Stony Point History

Check out: 

Ante-bellum Albemarle; Albemarle County, Virginia, historical sketches by Mary Rawlings, drawings by H. Heyward and A. Robinson; this is a book about many of the old homes in the area, including Stony Point.

National Register of Historic Places Registration for the Historic District of SouthwestMountains.pdf

Contains a lot of information about the historic area, especially architecture trends.

 

A Trip through Stony Point

Ride along Route 20 and check out the history!  First posted at Stony Point Friend-Raising Picnic April 26, 2025.

Compiled by Tina Stephens with help from George and Linda Davies.

 

Route 20 was one of the first four roads in Albemarle County in the 1730’s, along with route 250, known as Three Notched Road, Route 6 near the James, and Route 231 up the other side of Southwest Mountain.

The first land patent was granted to George Hoomes, who got 3100 acres on the “further side of the Chestnut Mountains” in 1727. Thomas Carr, Thomas Moreman, and John Key followed shortly afterward, as well as Nicholas Meriwether.

Charles Lynch obtained his first piece of land within the territory of present-day Albemarle County in 1733. Lynch went on to acquire deeds for a total of 6,500 acres dispersed in sections along the Hardware River, Rivanna River, Moore's Creek, and Mechums River. He built his home along the Rivanna River on the site of today's Pen Park. Here, he established Lynch's Ferry (or Ford), which is heavily mentioned in the early records of the Albemarle County Court.

In 1750, Lynch acquired 1,600 acres of land along the James River opposite of the site of modern Lynchburg and made it his primary residence. He died there in 1753.

The word "lynching" was likely coined in memory of the harsh actions undertaken against Loyalist prisoners by Lynch's son, Charles, during the Revolutionary War (the term did not carry racial connotations in its original form). His son John Lynch freed all of his slaves by the mid-1780s, including the slave suspected of killing his son. The Lynch’s were Quakers and were abolitionists.

Driving along Route 20 North

Beginning at its intersection with Three-Notched Road, or perhaps if you were on the other side of the Rivanna, crossing over Lynch’s Ferry, you would enter Route 20, formerly known as Coursey Road. Over the years it has also been known as the Orange Courthouse Road and the Barboursville Road.

After you pass Darden Towe Park, you come across the drive for Franklin, the home, on the right. John Key built Franklin after he obtained a grant for 400 acres in 1732. John Key (1696-1765) and Martha had three children named Martin, John, and Mary, the wife of a member of the Dalton family.  Martin, for whom the Key West neighborhood is named, succeeded to the estate of Key, and by repeated purchases became the owner of many more acres.  He sold Franklin to Dr. William Bache in 1799.  Bache then named the property Franklin after his grandfather, Benjamin Franklin. He did not prosper, however, and lost the property to Thomas Randolph in 1804.  Meriwether Lewis later lived there while serving as secretary to Thomas Jefferson and apparently used to signal Jefferson from Franklin.

You will then pass the entrance to the subdivision, Franklin.

On your left as you continue up the hill is Buena Vista, originally patented in 1734 by Jonathan Clark. His son, John, married Ann Rogers and built a smaller cabin in the field below the main house. Both can be seen today. The cabin is not original but is a period cabin of the same age was moved to that location during the bicentennial in 1976 and placed on the original foundation.  They had a child, George Rogers Clark, who would grow to become a celebrated military hero in the American Revolution. George only lived there for five years, then moved with his family to Caroline, where his father obtained a “handsome estate.” (Wood). His brother Meriwether Lewis was born there in 1770.  The present Greek Revival house at Buena Vista was built in 1862; it was one of very few large brick houses built in the South during the Civil War. Rev. Edgar Woods, County of Albemarle, Virginia, 1901

Down the hill is the entrance to Key West. You can enter the subdivision and find the original Key house, built in 1852. In addition, Burnley’s Tavern, originally located at the crossroads at Stony Point, was moved to the hill at the entrance. Reportedly built circa 1740, it was one of the oldest buildings in Albemarle. This building was relocated by Audrey Emery in 1938-39, with assistance by architect Milton Grigg.  It is now part of the house at 95 Key West Drive. History of Key West – Key West Association

On your right on Route 20, you will pass Windie Knowe; according to tradition this was built in 1732 as a hunting lodge, making it possibly Albemarle’s oldest house. Also, originally a part of the Key grant, as was Franklin, there was also a mill near this site. Apparently, there was a “great deal of carousing” that happened in the house. (Susan Alba, Country Roads, Albemarle County, 1993)

On the left as you go toward Stony Point is Chapman Grove Baptist Church, built in 1900, as a meeting place for Black Christians from the area. The original weatherboard church burned in 1953, and the current building was constructed in 1955. Before the original building was built, the worshippers gathered in homes.

On the left you then pass the entry to Ridgeway. First part of a patent by Captain Joseph Smith, the estate was bought by Peter Minor, who married Lucy Gilmer of Pen Park, in 1809. Mr. Minor was a treasurer of the Rivanna Navigation Company, and was a partner to Cyrus McCormick, inventor of the reaper. Franklin Minor, Peter’s son, moved his classical school here from the Riggory when he and a brother switched properties. (De Alba, Country Roads: Albemarle County, Virginia, Rockbridge, 1993.)

At the top of the hill, Minor Mill Road takes off to the right, obviously named for the old mill, and Wolf Trap Road to the right. Early in the county’s history, money was paid for wolf scalps. Near the top of Wolf Trap Mountain, there apparently was a large pit that was used to trap the wolves, and at one point one scalp from an old wolf would bring you 140 pounds of tobacco or 75 pounds for a young wolf.

On a small portion of the original roadbed of Route 20, just before you get to Redbud Hills, is Eastham. There used to be a general store, gas station and post office here. Built in the 1920s, it is named after an "old hamlet' that was located here around Redbud.  It was bought in the late 1970’s and turned into a residence.

At Redbud Creek, upstream toward Southwest Mountain was a mill known as Trevillian’s Mill, as noted on the Peyton Map of 1875. Grist Mills were numerous in the county, where families would take grain to have it milled into flour.

Barterbrook, on the west side of Route 20, contained a tan yard and a tavern popularly known as "Pinch'em-slyly," which had opened in 1792 and operated until 1827. The name was explained by John B. Minor in 1886: it was “so named on account for a very fine Morello Cherry tree which stood on Barterbrook Creek, where cherries were stolen or ‘pinched’ on the sly.” A muster ground for local troops was contiguous to the site, with the militia company of the district occasionally assembling there to perform their exercises and with the neighboring magistrate Joshua Key (a grandson of the settler John Key) often being called upon to exert his authority for the preservation of the peace.

Edgemont, on the left across from Lonesome Mountain Road and Hammocks Gap Road, was built in the early 1800’s. This was the home of Dr. John Gilmer, son of George Gilmer, the personal physician of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. John Gilmer is noted for his progressive views, and opened a hospital for the vaccination of smallpox, which at that time meant the recipient was given small dose of the disease, offering immunity to a larger case. People at that time were concerned with the possibility of a smallpox outbreak, so when one of Dr. Gilmer’s patients died, Gilmer was taken to court, though he only received a small sentence.

On the right, in the triangle between Lonesome Mountain Road and Hammocks Gap Road, sits the old Liberty School, which was built in 1919 as a gift of Paul Goodloe McIntire as a two-room schoolhouse. It was closed in 1938 and now is a private residence.

Hammocks Gap Road, which used to continue all the way over Southwest Mountain, comes out on Route 231 between Keswick and Milton. Somewhere near this road was a Methodist Church in 1825 (Watts), and between Hammock’s Gap Road and Lonesome Mountain Road, on the side of Sugarloaf Mountain, was a Quaker meeting house in 1749 (Washington, 1823).  

Major Thomas Carr first patented the land that you pass through next, including one of the Carr farms named Barrsden, which you cannot see, on your right. There is an old slave cabin that has been restored on this property, one of the few remaining in the county.

On your right as you move on, up on a hill lies the old Liberty Baptist Church, constructed in 1829. Dr. John Gilmer donated the land for this church, which served as a missionary church to Preddy Creek.  Before the Civil War, there were 31 white members of this church, and upwards of almost 200 Black members. When the end of the Civil War came, the Black members left, and the small white membership remained. Recently, it has changed hands a number of times, becoming Liberty Christian Fellowship, then Liberty Worship Center. It is now a Spanish speaking congregation, Centro Global De Adoracion.

At the traffic circle, if you turn left and cross the river, you enter the Profitt Historical area, a community of Black people that grew up after the Civil War. Of note is the old Evergreen Church, which has just recently been occupied again.

Back on Route 20 you will see Carr’s house, The Riggory, so named because of the rocky soil that the home was built on in the 1730’s. It was later bought by Peter Minor, and his son Franklin Minor operated a classical day school with a few boarders. It was noted as “One of the most prominent schools, with extended patronage throughout the South.” The school moved to Ridgeway when Hugh Minor and Franklin traded homes. The Riggory had the first running water in Albemarle County, piped from the nearby pond. During the Civil War, the pipes, which were made of lead, were dug up and made into bullets. It is rumored that Sheridan may have used this home as his headquarters, and that his soldiers burned down the slave quarters.

Grapes were grown by many Stony Point farmers along the next segment of Route 20. They were then shipped to the Monticello Wine Company at nearby Bellevue. Adolph Russow was superintendent of this company which was the largest seller of wine in the United States until prohibition shut down these concerns.

Dr. Thomas Walker, who owned Castle Hill in Cismont, brought the Albemarle Pippin variety of apples to the area from New York, and that apple was grown along the sides of the Southwest Mountains. This was the queen’s favorite apple at that time.

On the left just past the Riggory, is the entrance to Rivanna Farm, a 10,000-square-foot estate which has multiple royal ties. Originally built in 1958, it was a secret love nest for heiress Audrey Emery (the wife of one of the last Russian Grand Dukes, Dmitri Pavlovich) and Prince Pierre of Monaco, Duke of Valentinois. Then, in the 1980s it was bought by the Swedish Count Goesta Archibald Douglas of SAAB fame and his wife Countess Margareta C.H. Douglas. It was designed by French Interior Designer Stephane Boudin, who restored the White House during the Kennedy administration. https://www.huffpost.com/author/shana-ecker

Up Foster’s Branch Road live descendants of the Norford family, a well-known Stony Point name. Dave Matthews also has property with a studio.

Next to the left is Park Hill, which also appears on the 1875 map. It has been an active sawmill for many years, though it has just recently ceased production.

Further on the left is Ashton Church Road. Up this road, there was a Black church called either Ashland or Ashton Baptist Church, formed after the Civil War. In 1921, 2.91 acres of land was purchased to build one of the seven Rosenwald Schools of Albemarle County on this hill. Rosenwald schools were built for the education of Black children by one of the partners of Sears and Roebuck, and the schools were package deals.

Before coming to the sharp turn in Route 20, there is a stone house on the left that was built in the 1900’s by William Lindsay Norford, a Stony Point native who made his fortune in the railroad and hotel industry. The design is a miniature reproduction of “Halesworth,” the Norford family home in Bury St. Edmonds, England. At the time, the land encompassed the corner location where the old Burnley Tavern stood.

As you come to the sharp bend in Route 20 to the right, you are entering Stony Point “proper,” where the Burnley Tavern once stood in the 1700’s, before the building was moved to Key West. The tavern was run by Nathaniel Burnley from 1820-1829, when he became a miller for Hydraulic Mills on the Rivanna River. To the right of the remaining residence, many people remember the old Stony Point store, known as White’s Grocery, and later as Stony Point Crafters. Across the street, in the elbow, according to local lore, there stood another store, and a grist mill.

Down the road on the left, known as Watts Passage, you will travel down to the railroad tracks to the area known as Watts, named after Johnson and Susannah Watts, who moved on to Boone, KY, as many people did in those days, when tobacco farming depleted the soil.

To the left after you turn off Route 20, you pass Burnt Mill Road, which takes you down to dead end at a property on the North Fork of the Rivanna. The mill was called either Barksdale or Ferneyhough as far as this history has discovered so far. However, this road used to continue across a ford in the river and connect with Proffitt Road as part of Buck Mountain Road, which was built in 1742. Early in the county’s history, this was a thoroughfare to localities that lie west. (Pawlett, Albemarle County Roads 1725-1816, VA Highway and Transportation Research Council, 1981.)

“The Buck Mountain Road was made in the primitive times. This name as applied to the series of roads which start from Rockfish Gap, bend along the base of the Ridge and Buck’s Elbow to Whitehall, pass over Moorman’s River at Millington to Free Union and Earlysville. Cross the north fork of the Rivanna at the Burnt Mills and enter the Barboursville Road at Stony Point.”  Rev. Edgar Woods, 1901, Albemarle County in Virginia, Michie Company.

After the sharp turn on Route 20, on the right you will see Stony Point Elementary School.

This school was founded in 1908 and named for its rural surroundings. The original school consisted of four rooms and was heated by wood-burning stoves. Many of the students had to endure up to a four-mile walk until the first "bus," a horse-drawn carriage with a man named Obe Flint at the wheel. The current building was constructed in 1934 in the same location as the original school and until 1953 students from all grades attended. In 1953, Stony Point accepted only elementary- and middle-school-aged students, moving grade 7 students to Jack Jouett Middle School. Finally, in 1974, grade 6 was moved to Burley Middle School and Stony Point contained only elementary school students. (Cvillepedia)

As you continue past the school on Route 20, you will pass All Saints Episcopal Chapel, a mission of Grace Episcopal in Cismont, built in 1929 on part of the Shackelford farm, Dovedale. According to Corky Shackelford, this chapel was built in part because when automobiles came into use, they did not have the power to travel over Stony Point Pass to Grace Episcopal, so the chapel was built as a mission for people on this side of the mountain. One of the cornerstones was apparently a stone that rolled down and killed a three-year-old child and is marked as such.

Located on the corner of Stony Point Pass, Dovedale has been occupied as a working farm since its inception. First granted by George III to a Morton, then sold to a Terrell, Zachariah Shackelford bought it in 1806 and built the home in 1815. The home has been in the family since then. Fairmont, the home across Route 20, was built in 1840 for one of the Shackelford’s upon their marriage.

Stony Point Pass goes over the top of Stony Point Pass and comes out in Cismont. The Flint family had a home there, and there is also a home that belonged to a Ms. Pennybaker. There are the remains of an old Black church that was called Free Union Church of Colored Brethren. Residents of the area note there are several old cemeteries on property along the road. An old map of Albemarle shows a couple of distilleries on this road, also.

Back out on Route 20, on your left on a hill is Piedmont Christian Church, which was built in 1879. John Goss, one of the early owners of Piedmont, was a well-known preacher who addressed the members at Preddy Creek Baptist and First Baptist Church in Charlottesville. John’s son, James Goss, also a preacher, began to feel the tenants of the Disciples of Christ Church were more to his liking. This was after the Scotch Irish Immigrant Alexander Campbell, and his son Thomas rebelled against the Presbyterian Church. The resultant Campbell movement in the Baptist Church came to Virginia, and a part of Preddy Creek broke off to form Piedmont Christian Church.

Turkey Sag Road on the right was the first road through the Southwest Mountains, built in 1745. It leads over the mountain through Cash’s Corner to Cobham, and allowed travel to the ports of Richmond, New Castle, and Hanover Town. Much of the trade from the Shenandoah Valley probably passed along this and Burnt Mill Road. After 1790, however, the focus shifted to Milton on the James River as a way to get products to the coast, as river navigation took over.

 At the intersection of Turkey Sag Road with Route 20, Nimrod Branham built a store and tavern in 1797. There used to be a general store named Powell’s Store, but the old store was razed when the road was moved. Across the street, there is Stony Point Market, which used to boast of being “Downtown Rosena,” when it was Bell’s Store. Friday nights still bring Bluegrass music to the store each week!

Up above Stony Point Market is Preddy Creek Baptist Church, formed when some members of Blue Run Baptist Church in Somerset moved to a location near what was called “Pritty’s Creek”. Originally the church meeting house was built closer to Preddy Creek, but the current building was constructed in 1781.  Preddy’s Creek Baptist Church sent out a number of missionary churches that are still in our area today: Liberty, Spring Hill, Laurel Hill, and Barboursville Baptist Churches. Piedmont Christian Church split from Preddy Creek, and the Black congregation of Free Union Baptist Church formed at the end of the Civil War. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison occasionally attended. The congregation still meets, and there is a great deal of history stored there. (Preddy Creek Bulletin)

There is early evidence of a mill on Preddy’s Creek, belonging to Ambrose Joshua Smith in 1742.

On the left just past Stony Point Market is the turnoff onto Gilbert Station Road, which travels east and runs into Burnley Station Road. In the corner of land closest to Stony Point Market, there once was a mine known as Stony Point Mine, which was discovered in 1878 by a Major Mason. Running from 1885 to 1990, the main minerals from the mine were malachite, a beautiful green mineral, and pyrite, known as Fool’s Gold. The main commodity that the mine produced was iron, with copper, gold, and silver as secondary commodities. This mine had several shafts, at least one of them 40 meters deep. Stony Point Mine Near Piney Mountain, Virginia | The Diggings™

Back on Route 20, you will come to Piedmont Manor, with a long vista of white fencing around the estate. First known as Poplar Grove, there supposedly was a line of poplars down the driveway. That house burned, and John and Jane Goss bought the property of 2000 acres in 1809. They built Piedmont and moved the Piedmont Female Academy to the home. Upon John’s death, Piedmont went to Jane Ashby Goss. Litigation by one of the children caused the family to fracture, and the house went to Virginia Goss, who finally sold it to Charles M. Lea, who was a railroad man.  He married Hattie, and she changed the name to Piedmont Manor.  In 1952, the top floor of the house burned, and was bought for $10,000 and rebuilt by Howard W. Friend for $56,000. Several people have lived there since then. (Wright, The History of Piedmont Manor, Piedmont VA Land Trust, 2014.)

Goss was one of the first members of the Piedmont Farmer’s Club, in 1873, along with other farmers in the area, including, Branham, Garth, Minor, Page, Shackelford, and Watts. This was one of the first agricultural societies and came about to deal with the land, because of the intensive toll that tobacco took from the land. Such ideas as spreading manure on the fields, contour plowing, and rotating crops were novel back then. Many landowners left for Kentucky when their land was no longer fertile, but most of these landowners wanted to stay in Virginia.

A little further along, Burnley Station Road turns off to the left. The road crosses the railroad, where Yaeger and Ernst Cabinetmakers now occupy the old train depot. At Burnley Station many years ago, and at Gilbert Station and Watts Station, people used to get on the train to come to Charlottesville for the day, then come home in the evening. At Watts there was a siding with a tower to provide water to the steam locomotives until the1950’s. The foundations of the water tower are still there today.  Mail was tossed off the train as it went by and then carried to the post office.

As you come to Route 33, the history continues, although this account will not. Governor James Barbour owned a house which now constitutes the ruins at Barboursville Vineyards and acts as a backdrop to the Four County Players for their dramatic productions in the summer.