The Proffit Historic District is the most intact and well-documented historically African American community in Albemarle County. Founded by freedman Ned Brown in 1871, the small settlement became a village in the 1880s. Once a stop on the Southern Railroad line, the village features several houses built by members of the Brown and Flannagan families, former slaves on nearby Glen Echo plantation. The Gothic Revival Evergreen Baptist Church, built by a local black Baptist congregation in 1891, remains the village’s most notable landmark. By the early 20th century, Profitt grew to be a small but thriving commercial and residential community, benefiting in the 1920s from the operations of a prosperous sulfur mine, the only one of its kind in Albemarle County. Gradually losing its position as a commercial crossroads, the Proffit Historic District has become a peaceful bedroom community for the city of Charlottesville.
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
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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