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How the Virginia Piedmont Heritage Area Can Help You

The Virginia Piedmont Heritage Area is an educational, cultural, and economic resource that raises the quality of life for both residents and visitors. The Heritage Area provides a sense of place for you, your family, and those who visit you.

Educating and Interpreting

The Virginia Piedmont Heritage Area educates families, visitors, our local governments, and local businesses about this unique resource in a variety of ways:

We implement a variety of school programs that bring our heritage alive and teach students the importance of preserving our heritage resources. We reach 3,000-5,000 students each year with in-person classroom and field trip presentations.

We create interpretive programs such as Legends by Lanternlight, History Lab, and History on Tap that regularly bring heritage area history alive at local historic sites while passionately encouraging participants to become heritage stewards.

We sponsor a variety of lectures and tours focusing on aspects of the region's sense of place. These programs include house tours, brewery talks, bus tours, and book talks.

We present a three-day Civil War Conference that details Civil War history in our region and fosters stewardship of area battlefields.

We publish the report Profiting From Preservation that makes the economic case for preserving open space, renovating and restoring historic properties, and promoting and enhancing agricultural enterprises, including its vineyards and wineries

Advocating

The Virginia Piedmont Heritage Area Association advocates for the region's resources by:

Addressing key preservation issues in the media.

Attending and speaking at public meetings where the fate of cultural resources is at risk.

Holding preservation forums that allows those experienced with preservation issues to offer insights and advice to individuals just beginning to get involved.

Implementing an American Battlefield Protection Program grant to save the cavalry battlefields of Aldie, Middleburg, and Upperville. If you would like to read the Draft Preservation Plan for the Aldie-Middleburg-Upperville cavalry battlefields, please contact the Virginia Piedmont Heritage Area.

Inventorying key historic sites in conjunction with the Land Trust of Virginia and other preservation easement organizations to promote use of conservation and preservation easement tools available from the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Reaching Out

We reach new and longtime residents, families, teachers, and students, encouraging them to learn about and explore the Heritage Area through our driving tours, scavenger hunts, interactive tours, maps of the historic region. Be sure to visit the See It section of this website for these activities.

We give public presentations to civic, business, and school groups about the Heritage Area and its value, including increased tourism and revenue to the business community and counties.

To request a presentation for your school or civic group, please call our education team at (540) 687-5188