In the shadow of the Blue Ridge mountains in western Albemarle County, Piedmont was originally the property of Michael Woods, who sold it to his son-in-law, William Wallace, a Scotch-Irish immigrant who arrived in this county in 1734. Active in the county’s early political and economic life, Wallace also was instrumental in bringing the first Presbyterian minister, the Rev. Sam Black, to the region. Wallace family tradition holds that the earliest portion of the two-part house was built for Wallace in the second half of the 18th century. The later portion, a typical example of the county’s antebellum vernacular, was built about 1832 and employs penciled Flemish-bond brickwork, molded brick cornices, and two exceptional Greek mantels. Nearby are a log smokehouse, log slave kitchen (later a laundry), and the ruins of the chimney and hearth of a former kitchen. The Piedmont property contributes to the Greenwood-Afton Rural Historic District.
Many properties listed in the registers are private dwellings and are not open to the public, however many are visible from the public right-of-way. Please be respectful of owner privacy.
Abbreviations:
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark
Programs
DHR has secured permanent legal protection for over 700 historic places - including 15,000 acres of battlefield lands
DHR has erected 2,532 highway markers in every county and city across Virginia
DHR has registered more than 3,317 individual resources and 613 historic districts
DHR has engaged over 450 students in 3 highway marker contests
DHR has stimulated more than $4.2 billion dollars in private investments related to historic tax credit incentives, revitalizing communities of all sizes throughout Virginia