A historical account of a road that never was is the winner of this year’s University of Mary Washington Center for Historic Preservation Book Prize.
Road to Nowhere: How a Highway Map Wrecked Baltimore tells the story of the lasting harm caused by the 1957 proposal of a highway slicing through Maryland’s once-vibrant Black middle-class Rosemont neighborhood. Written by historian Emily Lieb and published in November 2025 by University of Chicago Press, the book draws on land records, oral history, news items and policy documents to reveal the effects of the unfinished East-West Expressway.
UMW’s Center for Historic Preservation announced the book as its choice for the 2026 prize in May in recognition of Historic Preservation Month, which celebrates the heritage and architectural legacy of communities across the country. “This is an important event for our students and our community because it gives everybody a chance to think about the future of historic preservation in this country,” said Professor of Historic Preservation Christine Henry. “What’s new? What’s exciting? What new direction are preservationists taking the field?”
Read more about UMW’s 2026 Historic Preservation Book Prize.
The University of Mary Washington is a premier, selective public liberal arts and sciences university in Virginia, highly respected for its commitment to academic excellence, strong undergraduate liberal arts and sciences program, and dedication to life-long learning. The university, with a total enrollment of about 4,000, features colleges of business, education and arts and sciences, and three campuses, including a residential campus in Fredericksburg, Virginia, a second one in nearby Stafford and a third in Dahlgren, Virginia, which serves as a center of development of educational and research partnerships between the Navy, higher education institutions and the region’s employers.