History

As part of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Lewis Mountain began forming 470 million to 270 million years ago when two landmasses started converging. The Blue Ridge Mountains have served as an important geographic landmark to Indigenous peoples for thousands of years. Manahoac and Monacan people historically inhabited much of northern and central Virginia, including the Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah Valley, and the Piedmont. English colonizers displaced these peoples as they pushed westward in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Despite early 17th and 18th century colonial exploration, sustained colonization of the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Piedmont did not occur until the 1750s. Topographic conditions to the north and east of Lewis Mountain’s location delayed settlement in the area until the late 18th century. The Slaughter, Lamb, Breeden, and Taylor families inhabited the Lewis Mountain area for decades. These families formed vast interconnected networks of kinship among the other mountain families. Such strong cultural and community ties enriched the daily life of the homesteaders and fostered a deep connection to the land.

Meanwhile, an emerging social movement recognized the need for “rugged” recreation and outdoor opportunities apart from urban areas. As tourism rose in the Blue Ridge, its wilderness values directly conflicted with those of the mountain families. Historian William O’Brien points out that the emergence of a national park movement coincided with the rise of Jim Crow in the American South and the rise of land acquisition programs in poor and depressed areas. Concurrent with the push for a national park in the Blue Ridge, southern states were passing laws that restricted the free recreation of Black Americans and politicians nationwide were establishing submarginal land acquisition programs.

Between 1926 and 1935, the Commonwealth of Virginia and the Shenandoah National Park Association, Inc. engaged in a period of land acquisition for the proposed national park. Once mapped, these agencies purchased or condemned (for the purpose of acquisition) most tracts within the authorized park. This resulted in the removal and resettlement of people who had been living on the land previously.

Under an unofficial agreement, the National Park Service agreed to abide state and local policy regarding segregation, meaning that Shenandoah National Park was designed as a segregated undertaking from its inception. Park master plans had called for overnight facilities and concessionaires for Black visitors since at least 1935. But none were established until 1938, when the picnic grounds at Lewis Mountain were constructed according to plans prepared by National Park Service landscape architects. The Lewis Mountain picnic area was constructed to a lower standard than other picnic areas across the park. Under the guise of standardization, park planners were able to sidestep claims that the Lewis Mountain facilities were inferior to others found in the park. Planners could point to similar features found in both white and Black portions of the park, while ignoring the difference in the quantity of such facilities across the park.

Construction of the lodge and cabins at Lewis Mountain was intentionally delayed by the Virginia Skyline Company, the park’s concessionaire, citing a lack of interest or demand by Black visitors. Meanwhile, the concessionaire proactively constructed facilities for white visitors, anticipating that such facilities would be needed. This discrepancy is evidence of the racist practices inherent in the creation of park facilities in the 1930s and 1940s.

During its heyday in the 1940s and 1950s, Lewis Mountain visitors recalled excellent food, music, and entertainment at the lodge. Church, youth, and professional groups held day trips, homecomings, and picnics at the picnic grounds.

Despite its status as a place of relaxation and recreation, Lewis Mountain continued to be a highly visible symbol of segregation within the larger movement to desegregate parks and public spaces across the country. During WWII, the park, as well as the regional and national offices of the National Park Service, received numerous complaints.4 Such complaints often described the jarring entrance sign to the developed area. Indeed, Lewis Mountain and National Park facilities would not be desegregated as a whole until 1946.

Gradual changes to segregation policy in the National Park Service in the ensuing years did not necessarily equate to integration across park facilities. At Shenandoah, the discrepancy in official policies on race between government facilities and the concessionaire resulted in confusion over which facilities guests could and couldn’t use. This meant that Lewis Mountain remained de facto segregated well into the 1950s, based on patterns of use and social pressures.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Lewis Mountain saw limited changes under Missions 66 and later improvement campaigns. No major projects were ever realized at Lewis Mountain during the decade-long Mission 66. However, in keeping with the design principles and goals of Mission 66, the Lewis Mountain campground was rehabilitated between 1967 and 1968—after the formal end of the Mission 66 program. After decades of downplaying the need for improvements when Lewis Mountain served Black visitors, the increased demand by white campers at Lewis Mountain following desegregation prompted improvements.

Lewis Mountain has seen few changes in recent decades, retaining its historical integrity. Minor changes to the cultural landscape of Lewis Mountain occurred in the mid-1990s, following the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Lewis Mountain was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2003 and is part of the Skyline Drive National Historical Landmark District.

Analysis + Evaluation

Based on the National Register framework, the Analysis and Evaluation chapter provides an evaluation of the historic cultural landscape of Lewis Mountain. The evaluation addresses changes in landscape character from the close of the historic period in 1968 to the present. Overall, the evaluation finds that natural systems and features, land use, cultural traditions, spatial organization, topography, circulation, views and vistas, vegetation, cluster arrangement, buildings and structures, and small-scale features all continue to contribute to the historic character of Lewis Mountain.

However, some loss of historic character has occurred within three of these elements: vegetation, views and vistas, and cultural traditions. Vegetative conditions at Lewis Mountain have changed since the period of significance, but the landscape has retained much of its design intent. Some loss of character-defining vegetation due to age, disease, and storm events has resulted in a modified landscape that is increasingly more open or areas that are no longer legible due to unmanaged vegetative growth. Similarly, Lewis Mountain does not retain its principal designed vista to the west of the lodge. However, careful treatment can reverse the damage to or loss of character-defining vegetation and views and vistas within the cultural landscape.

Most notably, the cultural landscape does not retain integrity with respect to the cultural traditions of sociability and celebration among the local and visiting Black communities. The robust community that was present and actively cultivated at Lewis Mountain during the period of significance no longer exists under current conditions. During a group interview conducted for this report, former Lewis Mountain workers and their families noted they felt that there was no reason for them to visit the site anymore. Elaine Taylor Blakey noted the beauty of the park but emphasized that “there’s nothing [at Lewis Mountain] that would draw me there now. Not really.”

This sentiment was shared among the participants, who frequently noted the lack of food service at the lodge and the lack of facilities for group gatherings. Instead, descendants continue to gather annually for Homecoming at other regional parks that offer amenities such as shelters, pools, and playgrounds. These alternations to physical features and their use, combined with current park policies around reservations and permits, deter group gatherings and the development (or continuation) of the community. Despite the existence of a strong descendant community within the region, there is a complete loss of cultural traditions within the cultural landscape.

Summary of Treatment Recommendations

The final chapter provides recommendations for enhancing the historic character and contemporary use of the Lewis Mountain cultural landscape, based on the findings of the first two chapters of this report, the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties, prior park planning, and other framework documents. Recommendations include general treatment guidelines and planning considerations, as well as specific tasks intended to enhance the landscape’s historic character and support adaptation for contemporary use.

The authors of this report recommend rehabilitation as the best treatment approach for Lewis Mountain. Rehabilitation, as defined in the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Preservation of Historic Properties, prescribes the preservation of “a cultural landscape’s character-defining features and materials” while making possible “an efficient contemporary use through alterations and additions” such as adapting spatial organization, circulation, and building features to serve visitors.

Rehabilitation also affords opportunities for an equity-centered treatment approach. Equity centered interventions not only tell the stories of Lewis Mountain but look to afford legacy groups opportunities to gather at the site through the construction of new and designed-but-unbuilt landscape features.

The report organized treatments according to 6 treatment goals:

• Preserve buildings and structures + expand facilities

• Increase accessibility while promoting rustic landscape character

• Restore Lewis Mountain’s use as a group gathering space (in addition to individual rentals)

• Establish robust on-site interpretation

• Preserve and enhance naturalistic landscape character + promote climate-adaptive plantings

• Ensure consistency and compatibility of landscape features

Treatment tasks were then organized and numbered by character area: Picnic Grounds, Lodge & Cabins, and Campground. For a full list of treatment tasks, see the associated drawing and the full report. Certain treatment tasks are highlighted in the photos below.