Two local places are on Preservation Virginia’s Most Endangered Historic Places List for 2025.
The non-profit, which aims to inspire and engage the public in fostering, supporting and sustaining Virginia’s historic places, releases a list each May of historic places throughout the state facing imminent or sustained threats. The list has brought attention to more than 200 sites in Virginia and encourages people, organizations and local governments to advocate for preservation while finding solutions to save the locations for future generations. Of those that have been included on the list in previous years, only 10% have been lost to demolition or neglect.
This year’s list includes two local places–Hidden Vale House in Madison County and Wilderness Battlefield in Orange County, one of several sites threatened by data centers.
Hidden Vale House, known locally as Hidden Vale, is a log cabin that is more than 200 years old. It was owned by former Governor James Gilmore’s family in the mid-1800s. According to Preservation Virginia, the “architectural gem is standing strong and is still water-tight, but is getting weak due to severe repairs needed.” The organization said the current owner has restored a smaller cabin on the property, but preserving the larger home is beyond his means, both physically and financially. For more information on Hidden Vale, contact Jeffrey Green at jeffreyhgreen@gmail.com or (540) 718-6764.
Meanwhile, the Wilderness Battlefield is facing encroachment from data centers. It is included on the list with Manassas National Battlefield Park, which is facing similar issues. Preservation Virginia said the two battlefields are “under sustained pressure from data center development proposals.”
The American Battlefield Trust is the lead plaintiff in two lawsuits related to data center projects adjacent to national parks, including a suit against Orange County over the Wilderness Crossing Project, which aims to develop land adjacent to the Wilderness Battlefield.
“We are grateful to our longtime partners at Preservation Virginia for issuing this call for citizens and decision makers to take a broader view of this issue,” Trust President David Duncan said. “This isn’t just about the projects being built directly on historic landscapes or the national or state parks that would have a complex at their fringes; it’s also about the historic districts that stand to be cross-cut by power lines to fuel it, the ancestral lands and cemeteries that will be disturbed to provide access to vast quantities of water to cool it.”
A demurrer was heard in the Wilderness Crossing case in mid-March. Orange County Circuit Court Judge David B. Franzen has not yet released his opinion.
Earlier this month, the Wilderness Battlefield was named one of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
