Historic Brookbury Farm

Brookbury Farm 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 Farm’s land, once several hundred acres, just north of Falling Creek 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.

Beginning in 2019, Historic Richmond began working with the Sheffield family and architectural historians and archaeologists with the Virginia Department of Historic Resources (VDHR), Historic Richmond wrote a Preliminary Information Form (PIF), which is the first step in listing a property on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). The VDHR evaluated and determined Brookbury to be “eligible” for listing on the NRHP. Listing on the NRHP is an honorary designation, but listing also allows a property owner to utilize historic tax credits 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 in connection with any restoration or rehabilitation work. Formal listing on the NRHP would permit a property to also receive the federal historic tax credit (20%) if the property were to be income producing.

Historic Richmond worked with the Sheffield family, VDHR and the City’s preservation staff to develop positive preservation solutions for Brookbury, and to ensure that it is appropriately documented as one of Richmond’s most significant historic, architectural, and cultural resources for not only its age, but also its association with the Sheffields and Civil Rights Era history. Brookbury was at risk of being sold at auction, but the Sheffield family has been able to avoid the auction and begin working on a long term preservation plan for the house and slave dwellings. With the community’s renewed appreciation for its historic significance through our work and that of the VDHR, we look forward to working cooperatively with the Sheffields and VDHR to see Brookbury preserved for the future.

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See our video on researching a historic home, which focuses on researching Brookbury Farm: