Children love music and this wooden toy piano can still be played. It belonged to Joanne Merchant who grew up in Eagle Rock and owned Joanne’s School of Dance. Sheryl Merchant donated the toy to the Botetourt Museum of History and Culture along with other family artifacts in April 2024. May is designated as National Historic Preservation Month in an official Proclamation by Governor Glenn Youngkin.
Governor proclaims May as National Historic Preservation Month
Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin recently proclaimed May as National Historic Preservation Month throughout the state. In recognition, Youngkin states that Virginians are proud of the Commonwealth’s rich and diverse history that extends approximately 16,000 years or more; and that legacy gave rise to one of the earliest state historical societies in 1831; the first national preservation movement in the 1850s; one of the earliest statewide private preservation organizations in 1889; and the nation’s first historical highway marker program in 1927.
The recognition goes on to explain that vast legacy propelled creation of the Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission in 1966, predecessor of today’s Department of Historic Resources (DHR), and the Commonwealth’s preservation easement program and the Virginia Landmarks Register; and the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places now lists more than 3,400 individual sites and nearly 600 districts that highlight the significant contributions of many diverse populations to the storied tapestry of the Commonwealth’s and the nation’s history.
Since 1966, Virginia property owners have donated to the Commonwealth more than 690 preservation easements and have preserved more than 45,000 acres in Virginia affiliated with historic houses, buildings, archaeological sites, and battlefields, while keeping these lands in private ownership. The Commonwealth has erected 2,900 historical highway markers and seven Green Book plaques that highlight people, places, or events important at the regional, state, or national level since 1927.
Heritage tourism adds more than $7.7 billion annually to Virginia’s economy, and tax credit rehabilitation of Virginia’s historic buildings has leveraged more than $6.8 billion in private investments, resulting in tens of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in rehabilitation and post-rehabilitation spending that ripple across the state’s economy.
Historic preservation fosters community pride about history in the “places that matter” where people live, work, and play in Virginia; thus, it is important to celebrate Virginia’s history and its impact on citizens’ lives and communities.
~ Botetourt County Historical Society
