Virginia Department of Historic Resources
Barrett-Chumney House,
Amelia Co.
A Federal-style house with elegant architectural details, the Barrett-Chumney House was built in 1823 by Thomas Barrett as a small tobacco plantation worked by enslaved Africans. With the exception of some Greek Revival elements added during the 1860s, the house remains little changed today and is an excellent, well-preserved example, along with its affiliated agricultural buildings, of an early plantation. It later operated as a farmstead of tenant farmers and day laborers.
Throughout its history, the rural landscape of Amelia County has been dominated by rolling pastures and a reliance on staple crops such as tobacco, cotton, and mixed grains. In the prosperous decades of the early 19th century many similar plantations were established across the county, made possible by slave labor, agricultural improvements, and an expanding transportation system. Few of those early plantations in Amelia have survived as intact and unchanged as the Barrett-Chumney House.
Amelia Co.
A Federal-style house with elegant architectural details, the Barrett-Chumney House was built in 1823 by Thomas Barrett as a small tobacco plantation worked by enslaved Africans. With the exception of some Greek Revival elements added during the 1860s, the house remains little changed today and is an excellent, well-preserved example, along with its affiliated agricultural buildings, of an early plantation. It later operated as a farmstead of tenant farmers and day laborers.
Throughout its history, the rural landscape of Amelia County has been dominated by rolling pastures and a reliance on staple crops such as tobacco, cotton, and mixed grains. In the prosperous decades of the early 19th century many similar plantations were established across the county, made possible by slave labor, agricultural improvements, and an expanding transportation system. Few of those early plantations in Amelia have survived as intact and unchanged as the Barrett-Chumney House.
