News Release

Public Invited to Provide Input on Updated Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historic Landmark Designation

Date: October 3, 2022
Contact: Jonathan Tracey, 540-333-9564

Middletown, Va.— The National Park Service is seeking public input on proposed updates to and expansion of the Cedar Creek Battlefield and Belle Grove Plantation National Historic Landmark Designation in Frederick, Shenandoah, and Warren Counties, Virginia.

National Historic Landmarks are nationally significant places that illustrate important themes, persons, or events in American history and are designated by the Secretary of the Interior. The National Historic Landmarks Program recognizes properties of exceptional national significance in the nation's history, architecture, archeology, engineering and culture. The Cedar Creek Battlefield and Belle Grove Plantation National Historic District is significant for its association with the October 19, 1864 battle of Cedar Creek and the broader agricultural cultural landscape during the eighteenth century and Antebellum Period.

This update to the original 1969 nomination expands the size of the National Historic Landmark district and has been written in consultation with park partners including Belle Grove, Inc., the Cedar Creek Battlefield Foundation, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Shenandoah County, and the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation. It broadens the definition of the district's significance by incorporating recent scholarship on the Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1864, the Battle of Cedar Creek, and Belle Grove Plantation, while tracing the development of the cultural landscape within the context of the social, cultural, economic, and architectural history of the Shenandoah Valley. This amended nomination also updates the criteria, period, and areas of significance to current standards.

The park invites the public to attend a virtual public meeting on October 11, 2022, at 7:00 pm to learn more about the project. For the meeting link, to review the updated designation, and to submit a comment visit https://parkplanning.nps.gov/CEBENHL.

The NPS will be accepting public comments through November 30, 2022.