Historic Brookbury Farm to be Auctioned

Historic Brookbury Farm is currently scheduled to be auctioned by
Motleys on August 19, 2020. Historic Richmond hopes to see the
property purchased by a preservation-minded buyer. Brookbury is
one of those special, important and historic places that connects us
across time to the lives of many People – men, women, children –
Black and white, free and enslaved, known and unknown. Brookbury’s
land, once several hundred acres, was home to these People.
Today, Brookbury is home to one of the oldest houses in the City of
Richmond and former slave quarters, likely built in the early 1800s, an
era from which very few structures survive. Brookbury’s history extends
from the time before English settlement in the Virginia colony, to
its use as an agricultural plantation in the Colonial and antebellum
periods, to Civil Rights Era significance as the home of the first Black
judge appointed to a Virginia court since Reconstruction.

Recently, Historic Richmond wrote a Preliminary Information Form,
the first step in listing a property on the National Register of Historic
Places. The Virginia Department of Historic Resources evaluated and
determined Brookbury to be “eligible” for listing on the National
Register. Listing on the National Register is an honorary designation,
but listing also allows a property owner to utilize the historic tax
credit for rehabilitation work that meets certain standards. The recent
determination of eligibility permits Brookbury to receive the state
historic tax credit (25%) for qualified expenses. Formal listing on the
National Register would permit a property to also receive the federal
historic tax credit (20%) if the property were to be income producing.

For more information click here.

photo: Brookbury Farm, 1968 Source: Department of Historic Resources