076-0136

Orenda Historic District, Chopawamsic RDA Camp 3

Prince William (County)

VLR Listing Date

09/20/1988

NRHP Listing Date

06/12/1989

NRHP Reference Number

89000458

The Orenda Historic District, Chopawamsic RDA Camp 3 (also known as the Camp Orenda Historic District) in Prince William County is an important legacy of two of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal initiatives, the Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) and the Recreation Demonstration Area (RDA) program, which sought to reclaim depleted natural resources including exhausted farmlands for use as public recreational facilities. CCC and Works Progress Administration laborers were tasked with the development of the RDAs.

In Prince William County, continuous occupation of lands in the watershed of Quantico and Chopawamsic creeks from the 18th to the early 20th century had thoroughly depleted the area’s natural resources by the 1920s and 30s, leaving it impoverished and making it a high profile target near Washington DC for the RDA program. In mid-1934, development of the Chopawamsic Recreational Demonstration Area–the fourth-largest of 46 RDAs created nationwide—began and was largely completed by 1940, ultimately becoming Prince William Forest Park.

The Camp Orenda Historic District, part of the Chopawamsic RDA, comprises 49 contributing buildings, structures, and sites, which showcase designs that harmonize with the natural and man-made landscape, use indigenous materials, and promote a hand-crafted aesthetic. The landscape and structural designs are attributed to architects, engineers, and draftsmen employed by the National Park Service. These standardized structures provided shelter, education, vocational training, and other aspects of daily life for those enrolled in the CCC and WPA, where they earned $1 per day. Chopawamsic offered to residents of nearby Washington DC a place of hiking trails, swimming, campfire rings, lodges, crafts shops for group activities, a central dining hall/kitchen, latrines and wash houses, an infirmary, cabins for campers, and separate quarters for the staff. In 1942, when the public recreational facilities were complete and the U.S. Army inhabited Chopawamsic as a training base, the CCC program was disbanded.