Commanding a hill overlooking Poague Run, Vineyard Hill is a vestige of Rockbridge County’s earliest substantive rural housing. The rough-coursed limestone structure was built ca. 1774 by Scotch-Irish settler Alexander Beggs. The house shows a Quaker influence with its three-room plan and corner staircase. An exceptional feature is the enormous cooking fireplace in the basement. The name Vineyard Hill is believed to have been chosen by Emma M. Brady, who inherited the property and the adjacent Buffalo Forge tract from William Weaver in the 1860s. Weaver’s heirs aspired to be winemakers and engaged a French horticulturist to establish a vineyard about 1870. The wine proved to be unsalable in the export market and the effort was discontinued. The house was restored in the 1970s. On the Vineyard Hill property are the foundations of a springhouse and an iron-working mill.
[VLR Listed Only]