Save Part of the Historic Rice Farm on the New Market Battlefield

Let’s take on the 10-acre Rice project (including the Rice House also known as Stanley Hall) and raise the $76,500 needed to finish the project and preserve that property once and for all! We can knock out this project and move on to tackle even more before the snow flies. We are on a roll and stopping now, losing our momentum, would set us back, waste precious time, and risk battlefield acres. We are hearing about preservation opportunities from one end of the Valley to the other and we have to finish these long-standing projects so that we can march on and fight again.

So here’s some inside-baseball on how the Rice project breaks down: The purchase price was $615,000. We’ve put another $45,0000 into the due diligence costs of the deal (attorney’s fees, surveys, appraisals, historic and environmental assessments, etc.). In addition to that, we’ve paid just over $55,000 in interest on the loan that we used to get the property off the market. We’re expecting it to take about eighteen more months before all the work necessary to draw down grant funding is completed, and during that time we are expecting another $40,500 in interest fees and $15,000 in required due diligence costs. Altogether, that’s $770,500.

We’ve already been successful in securing a state grant for the project and we’re reasonably confident in being able to secure a federal grant that, when combined, will total $607,000. In addition to that, we’ve raised $87,000 in private funds – gifts from preservation warriors like you.

Those of you who read through the latest issue of Shenandoah at War magazine probably saw the article about our long-time friend, Larry Warren. It was Larry who made the first private gift for this project, making it possible for us to get the Rice property out of private hands just moments before it went on the market. After the 2021 National Conference in Martinsburg, Larry went home and wrote a letter saying that he was very interested in the preservation of the Rice tract and sent a $25,000 gift toward that effort.

Take a look at the map that details the importance of the Rice Farm. With one final push we can save it forever. $76,500 is all that stands between us and victory. Let’s prove to the world that preservation at this pace is possible; that working together we can take on one project after another and never fail; that we can march through the night and claim victory in the morning. Let’s save 10 acres of the Rice Farm and then turn our faces toward our next fight. Please pitch in and help win this one. Send what you can . . . With every dollar, you really are making a difference.

What Larry didn’t know was that we had to come up with a $25,000 down payment that very day or the property was going to go on the market and, more than likely, would have been lost. Until Larry’s gift arrived, we didn’t know if we were going to be able to come up with the funds to get that done.

Then, at our National Conference this past April, Childs Burden led an effort among attendees to honor Larry’s generosity by matching his gift. Well, that effort was a huge success bringing in more than $42,000 in a matter of hours! And just a few weeks ago, we received a bequest from the Peake estate that allowed us to put another $20,000 toward our effort to save the Rice property. When you add it all up, we’ve raised $694,000 to preserve the Rice property and we’re very close to putting this project behind us. All we need is another $76,500 and these 10 acres will be protected forever.

Now, with all the work that we’ve all been doing to preserve additional acres on the New Market Battlefield, it might seem that properties there are not under the intense threats felt elsewhere in the Valley. That couldn’t be further from the truth. The New Market Battlefield – including the Rice property – is under ever-increasing threat especially from residential development and municipal projects. The Rice property specifically is located between two apartment complexes and would be comparatively easy to develop. There is a 175-home development proposal on the southern edge of the Battlefield right now – proof that the urban spawl once thirty miles away is now on the New Market Battlefield and soon on the doorstep of the Rice House.

Rice House Today

Will Eichler of Civil War Digital Digest on the Rice property