Subject:
Title
Report from Vienna250, Rebuild Moorefield Exploratory Exploratory Committee (RMEEC) About Possible Legacy Project (Rebuilding Moorefield)
Body
Purpose:
To update council on work done by the Vienna250 committee to date on a possible legacy project.
Key QUESTIONS:
Is Council interested in having the RMEEC take next steps? Among the most important decisions that need to be made are:
• If county funds for the initial feasibility assessment don’t come through, would the town be willing to fund it (est $25k or so)?
• Does the Town have a place to store the materials?
• What are the possible locations for a rebuilt Moorefield?
• Does the Town include an amount in our state budget request for rebuilding Moorefield?
BACKGROUND SUMMARY:
As part of its Vienna250 effort, the Vienna250 steering committee has been exploring possible legacy projects, including A) the rebuilding of Moorefield; and B) the preservation of an original “Yeonas” house. The Moorefield option is the most advanced. An informal committee, the “Rebuild Moorefield Exploratory Exploratory Committee” (RMEEC) has been formed to do an initial assessment of this legacy project. On the committee are: Vienna250 co-chairs Tracy McCarty and Chuck Anderson, HVI President Anne Stuntz, Councilmember Roy Baldwin, Bill Comerford, Abby Shannon, Mike McCarty, former Fairfax City Mayor David Meyer, and Terry Bachman. Tonight, they will report on their progress so far.
Who Was Jeremiah Moore?
Jeremiah Moore was one of the most important local figures of late 18th century Vienna. A faithful Episcopalian lay reader; Moore converted to the Baptist faith in his early twenties and began his life journey as an itinerant preacher. In the early 1770s, Moore was jailed for his refusal to bend to the colony’s legal licensing requirement for preaching in public. Upon release, he became one of Virginia’s most outspoken advocates for the twinned tenets of religious freedom and separation of church and state. The historic arc of those tenets can be traced directly from Jeremiah Moore, through his interactions and the exposure of his ideas, to George Mason and Thomas Jefferson, to the enactment in 1776 of the freedom of religion clause in the Virginia Declaration of Rights, and later, to Jefferson’s 1785 Declaration on Religious Freedom. Ultimately, these twinned tenets were incorporated into the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. Since then, the concept of religious freedom has been adopted by many other countries around the world.
About Moorefield
A minister who both started and preached at Baptist churches throughout Northern Virginia and the newly formed District of Columbia, Moore’s home base was a modest one and a half story wood frame house with brick chimneys. Moore and his family built their home in the southwest corner of what is now Vienna, Virginia. It is believed that the house served as both Moore’s home and as an occasional house of worship. Due to his significance in history, the house was eventually placed on the United States National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
The house stood on its original site, near the current Vienna Metro Station, until 2003, when it was dismantled by an experienced preservationist for possible future reconstruction. This spring, the Town of Vienna learned that the preserved wooden materials remain in storage in a large semi-truck trailer in Madison County, Virginia. Recent brief visual inspections of the contents of the trailer did not uncover any signs of water or insect damage. The bricks, which had been carefully removed at the time of deconstruction and stored on the site of Vienna Baptist Church, have recently been recovered, cleaned, restacked on pallets and moved to Town of Vienna property. Scouts from Scouting America (formerly Scouts BSA and Boy Scouts of America) Troop 1539 partnered with Vienna250 and the Town’s Public Works Department on the brick project and in the process of recovery, a number of notable individual bricks were uncovered, including two with child footprints that were made when the clay was wet. These bricks, along with the entire house, were likely made by slaves. It’s fitting that in this semiquincentennial year, this message from the past was found by the youth of today.
OVERVIEW:
SUMMARY/STAFF IMPRESSIONS: The purpose of this work session is for staff to provide a presentation to the Town Council on the legacy project and get feedback on next steps.
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends that Council provide direction to the Vienna250 committee on the proposed rebuilding of Moorefield.