About The Center

The Center for Historic Preservation was initiated in 1980, with the assistance of a Commonwealth of Virginia Grant for Excellence, the Center for Historic Preservation at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia has supported both the academic program in historic preservation at the College and historic preservation activities in Virginia and the nation for close to two decades.

Since its founding, the Center has had two charges. First, it supports the undergraduate academic program in historic preservation by sponsoring lectures, seminars, workshops and conferences and by providing opportunities for research and professional experience through Center-administered museums and research projects. While it provides services to local preservation organizations and individuals, the Center's research projects provide excellent opportunities for hands-on experience for advanced students and graduates.

Members of preservation organizations, government agencies, and interested citizens are the beneficiaries of the Center's second charge: the support of preservation activities within the University's service region. The Center's offer of assistance to private and public individuals and organizations coincides with the Center's own research interests and its stated public mission of providing community outreach services with respect to historic preservation. The Center has committed itself to conducting historical research and providing cultural resource management (CRM) services in the piedmont and coastal plain counties surrounding Fredericksburg. This project represents an opportunity to continue that long-term commitment. The Center is a local organization with strong ties to the regional community.

In addition to its public programs, the Center administers, Germanna, the site of eighteenth-century Governor Alexander Spotswood's frontier plantation. This site, which is listed on the National Register for Historic Places, is an archaeological district within which the Center has conducted research on Spotswood's mansion and a frontier fort established in 1714 by German colonists.

Noteworthy among other Center programs is the Historic Preservation Book Prize. The Center annually awards the prize to the book that a jury deems has made the most significant contribution to the intellectual vitality of historic preservation in America. Finally, since 1992 the Center has sponsored an increasing number of research and Cultural Resource Management projects that provide both funded opportunities for undergraduate research or needed technical assistance to organizations, government bodies, and individuals.