The Piedmont connects people to America's heritage like no other place in the country.  This is the home of visionaries who founded the nation and the hallowed ground of the Civil War that tested their vision.  In the last two years, PEC has played a direct role in protecting land that frames two major American landmarks -- James Madison's Montpelier and Thomas Jefferson's Monticello.  We've also helped to protect numerous Civil War battlefields. 

But PEC doesn't focus solely on the Piedmont's "greatest hits."  These treasured historic sites cannot be fully appreciated without the context of the surrounding countryside, where pioneers, farmers, generals, soldiers, slaves and Presidents lived and left their mark.  PEC supports grassroots efforts to recognize and to protect the Piedmont's exceptionally historic landscapes.

The Gilmore Cabin, on newly protected land at Montpelier, is the first freedman's home in America to be restored and open to the public.

700+ Acres Protected at James Madison's Montpelier

Over 700 acres at James Madison's Montpelier in Orange County are now protected through conservation easements that PEC purchased in 2009.

These conservation lands expand the protected area at the home of the James Madison, the principal author of the Constitution, and they also shed light on what Michael Quinn, President of the Montpelier Foundation, calls "the next chapter of the Constitution" -- the struggle over slavery, freedom and citizenship.

The new easements preserve land where thousands of Civil War soldiers camped through the winter of 1863-64.  The imprints of their shelters are still visible there on the forest floor.  The easements also protect Freedmans Farm where George Gilmore, who was born a slave at Montpelier, and his family made their home after emancipation.  Their cabin is first freedman's home in America to be restored and open to the public.

In addition, the newly protected lands buffer the old-growth James Madison Landmark Forest, one of the best remaining examples of old growth forest in the Southeast -- where vast trunks and high green crowns remind us of our native woods' potential. 

2009 Highlights

• PEC saved a historic property near Gilberts Corner, near James Monroe's estate Oak Hill and important Civil War sites, which will become a part of a new public park at the gateway to the Journey Through Hallowed Ground.
• The route of the Journey Through Hallowed Ground from Gettysburg to Monticello -- which PEC has promoted for years -- was designated a National Scenic Byway.
• PEC was a leader in the nationally significant fight to stop a strip mall with a Walmart on the edge of Wilderness Battlefield - pointing out alternative sites nearby with less impact this major Civil War battlefield.  Following Orange County's disappointing decision to approve the development, preservationists are making their case to Walmart's corporate leadership and in court.
• 26 acres of Rappahannock Station Battlefield in Remington, which PEC helped to save from development in 2005, were permanently protected, on their way to becoming a public park.
• Over 640 acres of Brandy Station Battlefield in Culpeper were protected -- including the Willow Run property that was targeted for a mega-development a few years ago.
• A 513 acre property that overlaps the site of the Battle of Stanardsville in Greene County was protected.
• PEC co-sponsored an all-day symposium on Battlefields of Fauquier County with 200 participants, increasing awareness of local Civil War sites.
• PEC supports ongoing grassroots efforts to recognize the Broad Run/Little Georgetown Rural Historic District in Fauquier.
• PEC supported successful efforts to list the Hoffman Round Barn in Madison on the National Register of Historic Places and to protect the site with a conservation easement.   
• PEC holds easements on nearly 1,000 newly protected acres in the Southern Albemarle Rural Historic District including Redlands, a c. 1792 mansion listed on the Virginia Register of Historic Places.
• Conservation easements in the Piedmont protect a total of 22,000 acres of Civil War battlefields and 87,000 acres of historic districts.

Read more from the 2009 PEC Annual Report >>