NCA National Historic Landmarks Program

The Waterford National Historic District in Virginia is representative of an era of American history that is scarcely preserved in the American built environment. As an agricultural village post-American Revolution, Waterford was built from a core town center outwards into farmland. Today its historic buildings and roads still meander through the Northern Virginia foothills.

The National Archives was recently nominated as a National Historic Landmark. Learn more about how the National Archives is significant from the individuals involved with its creation and design, the politics that led to its construction, as well as the moment the archives became home to some of the most important documents in American history.

The singer’s outdoor concert became a symbol for Civil Rights activism nation-wide.

Carter G. Woodson’s best-known contribution occurs every February. He initiated celebration of the first Negro History Week in 1926, focusing on black history. Woodson chose the second week of February for Negro History Week because it corresponds with the birthdays of both Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. Over the years, support grew, and the week became a month in 1976. February of each year is now Black History Month.

John Russell Pope was an accomplished architect who was largely influenced by the Beaux-Arts architectual style, which drew on classical Greco-Roman design elements. One of Pope's most renowned buildings is the National Archives, built towards the end of his career.

John Franklin Jameson is credited as the father of the National Archives. As a historian and archivist, he was adamant that a secure repository for important federal documents be constructed. Without his advocacy, it is likely that the National Archives would not have been established in 1934.

The National Archives was built during the Progressive era, a time where city beautification was used to solve social issues. The archive was a part of a larger federal building project that resulted in the Federal Triangle. This project was a catalyst for including private architects in the design of federal buildings, which was a rare occurrence since the 1890s.

The National Archives was established in 1934 to be a repository of important government documents due to inadequate storage of important federal records elsewhere. It was not until almost two decades later that the founding documents of the United States made their way into the Archives to ensure their protection.

The National Archives serves a symbol for preserving American heritage. Designed and constructed during the Progressive era, the archive began as a place to protect and store important government documents and records. Today it continues to be an institution that makes those records available to the public and shares the voices of American people. NPS Photo

Waterford Historic District contains not only a village core with its early grid of streets dotted with a concentration of buildings dating from the late eighteenth century through the mid-nineteenth century, but also a vast expanse of agricultural land and open space surrounding the village core. These preserve the pivotal relationship between the larger agrarian community and the service-oriented node of the village.