Virginia Department of Historic Resources Virginia Department of Historic Resources
For additional information, read the Nomination Form PDF
VLR Listing Date 06/18/2009
NRHP Listing Date 09/03/2009
NRHP Reference Number 09000689
Built in 1826, Providence Plantation and Farm boasts one of only a few of the Early Republic-era brick farmhouses that survives in Virginia’s upper Tidewater region. The plantation once included up to a dozen slave quarters, horse barns, hog pens, blacksmith shop, small chapel or meetinghouse, and a graveyard. William and Susan Dew, one of the wealthiest families in 19th-century Virginia, founded this plantation in King and Queen County. During the Civil War, the Dew family, with three sons in the military, supplied financial and political support to the Confederacy, buying thousands of dollars worth of government bonds and treasury certificates. With the Confederacy’s defeat, the family lost economic, political, and social standing. By 1880, however, Providence was once again prospering with the help of five hired workers. Today the property retains the original residence as well as four contributing agriculture-related buildings: a two-story Reconstruction-era granary and carriage house, and a 1930s-era hen-laying house, a two-story sweet potato shed, and a mechanic’s shop.
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: October 4, 2021
