New Group Hopes To Keep Claude Moore Farm Open

MCLEAN, VA—There's hope for Claude Moore Colonial Farm to continue on even as the current group's cooperative agreement expires in December.

The Friends of the Colonial Farm at Turkey Run, Inc. has formed to submit a proposal to run the programming at Claude Moore Colonial Farm, a National Park Service site. It intends to continue the living history portraying agricultural life in Virginia prior to the American Revolution.

Claude Moore Colonial Farm is unique in the NPS system because a private group operates the living history programs at the farm and must sign a cooperative agreement with NPS, which owns the land. Friends of the Colonial Farm at Turkey Run formed after Friends of Claude Moore Farm choose not to accept the cooperative agreement offered by NPS in the spring. On March 30, NPS notified the group that the cooperative agreement would end on Dec. 21. Friends of Claude Moore Farm has since launched a campaign to "Save the Farm."

The Friends of the Colonial Farm at Turkey Run said in a press release it consists of "committed professionals with experience in education, museum curating, and non-profit management," which include educators, historians, curators, business people and attorneys. Many of them have volunteered at Claude Moore Colonial Farm.

"When the current organization that operates the farm at Turkey Run, known as the Friends of the Claude Moore Colonial Farm, announced on April 30th that it could not accept the terms of the agreement that the National Park Service had offered, we were shocked and disappointed, as were hundreds of volunteers, teachers, families, and residents of the community," the group said in a news release. "We began to explore the possibility of picking up where the current operators left off, hoping to preserve the resources and programs that have enriched the community for more than forty years."

The group hopes to create a long-term agreement with NPS. The Friends of Claude Moore Farm had a long-term agreement since 1981. But when that agreement expired in 2006, the group and NPS signed short-term agreements.

The park will close in December as it normally does for the winter but has potential to reopen. "Rest assured that we have absolutely no intention to sell or commercially develop the park land that is known as Claude Moore Colonial Farm," states NPS.

On keeping the farm running with a new partner or existing volunteers, NPS spokesperson Jenny Anzelmo-Sarles told Patch in an email, "The National Park Service is focusing on the future. We look forward to working with the community through a collaborative and transparent process with the goal of continuing park operations.”

The Friends of Claude Moore Farm released the following statement on the new group's intent to run the site:

It has taken FCMCF and its talented group of hundreds of volunteers, along with loyal community support, 37 years of hard work to turn a former federal dumping ground into the well-loved and award-winning living history museum it is today. With little help from the Park Service, the FCMCF have built the Farm and refined its self-supporting operations, assembled a team of hundreds of talented volunteers, compiled the expertise to run a historically accurate living history museum and associated programs and events, and developed a network of financial support from generous private donors. The FCMCF is skeptical that any group can marshal the human, financial and physical resources and expertise to replicate The Claude Moore Colonial Farm on what will be a blank slate while operating within the straitjacket of the Park Service’s terms.

Image via NPS