Draper Historic District added to state’s list of historic sites
The Draper Historic District has been added to the state’s list of historic sites.
At their meeting Dec. 12, the Board of Historic Resources and the State Review Board met to consider new nominations of historic sites for listing in the Virginia Landmarks Register (VLR) and the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). Among those considered and approved for listing was the Draper Historic District, according to the state Department of Historic Resources website.
Inclusion of the Draper Historic District brings to 22 the number of historic sites in Pulaski County that have been placed on the landmarks register. A complete list with supporting information can be found at the following link: https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/historic-registers/pulaski-county/
The Draper Historic District runs along both sides of Greenbriar Road from the new Draper Community Park to Bryson’s Store at Holbert Avenue, and for a short distance along Brown Road.
A description of the site listed on the landmarks register follows:
The Draper Historic District, covering 40-acres in Pulaski County, encompasses a concentration of historic resources that coalesced in the Draper Valley into a railroad depot community in the late 1800s. The village owes its existence to the 1886 establishment of the Draper Depot on the Norfolk and Western Railroad’s Cripple Creek 
Extension, the bed of which survives as a recreational trail. The district’s earliest surviving building is the ca. 1887 Draper Mercantile, which for two decades was also the community’s largest building. Frame store buildings, a church, and houses in the Gothic Revival and Queen Anne styles date to the formative years of the community. Later resources of note include the 1911 Bank of Draper, several sophisticated Craftsman bungalows, and buildings associated with the town’s public school including a 1938 home economics building and 1949 community cannery. The construction of Ranch houses in the late 1960s rounds out the community’s architectural development; however, it is the bygone quality of the village that is an important component of Draper’s historical and architectural significance. It has encouraged the retention of historic buildings rather than their replacement with modern structures, and the redevelopment in 1987 of the Cripple Creek Line as the New River Trail State Park has stimulated a viable local economy.
The entire 43-page nomination form for the Draper Historic District complete with descriptions, map and photos can be viewed at the following link: https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/077-0169_Draper_HD_2019_NRHP_DRAFT.pdf
With the district’s successful inclusion on the Virginia Landmarks Register, it will now be considered for the National Register of Historic Places.
By MIKE WILLIAMS, The Patriot