Unison Preservation Society

The nonprofit Unison Preservation Society was launched in 2001 and since that time it has successfully created a village historic district within Unison which is now on both the Virginia and National Historic Registers, saved the 19th Century Unison Store, fought off a major housing subdivision, improved traffic safety, and launched a tree-planting and village landscaping program. Our organization's focus on Civil War town history won the society a federal grant to map and write the history of the three-day Battle of Unison, Nov. 1-3, 1862.

This battleground covered almost seven miles, from Philomont through Unison and to Route 50 just east of Upperville. Volunteers already have done an initial survey of all pre Civil War buildings in the area, which will help when architectural historians prepare the area's history for the National Register. The National Park Service is writing the history of this Civil War battle, which historians now believe is much more significant than previously thought. It was the only battle in which President Lincoln personally commanded. Had Lincon's plan succeeded it might have had a major impact on the Civil War.

Civil War cavalry troops at the 2006 Unison Heritage Day

Our nonprofit group is working to put this battlefield on the National Register of Historic Places and on the Virginia Landmarks Register. This new state/federal historic district is honorary. It places no restrictions on what property owners within the historic district may do to their buildings or properties. However, it has many benefits for those property owners, since state and federal restoration tax credits are available to buildings within an historic district. And special hearings must be held if federal tax dollars are in any way used to fund projects affecting the historic district, such as road widenings.

Our nonprofit group needs your help in funding creation of this new historic district, and in our various programs to prevent intensive development, power lines and inappropriate road widenings in the region's historic countryside. Historian Eugene Scheel has called this one of the best preserved pre-Civil War areas of Virginia. The Virginia Department of Historic Resources calls Unison and the surrounding rural area one of the most "pristine" in the state. Help us preserve and protect it with your donations.