Greenfield (Fincastle, Virginia) Explained

Greenfield
Designated Other1:Virginia Landmarks Register
Designated Other1 Date:June 17, 2010[1]
Designated Other1 Number:011-0026
Designated Other1 Num Position:bottom
Coordinates:37.4381°N -79.9139°W
Built:c., c. 1850
Added:June 28, 2011
Delisted:January 6, 2022
Refnum:10000792[2]

Greenfield, also known as Col. William Preston Plantation, Preston House, and Botetourt Center at Greenfield, is a historic plantation site located at Fincastle, Botetourt County, Virginia. The first plantation established by surveyor, militia officer and burgess William Preston (1729-1783) and which used enslaved labor beginning with his purchase of 16 Africans from the ship True Blue on August 28, 1759 in Nanjemoy, Maryland for 752pounds (to avoid a 5% Virginia sales tax), Greenfield became one of Botetourt County's largest plantations, encompassing more than 1,200 acres by the 1770s.[3] In 1774 Col. Preston moved his family to another plantation, Smithfield, and a series of white overseers managed the farm, orchard and distillery at Greenfield.[4]

Because fire had destroyed the plantation house in 1959, and the only remaining historic buildings were kitchen/quarters (c. 1832) and saddlebag slave dwelling (c. 1850), which were moved to the Bowyer-Holladay House nearby, although listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2011, Greenfield was delisted in January 2022.[2] [5]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Virginia Landmarks Register. Virginia Department of Historic Resources. 2013-05-12.
  2. Web site: National Register of Historic Places Listings. 2011-09-02. Weekly List of Actions Taken on Properties: 7/05/11 through 7/08/11. National Park Service. June 8, 2013. November 4, 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20111104071331/http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/listings/20110715.htm. dead.
  3. Daniel B. Thorp, In the True Blue's Wake, (University of Virginia Press 2022 ISBN=978-0-8139-4723-5) p. 11
  4. Web site: Michael J. Pulice & John R. Kern. April 2010. National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Greenfield. Virginia Department of Historic Resources. and Accompanying five photos
  5. https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/historic-registers/011-0028/