Once part of George Washington’s Mount Vernon plantation, River Farm is now a historic landmark that has been owned by the American Horticulture Society (AHS) for over five decades. Its gardens and scenic views play host to special occasions such as weddings and memorial services.
The Northern Virginia Conservation Trust and American Horticulture Society announced that River Farm has received formal, permanent protection with a conservation easement, a milestone celebrated at a ribbon-cutting ceremony this afternoon (Friday).
Alan Rowsome, executive director of the Northern Virginia Conservation Trust, told FFXnow that the site at 7931 East Boulevard Drive in Fort Hunt is a critical historical and natural resource, given its location near the Potomac River.
“It’s really a unique and incredible site in an area that is steeped in history,” Rowsome said. “That spot warranted protection because of the unique features that it has.”
In 2020, the American Horticulture Society decided to put the 25-acre property for sale because it would’ve given the nonprofit funding to expand its mission. However, it caused a backlash from residents and some members of the AHS board, who feared that the land would be purchased by a developer.
According to Suzanne Laporte, president and CEO of the American Horticultural Society, half of the AHS board decided that they wanted to sell the property, and the other half didn’t want to sell, which led to a messy and complicated legal battle.
Ultimately, the U.S. attorney general in D.C. determined in October 2021 “that AHS could not sell the property because it had been purchased through a gift from a donor in 1973,” Laporte said.
That donor was Enid Annenberg, who gave AHS $10,000 to buy the River Farm property for its headquarters of the American Horticultural Society on the condition that the property be made public.
“Selling it to a developer who would make it a residential or commercial property would not have been in keeping with Enid’s intent,” Laporte said.
Momentum for a sale also stalled with the September 2021 resignations of the five AHS board members who had advocated for it. The mass departures were reportedly spurred by the evenly split board’s rejection of competing purchase offers from a private developer who proposed preserving River Farm as part of a $300 million mixed-use complex, and from a conservation coalition led by NOVA Parks.
Meanwhile, the Northern Virginia Conservation Trust led a campaign to save River Farm that found support among residents, government officials and other stakeholders, including state Sen. Scott Surovell and Mount Vernon District Supervisor Dan Storck, who both attended today’s celebratory ribbon-cutting.
Thanks to the campaign and the support of five remaining board members of the American Horticulture Society as well as the nonprofit’s new leadership, with Laporte joining in March 2022, River Farm was preserved as a publicly accessible, nature-focused space.
“We worked hard to build that campaign because there’s so many places being lost throughout Northern Virginia to infrastructure and those pieces of history, once they’re gone, they’re gone forever,” Rowsome said. “We knew that it was unique and important to build a campaign around, and we did get a lot of support to do that, which was meaningful along the way.”
Rowsome believes that the permanent protection of River Farm wouldn’t have happened without the support of the community.
“This victory on Friday is a testament, I think, to what we can accomplish when political leaders, community leaders, conservation organizations and concerned citizens all come together around a belief that we can and should save some places from development and make sure that we have them for generations to come,” he said.
According to Rowsome, the finalization of the conservation protection will ensure that River Farm is an asset for years to come.
For Laporte, the preservation of River Farm was crucial for the American Horticulture Society because of the benefits it provides.
“We believe in the health benefits and the community benefits of green spaces and gardens, and having places to go in urban areas where you can sort of get away from it all and just really enjoy nature,” she said. “… It is where we live our mission as an organization.”
According to a press release, the conservation easement, now formally recorded, will provide “strong legal protections that prevent future commercial and residential development while allowing AHS to live its mission of inspiring a culture of gardening and horticultural practices that create and sustain healthy, beautiful communities and a livable planet.”
The easement is being monitored by the Northern Virginia Conservation Trust.
With the protection of this landmark, Rowsome hopes that it will bring more people to River Farm.
“Our hope would be that we make it more accessible to the public, that we interpret it more, both for its ecological value and for its historic value,” he said. “I hope people will come and see it for its incredible views of the river, for the architecture of the buildings, for the gardens and for a really great outdoor experience that I think is more and more what people need in our fast-moving world.”
