Crooked Run Valley Rural Historic District

Crooked Run Valley is a rural historic district covering about 18,630 acres in the northwest corner of Fauquier County, Virginia, between the Blue Ridge foothills and the Goose Creek watershed. Route 17 runs through its center along an old Native American trade route. The district includes the villages of Paris and Delaplane, the settlement of Scuffleburg, and hundreds of farmhouses, tenant houses, barns, mills, churches and schools. Its earliest buildings date to the mid-1700s and are simple log, frame and stone vernacular structures, while later ones show Federal, Greek Revival, Gothic Revival and Victorian influences. Local fieldstone was widely used for houses, outbuildings and the fences that still divide pastures. Cattle and horse breeding and hay production have dominated farming. The district was recognized for preserving this landscape of farms, villages, roads and scenic vistas, which reflects the self-sufficient agricultural society that settled the valley over about 250 years. It also holds associations with Mosby's Rangers.