015-5181 Flat Creek Rural Historic District

For additional information, read the Nomination Form PDF

VLR Listing Date 09/17/2020

NRHP Listing Date 11/13/2020

NRHP Reference Number SG100005773

The Flat Creek Rural Historic District in Campbell County presents an agrarian landscape of roughly 1,201 acres. It covers four primary resources: Flat Creek Farm, established in 1796; two properties carved out of the former in the 20th century: East Hills Farm, dating to around 1926 and the Saunders Sawmill complex, constructed in 1946; as well as an adjacent ten-acre ensemble consisting of a church, cemetery, and rectory. The district’s range of buildings, sites, and structures illustrates Virginia’s west-central Piedmont agriculture over more than two centuries as well as the rise of sawmilling and ore extraction beginning in the late 1800s. Flat Creek Farm’s Watts House, constructed in 1797, was the first building in the district. Other notable buildings include a collection of five distinct log buildings constructed between 1828 and 1847, including a slave quarters (pictured above). The exceptionally well-preserved Good Shepherd Church was built in 1871 in the Gothic Revival style with its Queen Anne-style rectory dating to 1899. Additionally, the district’s historic resources range from an extensive collection of simple utilitarian buildings and structures to notable mining and extraction sites in a largely unaltered setting. Together these varied vernacular domestic, agricultural, and industrial resources represent the different types of households, farming practices, and mining operations in the rural Piedmont from 1797 through 1965.

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

Updated: May 17, 2021