This plain late-18th-century Buckingham County farmhouse was the home of Peter Francisco from 1794 until the mid-1820s. Francisco appeared on the wharf at City Point as a finely dressed, abandoned youth speaking an Iberian dialect. Speculated to be of noble origin, he was raised by Anthony Winston. He grew to be a young man of exceptional physical stature, and in 1776 he enlisted in the Revolutionary army. The stories of his wartime feats have become part of Virginia folklore. He is reputed to have carried a 1,100-pound cannon and to have routed a squad of Tarleton’s cavalry and captured their horses. Francisco worked as a blacksmith after moving to Buckingham County. He later served as doorkeeper in the State Capitol, where his funeral was held in 1831. Francisco’s home, Locust Grove, has been restored by the Society of the Descendants of Peter Francisco.
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
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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