[Preservation] FW: Governor's News Release-Easements on Shirley, Bremo

[Garland Pollard]

COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA
Office of the Governor

Timothy M. Kaine                                         FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE 
     Governor
September 22, 2006



GOVERNOR KAINE MARKS 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF CONSERVATION, PRESERVATION
EASEMENT PROGRAMS

~ Also announces easement donations for two historic properties ~

CHARLOTTESVILLE - Governor Timothy M. Kaine today announced easement
donations on two historic Virginia properties during a ceremony
celebrating the 40th anniversary of the state's preservation and
conservation easement programs.

The event -held atop Montalto, overlooking Monticello, Charlottesville
and Albemarle County- was jointly sponsored by the Virginia Department
of Historic Resources (DHR), the Virginia Outdoors Foundation (VOF), and
was hosted by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation. It was attended by more
than 250 people and honored more than 2,000 property owners who have
donated easements to the Commonwealth during the past four decades. The
easements cover a range of places -- from nationally-ranked landmarks
such as estates, mills, factories, theaters, and other sites -- to
farms, battlefields, and other open spaces.

"Earlier this year, I set as a goal of my administration the
preservation of 400,000 additional acres of historic and open lands
throughout Virginia by the end of this decade," said Governor Kaine.
"This ambitious goal would not be possible without the established
open-space protection tools that have served Virginia so well for 40
years --- our historic preservation and conservation easement programs,
which have been bolstered since 2000 by the best conservation tax credit
in the nation."

DHR and VOF trace their creation to the passage of state legislation in
1966. Since that time, VOF and DHR have emerged as nationally recognized
leaders in cultural and natural heritage conservation, often working
together in stewardship of historic buildings, archaeological sites, and
open spaces. 

Generally, DHR holds easements on buildings and core acreage surrounding
sites listed on state and national historic registers, and VOF maintains
easements on open spaces, forests, or wetlands. Both programs enhance
the other, as property owners work to protect Virginia's incomparable
and irreplaceable historic treasures and open space lands.

As part of today's celebration, Governor Kaine also announced that the
owners of two premiere historic Virginia properties, Bremo in Fluvanna
County and Shirley Plantation in Charles City County, will donate
easements on their properties to be held jointly by VOF and DHR.

Bremo Historic District has been a National Historic Landmark since
1971. The district includes three separate estates, all created by the
planter, soldier, and reformer Gen. John Hartwell Cocke on his family's
1725 land grant. Owned by the Bremo Cocke's descendants, the three
properties-Bremo, Lower Bremo, and Recess-preserve architecturally
singular dwellings and numerous associated outbuildings and farm
buildings, all erected under Cocke's supervision. Bremo, completed in
1820, is considered one of the nation's foremost works of
Palladian-style architecture. While strongly influenced by Thomas
Jefferson's architecture, its design is the result of collaboration
between Cocke and master builder John Neilson, who worked for Jefferson
at Monticello and the University of Virginia.

Shirley Plantation was patented in 1660 by Edward Hill, ancestor of the
present owners, who were represented at the ceremony by Charles Hill
Carter, III.  The mansion and many of the current outbuildings at
Shirley were originally built circa 1738, following the marriage of
Elizabeth Hill, heiress of Shirley, to John Carter, son of Robert "King"
Carter. A National Historic Landmark since 1970, the stately complex of
Shirley, along with its accumulation of family furnishings and
portraits, presents one of the most memorable pictures of continuity of
Virginia's plantation society. Shirley is also famous as the birthplace
of Robert E. Lee's mother and wife of Light-Horse Harry Lee, Ann Hill
Carter.  


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