Interpretive Plan

• An interpretative plan is a foundational document that helps institutions, like historic homes, tell their stories, interpret their resources, and achieve their overall mission.
• A certified interpretive planner works with clients to develop a comprehensive strategy for conveying key messages to target audiences in the most effective way, while respecting and preserving their unique heritage.
• A certified interpretative planner guides institutions through a decision-making process to shape their message, identify their goals and objectives, and plan their interpretive programs.
• Interpretive planning is a collaborative, goal-driven process.

Interpretive themes are the key messages visitors should understand after visiting the sites. A good theme statement should reflect a site’s resources and values; connect tangibles and intangibles; and answer the question: “so what?” Themes should reflect what makes each house unique, the key stories or possible messages at each house, and the takeaways they want visitors to have after visiting.

Theme 1: Community Connection

The Thoroughgood, Lynnhaven, and Francis Land houses are intricately connected to the story of the local community in all its complexity and diversity – from the original Indigenous settlement to today.

Theme 2: Diverse Stories

The people who lived and worked in these three houses—men and women, adults and children, free and enslaved—shaped these buildings’ legacies. The history of these houses cannot be fully understood without knowing their stories.

Theme 3: Daily Life

Daily life at these three houses reflected the social and economic situations of the inhabitants and workers and provide key insights into the past.

Theme 4: Architecture

The Thoroughgood, Lynnhaven, and Francis Land houses highlight the evolving architectural styles of the 18th and early 19th centuries, providing insights into changing tastes, technologies, labor practices, and materials.

Theme 5: Rise of a Country

The stories of these homes, and those who lived and worked here, are intertwined with the creation of the United States and the successes and challenges of the country’s birth and later history.

Theme 6: Environment

The houses provide insight into the long history of the region and its inhabitants’ efforts to manage, control, and survive their environment—from the Chesapeake and Nansemond presence to modern sustainability efforts by the city and its partners.