Agriculture & Subsistence in Cultural Landscapes

The home and farm of President James A Garfield, nicknamed "Lawnfield," remains significant for its association with President Garfield and for its distinctive design. In 1880, visitors and reporters traveled to Congressman and presidential candidate Garfield's Mentor, Ohio farm to hear him deliver campaign speeches from his porch. After President Garfield’s assassination in 1881, his widow, Lucretia Rudolph Garfield, made many improvements to the buildings and landscape.

The Worthington Farm, also known as Clifton, is a component landscape of Monocacy National Battlefield. Located just west of the Thomas Farm and alongside the Monocacy River, the property's patchwork of fields and woodlands represents the agricultural landscape that was present here in 1800s. The Worthington House is the only building dating to the time of the Civil War Battle of Monocacy.

Portici is a cultural landscape within Manassas National Battlefield Park that demonstrates the development of agriculture in Virginia since European contact and up to the present day. The landscape history reflects the changing industry, labor practices, and environment before and after the Civil War.

The Homestead National Historical Park cultural landscape conveys the influence of the Homestead Act of 1862 and legacy of Daniel Freeman. It also represents homesteads across America. Homesteading provided a way of life for many Americans and contributed to westward expansion in the developing nation.

In early April 2024, NPS staff and volunteers planted 81 fruit trees in the north orchard at Martin Van Buren National Historic Site. The orchard rehabilitation project was designed to reflect the historic varieties and layout, consider contemporary orchard management practices, and respect sensitive archeology. The planting is the result of many years of planning, consultation, and preparation. As it grows, the orchard will represent the agricultural history of the site.

John Worthington presumably planted the Osage orange hedgerow south of the house as a living fence around the kitchen garden and orchard. It provided shade and served as a windbreak to workers living seasonally at the Worthington Farm. Black laborers worked the fields around Worthington Farm from the mid-1800s through the 1960s, first as enslaved individuals and tenant laborers, then as migrant workers. The trees were coppiced in 2020 in a landscape rehabilitation project.

The Grant‐Kohrs National Historic Site landscape offers a glimpse into ranch practices from the open range days of the 1800s through the modernization of ranching practices in the early to mid‐1900s. Through interpretation and demonstration, the working ranch demonstrates how practices evolved to meet the demands of an industrializing society, contend with the privatization of property, and capitalize on advances in technology and science.

By the 1850s, as the nation's borders expanded and the population exploded, railroads began to replace canals and riverboats as the way of moving people and goods more efficiently. The railway evolved into a part of everyday life for residents throughout Ohio's Cuyahoga Valley. The Cuyahoga Valley Railway served as the primary source of rail transportation for the Valley from 1871 to 1915, eventually replaced by alternative methods of shipping and passenger transportation.

By the 1900s, thousands of apple trees grew on the hillsides of the Moses Cone Estate. It required horticultural expertise to document and establish the extensive orchards and a significant labor force to plant, graft, and maintain the trees. While few trees remain today, the remnant orchards continue to be a significant part of the landscape. Learn more about the preservation of these unique, living resources that represent the history and development of the orchards.

The orchard at the Eisenhower Farm is both a reflection of the farm's historic character and a reminder of the landscape practices during the Eisenhowers’ ownership. Eisenhower favored a layout for the farm landscape that was attractive but could also be useful and economical to maintain. A Cultural Landscape Report for the site documents history and recommends treatment for historic features of the site, including the orchard.