Germantown, Virginia: a cultural landscape study

Abstract

The Germanna Foundation is currently undergoing a large project to locate, map, and document heritage sites associated with the Germanna colonists that settled in the Virginia piedmont in the early 18th century. This project’s focus is on Germantown, Virginia, an unincorporated town in Fauquier County, which was the site of the 1721 Germanna settlement and is currently under development threat due to the population growth in the county. Through documentary research, GIS mapping, and photography this project will begin to create a multilayered historic landscape which will not only take into account the Germanna settlement, but also other important historical moments that affected the area as well as the environmental resources. Through this research the findings will be analyzed to answer the question of how to preserve land that is both historical and environmental as well as how to balance the multifaceted historical story that makes up Germantown.