Nomination Form
Known today as the Front Royal Country Club, the Front Royal Recreational Park in Warren County was the inspiration of William E. Carson, the first director of the Virginia Conservation and Development Commission. As such, Carson was a key figure in the establishment of the Shenandoah National Park and was instrumental in founding Virginia’s state park system. In the last years of the Great Depression, Carson saw the need for recreational facilities for his hometown of Front Royal. In 1938 he and his wife, Agnes H. Carson, transferred 63 acres at the Riverton Lime and Stone Co. quarry, which Carson owned, to the Front Royal Recreational Center Corp. He arranged for the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) to build the park facilities, including the golf course and rustic clubhouse. A living monument to the Carsons and to the CCC, one of the New Deal’s most creative programs, the Front Royal Recreational Park Historic District still serves the area’s citizens.
Many properties listed in the registers are private dwellings and are not open to the public, however many are visible from the public right-of-way. Please be respectful of owner privacy.
Abbreviations:
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark
Nomination Form
Programs
DHR has secured permanent legal protection for over 700 historic places - including 15,000 acres of battlefield lands
DHR has erected 2,532 highway markers in every county and city across Virginia
DHR has registered more than 3,317 individual resources and 613 historic districts
DHR has engaged over 450 students in 3 highway marker contests
DHR has stimulated more than $4.2 billion dollars in private investments related to historic tax credit incentives, revitalizing communities of all sizes throughout Virginia
