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By Rob Sherwood
RN Contributing Writer
Ever wonder how many buildings we have in Rappahannock County that were built before the Civil War and are still occupied today? Or how many buildings we had during the Civil War and what has happened to them? Do we have any buildings left from before the War of 1812? The Revolutionary War?
A survey is begun
In the early 1980s a young man who lived in Little Washington and was trained in early American architectural styles was curious about these questions—and set about to find the answers. For most of 1983 he visited as many historic homes in the county as he got permission to visit, taking careful notes on their architectural details and special features.
In all that year he surveyed 140 properties, noting their locations on the U.S. Geological Survey quadrangle maps of the country and compiling special two-page descriptions of each. He loved Rappahannock and he loved his work. He surveyed most of the historical properties in Washington, which amounted to 87, in Flint Hill (22), Woodville (28), and Massie’s Comer (13).
But then eros interfered: he got married and left the county. Alas, the survey remained unfinished, with an estimated 120 properties still unrecorded. And therein lay the rub: to finish or not to finish this survey of historic resources of our county.
The man who did the survey in 1983 is David Edwards, and today he is the Director of the Winchester Regional Office of Virginia’s Department of Historic Resources (DHR). His jurisdiction covers a quarter of the state—all of the Shenandoah Valley and Northern
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