REHABILITATION OF THE FARMHOUSE CLUSTER AT HAMPTON NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE

HAMP NHS plans to rehabilitate the Farmhouse Cluster, a component of a large Preservation Project funded by the Great American Outdoors Act. This component entails the following elements: rehabilitating the Farmhouse Cluster, which includes the Overseer's House, Three Quarters for Enslaved Workers; adjusting the landscape to make all buildings accessible; removing a non-historic addition from the landscape; and waterproofing the foundations to arrest deterioration of the historic buildings due to water penetration.

The Park is very enthusiastic about how these nationally significant resources will be protected to share Hampton's important stories with future generations. However, while finalizing our due diligence to identify and evaluate historic properties, a conflict between competing resources was discovered.

Most historic resources are evident in the landscape: the Mansion and its gardens and the farm landscape with the Overseer's House and Quarters for the Enslaved all bear witness to how all the people lived and worked here. What isn't evident but is equally as important to understanding the Hampton story are the archeological resources that are buried below the surface. At the Quarters for the Enslaved, the protection of one resource (historic structures) may result in the adverse effect to the other (archeological resources). It is the conflict between protecting the historic structures and the archeological resources that we want to share, and we welcome public feedback on the best resolution.

Process to Identify and Protect Archeological Resources

In preparation for this project, HAMP conducted two types of archeological investigations to ensure that we understood the potential for any ground disturbing activities to affect archeological resources. The first was a geophysical survey that utilized ground penetrating radar (GPR) to identify any anomalies underground that indicate archeological resources are present. Archeological features appear differently than undisturbed ground on the GPR. HAMP then arranged for a second type of archeological investigation based upon the results of the GPR survey, which included a traditional Shovel Test Pit (STP) survey to confirm if archeological resources were present. This testing confirmed that archeological resources are located within areas where ground disturbance will be necessary for the completion of this project. For the majority of the locations, however, we were able to alter the design to avoid them. The only location where we cannot provide sufficient protection for archeological resources is at Buildings 2 and 3 at the Quarters for the Enslaved.

All the buildings within the farmhouse cluster are showing deterioration from water penetration in the foundation walls. Therefore, to preserve the structures' stability, we are proposing to waterproof the foundations, which will require excavating a trench around the foundation wall to apply waterproofing to the exterior of the foundation. Archeological resources within the proposed trenching area of the structures are at risk due to this trenching, but because the waterproofing of the buildings is crucial to maintaining structural stability, we propose to proceed with the waterproofing.

Assessment of Effect

NPS policy, historic preservation standards and best practices call for archeological resources to remain in place, so the removal of archeological resources is considered to be an adverse effect under the National Historic Preservation Act. Therefore, the National Park Service (NPS) has determined that this undertaking will have an adverse effect on historic properties. The Section 106 process now directs NPS to enter into consultation with our Consulting Parties to develop a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) outlining how to mitigate this adverse effect.

A draft of this MOA is available for public review and comment from 7/26/24-8/26/24.

Document Content:

HAMP LRF MOA.pdf   (133.0 KB, PDF file) https://www.nps.gov/maps/stories/preservation-at-hampton-national-historic-site.html    Disclaimer: Links within the above document(s) were valid as of the date published. Note: Some of the files may be in PDF format and can be viewed using the Adobe Acrobat Reader software. You may download a free copy of from Adobe Systems.