PW Historic Preservation Foundation gets grant for Potter’s Field Cemetery

Prince William Historic Preservation Foundation has been awarded $10,000 for the Potter’s Field Cemetery Delineation and Restoration. This project has been funded by a grant from Virginia Museum of History & Culture’s Commonwealth History Fund, supported by Dominion Energy. In the next five years, the Commonwealth History Fund intends to award up to $2 million for the preservation of Virginia’s historic resources, stories, and people.

This grant will support a Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) survey of the cemetery to determine the number of burials and delineate the cemetery’s boundaries. After the GPR survey is finalized, a new fence will be installed to better mark the cemetery. Then the cemetery will be cleaned of any small brush. No gravestones or other markers will be disturbed or damaged in the process of this project, the news release said.

The Thoroughfare is community located in western Prince William County. The core of the community was established after the American Civil War as a predominantly African American community. A strong oral history tradition supports earlier human settlement, including various Native American peoples.

According to a county news release, Potter’s Field cemetery is one of the largest cemeteries in Thoroughfare. It is located on a two-acre property recently acquired by the county in the Thoroughfare Historical District. While there are headstones within the cemetery, there are likely many graves that are unmarked, the release said.