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073-0030

Robert Russa Moton Boyhood Home

VLR Listing Date

06/24/2013

NRHP Listing Date

04/14/2014

NRHP Reference Number

14000149

The Robert Russa Moton Boyhood Home is located on a former plantation and farmstead known as Pleasant Shade in rural Prince Edward County, about 10 miles east of Farmville. Covering 246 acres today, the property contains a main house and a now-dilapidated kitchen-quarter building where Moton lived as a boy. One of the most prominent African American educators in the U.S. during the first decades of the 20th century, and president of the Tuskegee Institute after the death of Booker T. Washington, Moton (1867-1940) lived at Pleasant Shade from 1869 to 1880. His boyhood there shaped his conservative vision of race relations in America and in the South. The Pleasant Shade property, with existing portions dating back to 1746, is also important for its direct association with the April 6, 1865, Battle of Sayler’s Creek, the last major Civil War battle in Virginia before Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox.  A visit to the property in 2021 revealed that the kitchen-quarter building that was Robert Russa Moton’s boyhood home is no longer extant.

Last Updated: January 31, 2024

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

For additional information Read

Nomination Form

144-0027-0167

First Baptist Church

Prince Edward (County)

073-5064

Worsham High School

Prince Edward (County)

063-5036

Racial Desegregation in Public Education in the United States MPD

(MPD) Multiple Property Document