Grants Support Preservation & Community Programs at Clermont Farm
Grants play a vital role in advancing Clermont Farm’s preservation efforts by protecting its historic landscape, maintaining its 18th-century structures, and supporting educational programs that connect the public with the site's rich agricultural and cultural heritage.
Current Projects at Clermont Farm
Multi-Structure Rehabilitation at Clermont Farm
Funding: NPS, Historic Preservation Fund, $747,875; Archaeology contributed by DHR
In 2025, the Clermont Foundation was awarded a second Semiquincentennial grant from the Historic Preservation Fund (HPF) administered by the National Park Service, U.S. Dept of the Interior. Funding for the HPF is from Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas lease revenue, not tax dollars. This grant will include rehabilitation at Clermont Farm of the interior of the Owner House, whose original portion was built in 1755-56 during the French & Indian War, and owned during the Revolution by Edward Snickers, paymaster and commissary to Virginia troops. Included in the grant are repairs to five service buildings and five historic structures. The grant also covers substantial improvements for virtual (including room-by-room tours) and physical access to the site, whose main area of interpretation covers 70 acres. As always at Clermont, a state-owned historic and archaeological site, archaeology will precede all disturbance of the earth. The grant began in August of 2025 and will end in April 2029.
Rehabilitation of Owner House, Smokehouse & Springhouse
Funding: NPS, Historic Preservation Fund, $472,000; Archaeology contributed by DHR
In 2022, the Clermont Foundation received a 250th Anniversary of the U.S grant from the Historic Preservation Fund administered by the National Park Service, U.S. Dept of the Interior, as an outstanding example of a historic site associated with the founding of the nation, one of 17 chosen nationally in the inaugural round in 2022. Clermont was surveyed by George Washington in 1750. Several of its owners were friends and business associates of his, not only in the 10 years (1748-1758) he spent in this area as a young man, including the French & Indian War, but especially during the Revolution, during which Clermont’s owners served in different ways. The grant covers the exterior of the Owner House (five separate buildings, 1755-1970, including the oldest house in Clarke County), the Smokehouse (1823), and the Springhouse (1857). Archaeology has begun, and construction began in 2024. The project will be finished in September 2025. Updating the National Register Nomination (2005) based on the Historic Structure Report of 2013 is included.
Replacement of the Clermont Bank Barn & Corn Crib
Funding: Virginia Insurance, $1.6M (non-replacement); General Assembly 2024 supplemental to DHR in State Agency Capital Fund, $1.3M. Total: $2.9M; Archaeoology contributed by DHR
The two-story barn (1917) and corn crib (1849) burned in 2018 (electrical). These will be replaced by two one-story modern barns, one for animals and one for hay (storing 300-400 bales). These will support the active teaching herd of about 50 Angus beef cattle and the flock of about 50 Katahdin hair sheep, as well as a vet lab and learning space for students. It will also allow the move of offices and archaeological and architectural storage out of the historic buildings into handicapped accessible space, and the return of extensive historical archives back to Clermont from closed commercial storage, where they will be available to researchers. The 2024 supplemental (thanks to the leadership of Del. Oates, Sen. French, and Sen. Lucas) has allowed final planning to begin. Approvals by state building officials are expected in the fall/winter of 2025-26, followed by a state-conducted construction bid, with work scheduled for the summer of 2026.