Virginia Department of Historic Resources

According to the Department of Historic Resource's Guide for Property Owners, "[l]isting in the Virginia Landmarks Register conveys information, confers honor, and heightens awareness (Virginia Department of Historic Resources, 5)." In addition, the brochure outlined the tax credits for which owners can apply. As with the national preservation plans, the Virginia program did not stop homeowners from selling or modifying their property. If an owner modified the site in anyway, the Board of Historic Resources could not remove those properties from the register (Virginia Department of Historic Resources, 3).

The initial state legislation allowed small communities, such as counties and cities, to pass tougher legislation to protect historic landmarks in their jurisdiction. The Guide for Property Owners emphasized that the "Code of Virginia authorizes any local government to adopt an historic preservation ordinance as part of the local land use and planning ordinance (Virginia Department of Historic Resources, 10)." The booklet also emphasized that a community could not pass a blanket law prohibiting owners from modifying their property. Instead, the Guide stressed that owners had to be able to appeal to a local review board if they wished to alter or demolish the property despite their area's legislation (Virginia Department of Historic Resources, 10).

In 1997, the Virginia Department of Resources released a plan that emphasized private stewardship for sites in the Virginia registry. The State Plan Technical Advisory Committee with input from a roundtable on preservation held in 1993 created this plan and the state published it as Virginia's Heritage: The Nation's Treasure: The Commonwealth's Trust. This paper emphasized stewardship, which the authors defined as "people sitting down together around the table to find ways of making historic resources work for them and their communities (Virginia Department of Historic Resources, Introductory letter)." Again, this report emphasized local governments and the public working to preserve historic sites rather than using state and national legislation and funds to restrict what property owners could do (Virginia Department of Historic Resources, 1-2). This emphasis on stewardship did not deter the importance of history and knowledge surrounding the historic homes in the area. Instead, Virginia's Heritage presented surveys in which Virginians overwhelmingly argued that teaching the public the history of these homes was the most important step to preserving these homes for later generations (Virginia Department of Historic Resources, 10).