The Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park was listed in the National Register in 1966 (with the passage of the National Historic Preservation Act) and approved in 1978. Chatham Manor was identified in that documentation for its use as the headquarters for several Union generals during the Civil War, a hospital, and the site of an early field telegraph relay station. It was also noted for its architectural style.
Since then, efforts have been made to revise the 1978 National Register documentation to address recently-added park property and more thoroughly document the resources and areas of significance. This expansion identified the park and landscape’s role in Civil War commemoration efforts, federal battlefield park development, the work of the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s, and landscape architecture, particularly the 1920s Colonial Revival design of the Chatham Manor formal garden by landscape architect Ellen Shipman. The overall period of significance in the 2016 National Register nomination update begins in 1768 with the construction of Chatham Manor, and ends in 1965, the 100th anniversary of the end of the Civil War.
