Buckingham slate was being quarried at Arvonia by the mid-eighteenth century and was soon famous throughout Virginia. But because its weight made transportation difficult and poor quarrying techniques further decreased its marketability, it was only after the Civil War that it was widely...
Although Prince Edward County has been primarily a rural tobacco-growing county, most of its memorable buildings are located in Farmville and the best known of its buildings are schools, Longwood University (PE7), Hampden-Sydney...
Farmville was established in 1798 on land acquired from the Randolphs of Cumberland County and laid out in an irregular grid pattern. When Ulysses S. Grant pursued Robert E. Lee through the town on their bloody road to Appomattox in 1865, the town's Main Street had a three-story...
Cumberland County was formed from Goochland County in 1749 and named for the Duke of Cumberland, third son of King George II. In May 1776, the Cumberland Committee of Safety was one of the first to declare independence from the king and “to bid him a good night forever.” The next...
For much of the nineteenth century, the James River was the area's main route for transporting agricultural products to larger markets. Cartersville, situated on a bluff above one of the river's main crossings and founded in 1790, became a thriving river port next to...
Powhatan County has a rich history that includes Huguenot settlement, important centers of African American education, Robert E. Lee, and prison farms. Fortunately, the architecture that remains from this varied historical legacy has fared better here than in many localities. Bordered...
Powhatan is a small rural county seat with an important courthouse, a scattering of early civic buildings and residences, and an impressive tavern. The town was laid out and settled in 1777 at the formation of the county. A plat of 1785 shows the town laid out...
The Huguenot Trail that follows the Upper James River (late 18th-mid-19th century; VA 711 and adjacent roads from Jefferson east to the Powhatan-Chesterfield county line) is named for the many Huguenots who settled in the area. When Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes in...
Located south of Richmond and bounded by the James and Appomattox rivers, Chesterfield was carved from the southern half of Henrico County in 1749. The county was named for British statesman and diplomat Philip Dormer Stanhope, fourth Earl of Chesterfield. Chesterfield County's...
Chesterfield has been the county seat since the county's founding in 1749. Its site, where five early roads came to an intersection, was selected because of its proximity to the center of the county. The former country town is now almost obliterated by the whirl of...
In 1909 T. Marshall Bellamy laid out a streetcar suburb on the bluffs above the Appomattox River. He named the development Colonial Heights for the moment in history when, in 1781, the Marquis de Lafayette and his men known as the Colonials...
Despite the march of bedroom communities from Richmond, rural Amelia County manages to retain a countrified air. Formed in 1734 from Prince George and Brunswick counties, its name honors Amelia Sophia Eleanora, daughter of King George II. In 1781 the county was raided by General...
In 1788 the county was formed from part of Amelia and named for the Nottoway River on its southern boundary. The river in turn had been named for a tribe of Native Americans living farther east and called the Nadaw, or the Nottoway. In this agrarian county, early communities were...
Blackstone began in the eighteenth century as White's and Black's, named for its two taverns—White's and Schwartz's (German word meaning “black”). When its rail line was consolidated into the Norfolk and Western Railway, Blackstone boomed as a transportation center for...
Named for a well-known railroad town in England, Crewe was established in 1888 as the Norfolk and Western Railroad's midway terminal between Norfolk and Roanoke. Many of its early railroad buildings, including a semicircular brick roundhouse with twenty-one stalls, have been demolished,...
By the late seventeenth century, the fresh soil of Dinwiddie began to draw planters from Tidewater and its overworked land. Dinwiddie's first settlers were mostly English and their African American slaves, but they also included a few Huguenots. In the first half of the eighteenth...
Petersburg is an independent city on the borders of Dinwiddie, Chesterfield, and Prince George counties. The town developed on the fall line of the Appomattox River where in 1645 Fort Henry, a garrison and trading post, was established. Ships to and from England...
Thinly populated Sussex is a rural county with fields of peanuts, soybeans, cotton, wheat, corn, and oats, as well as some cattle and a few hog farms. Forestry, another major local industry, occupies much of the county's swampy land, which is now largely owned by timber companies. In...
Carved from Brunswick in 1780, the county was probably named for Revolutionary War hero General Nathanael Greene. Bounded by the North Carolina line on the south, the Nottoway River to the north, and the Meherrin River on the southeast, the county is bisected by the Meherrin as it...
When Greensville County was whittled out of Brunswick in 1780, the small community of Hicksford was chosen as its county seat. Located on a ford at the fall line of the Meherrin River, Hicksford was also at the crossing of two major colonial roads. The...
Before the formation of the county, the Brunswick area was the site of one of Virginia's most interesting, if ultimately unsuccessful, colonial experiments. In 1714, about two miles south of present-day Lawrenceville, Fort Christanna (BR12...
After Greensville County was cut from Brunswick in 1781, the courthouse was moved to present-day Lawrenceville. The town, not officially laid out in lots around the courthouse until 1814, was probably named for Captain James Lawrence, naval hero in the War of 1812....
Formed from Brunswick County in 1745, Lunenburg County, like Brunswick, was named for a German holding of the king, in this case George II, duke of Brunswick-Lunenburg. During the early days of the Civil War, the county acquired the nickname “Old Free State” when a vocal part of...
Victoria was an important crossroads and railroad town, and the site of the now-demolished Virginian Railway shops and roundhouse for the region. One of the remnants of the railroad yards is the large water tank (Main and 8th streets) for the steam engines of the railroad. The...
Kenbridge was once an important tobacco market town and its Main Street, lined with tobacco warehouses and other large operations, is more industrial than commercial. The town's commercial area is on S. Broad Street and consists of mostly one- and two-story brick stores...
Mecklenburg County borders North Carolina and embraces the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' John H. Kerr Reservoir, usually called Buggs Island Lake. Built between 1946 and 1953 for flood control, electric power production, recreational use, and fish conservation, the lake was created...
Boydton is among the least spoiled historic towns in Southside and possesses a rare visual coherence. A small town of about 450 people, Boydton has been the seat of the county since its formation in 1764. Despite a few unfortunate losses late in the twentieth century, the best aspect of...
Originally located where the Dan River flows into the Roanoke (Staunton) River, Clarksville now stands adjacent to the John H. Kerr Reservoir (known locally as Buggs Island Lake) that was formed when the rivers were dammed in 1953. The town was laid out in 1818 and...
At the close of the Civil War, the Roanoke Land and Colonization Company, along with other organizations in the South, was formed to recruit immigrant workers from the North and from Europe to replace the emigrating former slaves. Mecklenburg County brought in more of these laborers...
Lying midway between Tidewater and the Blue Ridge Mountains, Charlotte County was carved out of western Lunenburg County in 1764 and named for Queen Charlotte, consort of King George III. Its Southside terrain varies from undulating and rolling to steep and tilted hillsides...
