DUMFIRES, Va. -- Jennifer Stringfellow likes Dumfries and its older houses. She ought to, as she is the head of the town’s Architectural Review Board (ARB), a volunteer commission charged with overseeing development, changes, and preserving the town’s historic district that includes an old street grid, something that resembles Old Town Alexandria’s layout.
The small town, Virginia’s oldest continuously charted town of 5,000 residents, wasn’t always known for its busy U.S. 1. When it was founded in 1749 it was one of the nation’s largest deep water ports, and water flowed right up to present day Main Street and the street grid. Many of the old homes and buildings are no longer there, but the Weems-Botts House, Williams Ordinary, the Anderson House that sits about a block away from the Weems-Botts House, Town Hall, and homes that are more than 50-years-old are all in the district.
On Tuesday, Stringfellow volunteered to come to a regular Town Council meeting where she thought she was going to get feedback from elected leaders on a new 13-page document that will better help residents living in the historic district understand what changes they can and can’t make to their homes without approval – everything from painting the outside walls to adding a new room. But instead, some on the council took aim at the historic district itself and questioned why if there are so few historical buildings remain, why have an historic district at all?
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