its own as a presidential museum.

“[JTHG] has helped put us on the national stage,” said Martha Barr, interpreter coordinator at Ash Lawn. “We’re lesser known than Monticello and Montpelier, but we all offer different experiences because the three presidents were so different.”

JTHG is a federal national heritage area designation that consists of 97 historical sites from Gettysburg, Pa., to Albemarle County. It is one of 40 designated national heritage areas that include natural, cultural and historical sites.

JTHG’s designation was approved by Congress in April and signed into law by President George W. Bush on May 8.

The “Journey” takes visitors on a 175-mile trip that includes nine presidential homes, 73 national historical districts and 15 historic Main Street communities.

Preservationists worked for more than three years to gain the federal designation and increase national and local awareness and encourage stewardship of all the sites within the JTHG.

“This was a way to preserve our history for years to come,” said Cate Magennis Wyatt, founder and president of the Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership. “Our organization is unique because we strive to represent all stakeholders. It was abundantly clear that we were missing an enormous opportunity here [by not coming together].”

Visitors traveling along the Journey can experience places that hold keys to the American Revolution, the Civil War and the fight for civil rights. Some of the sites are well-known places such as Gettysburg and Monticello, while others are private homes that once housed famous people.

JTHG is a unique grouping because it pairs sites along four states that might otherwise not be considered as having anything in common, Magennis Wyatt said. Many of the sites are on the National Register of Historic Places and are a part of the country’s history, she said.

“[This grouping] is the spine of the chapters of our American history,” she said.

Being included in the JTHG designation has been an added bonus for officials at Monticello, which hosts approximately 450,000 visitors each year. Jefferson’s home and the 13 other Albemarle County sites are at the end of the historical designation trail.

“We’ve always had an unofficial alliance that tied sites in Virginia,” said Wayne Mogielnicki, director of communications of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, which owns and operates Monticello. “Being on the southern end of the JTHG brings great publicity to Monticello and makes the route more easily marked. [JTHG] encompasses a broader swath of history.”

Each site was asked to participate in JTHG or opt out, Magennis Wyatt said. Privately owned sites that are now a part of the designation can remain closed to the public and be taken off the list if ownership changes hands, she said.

“This designation doesn’t come with any regulatory authorization,” Magennis Wyatt said. “We wanted to spotlight the importance of the region nationally and internationally.”

All-American roads

Now that preservationists have secured JTHG as a national heritage area, they’re focusing efforts on becoming part of the National Scenic Byway program.

The federal program is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation and recognizes selected roads as national scenic byways. There are currently 125 roads designated as American Byways, according to the program’s Web site.

The JTHG Partnership’s goal is to get an All American Road designation for the federal and state highway 15/20/231/22 corridor that connects many of the sites from Pennsylvania to Virginia.

To do this, the partnership has asked all of the communities along the JTHG corridor to adopt resolutions of support to designate the highways as National Scenic Byways. Local support is needed to gain the designation, Magennis Wyatt said.

In October, the Albemarle Board of Supervisors approved a resolution supporting efforts to make Routes 53 and 729 and portions of Route 20 and U.S. 250 part of JTHG’s All-American road designation.

Since 1992, the National Scenic Byways Program has funded 2,451 projects for state and nationally designated byway routes. Current designated national byways in Virginia are the Blue Ridge Parkway, Colonial Parkway, George Washington Memorial Parkway and Skyline Drive.

“This designation will help the partners raise funding and also helps brand the region,” Magennis Wyatt said. “It’s switching the lens of what people consider is familiar to them.”

Offering a helping hand

In September, the JTHG Partnership and the Virginia Department of Historic Resources were awarded a 2008 Preserve America Grant. The $236,000 federal grant will be matched with nonfederal funds to provide training for workers at various sites along the JTHG trail.

JTHG officials are planning to host training sessions to help sites prepare for the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War.

“Heritage tourism supports the majority of our partnering communities and organizations; yet, professional training for those who most directly interact with visitors is often underfunded,” Magennis Wyatt said. “We pursued this initiative out of respect for the professionals who can turn a standard visitor exchange into an extraordinary experience.”

Officials at Ash Lawn-Highland already have seen this benefit from the interactions they’ve had with people from the other sites along the trail, Barr said.

At a recent meeting she learned from workers at another site new ways to move tour groups efficiently through the museum.

“It’s great to hear how other sites do things,” Barr said. “We can all learn from each other.”

Allie Baer, interim director of the Charlottesville Albemarle Convention & Visitors Bureau, said there are many long-term benefits from being a part of the JTHG designation.

“It will give us all an opportunity to link in to what the other sites are doing and will give exposure to other things in the area,” Baer said.

Passing the torch

Bringing JTHG members together will preserve history for future generations, Magennis Wyatt said. And students in Albemarle County are right in the mix of this effort, she said.

For the last three years, groups of Albemarle middle-school students have attended a two-week “Extreme Journey” camp to various sites along the JTHG trail. This year, the program will include almost 100 students from Albemarle and three other counties along the trail.

Each group, made up of 24 students, travels to multiple sites along the trail to study various aspects of American history.

“The students come together as a great team,” said Angela Stokes, director of education programs for JTHG. “We work at connecting them with experts at the various sites and they use technology and history to learn.”

Stokes, a former gifted education teacher in Albemarle County, is still based in the area.

Last summer, the group spent several hours at Ash Lawn-Highland learning about the life and times of Monroe. Although many of them had visited Monticello and Montpelier, Ash Lawn employees were not surprised to learn the students weren’t as familiar with their location.

“When you live in Virginia, you cannot look around without seeing history,” K.K. Pearson, educational director at Ash Lawn-Highland, said. “It’s one of those challenges that we’re trying to introduce ourselves.”

JTHG officials hope to offer the Extreme Journey summer camp program to other students in other counties, Stokes said.

The two-week camp costs about $600 and officials will begin accepting applications for the 2009 camp for Albemarle County students in February. They are working to provide five full scholarships for students whose families cannot afford the tuition, Stokes said.

“The rich American heritage found along the JTHG is something that has shaped every day of our contemporary American experience,” Stokes said. “By engaging students in history in such an intense, real way, [the camp] provides an ideal way for students to understand that history is not just something from our distant past, but rather something that we live every day.”