Bleak Hill reflects the farm life of a Franklin County political family during the 19th and 20th centuries. The property once belonged to Peter Saunders, Sr., one of the county's founding justices. At his death it passed to his son, Judge Fleming Sau... Read More

The Blue Ridge Institute & Museum was created in 1973 by Ferrum College to document, interpret, and present the folk heritage of the Blue Ridge region. Since that time, the BRIM has grown steadily, working throughout Virginia and Appalachia while mai... Read More

Booker T. Washington was born a slave in April 1856 on the 207-acre farm of James Burroughs. After the Civil War, Washington became the first principal of Tuskegee Normal and Industrial School. Later as an adviser, author and orator, his past would i... Read More

The Boones Mill N&W Railway Depot serves as a living museum telling the history of the railroad in Boones Mill, Virginia. The Depot will be used in the future as a museum, a community meeting place, a centerpiece for various town and regional festiva... Read More

The Booth-Lovelace House is located amid rolling farmlands in Franklin County at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains. This Greek Revival-Italianate residence was built about 1859 for planter Moses G. Booth by local builder Seth Richardson. It is amo... Read More

The Bowman Farm occupies 700 acres of cleared and forested slopes on the southern flank of Cahas Mountain, an outlying peak of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The Franklin County property is associated with the lifeways of a religious denomination known as... Read More

The earliest portion of the galleried frame Brooks-Brown House was built in the 1830s and was later expanded with several additions. Its original occupant was Andrew Brooks, a Franklin County farmer who served in the Virginia House of Delegates from ... Read More

The home was built by the Burwell family of the Tidewater area in 1798. William A. Burwell served as Secretary to Thomas Jefferson. In 1850 the estate was sold to Thomas J. Holland and has remained in the Holland family since that time, earning th... Read More

Skirted by U. S. Route 220, which follows the trace of the 18th-century Carolina Road, this 1450-acre rural historic district in the Boone's Mill vicinity of Franklin County preserves a scene that would still be familiar to the thousands of settlers ... Read More

Evergreen, or the Callaway-Deyerle House, located along the rich bottomlands of the Blackwater River five miles west of the Franklin County seat of Rocky Mount, serves as a good example of a vernacular Greek Revival-style brick farmhouse (ca. 1840) w... Read More

The seeds that would lead to Ferrum College were sown in the early 1900s. In 1909, the Virginia Conference Woman's Home Missionary Society (VCWHMS) of the United Methodist Church wrote Dr. Benjamin Beckham to report the VCWHMS had $1,200 for starting... Read More

Deep in the Franklin County countryside, the Finney-Lee House is a surprisingly refined late Federal I-house exhibiting handsomely crafted wooden trim and Flemish-bond brickwork. Such dwellings, although not commonplace, were preferred by many southe... Read More

Chartered by the Commonwealth of Virginia in 1968 with the stated purpose of collecting and preserving the history of Franklin County, Virginia. Staffed by volunteers... Read More

Also known as the 1861 House, the Greer House (in the Rocky Mount Historic District) was originally the home of Dr. Thomas Bailey Greer, a well-regarded Franklin County physician. Dr. Greer was a third generation county resident and played a signific... Read More

Perched on a hill above Smith Mountain Lake, two large stone chimneys are all that remain of the Gwin Dudley Home Site, one of the best-known historic sites in Franklin County. Gwin Dudley was rewarded with a land grant for service and loyalty to the... Read More

The Holland-Duncan House has served as a focal point for the Hales Ford community in Franklin County since its construction in the 1830s by plantation owner Asa Holland. The two-story, Flemish-bond brick Holland-Duncan House features molded brick cor... Read More

The Hook-Powell-Moorman Farm's history parallels that of Franklin County and the events that buffeted it in the 18th and 19th centuries. The oldest part of the home and a general store were constructed by Scottish immigrant merchant John Hook who mov... Read More

The Jubal Early Homeplace and Archaeological Site is located just off Jubal Early Highway (VA 116) near Boones Mill. It was the home of General Jubal Anderson Early, born in Franklin County in 1816, who spent much of his childhood at the home and gro... Read More

1769 Old Chapel Church in Penhook is one of only four pre-Revolutionary War frame Anglican churches in Virginia. Built in 1769, it is the oldest documented frame structure in Southwest Virginia. The one-story, 249 year old church has been preserve... Read More

This site includes a prehistoric settlement dating from the last half of the late Woodland Period (AD 1300-1600). Within the area are undisturbed prehistoric cultural features and postmolds as well as well-preserved faunal and floral remains. This ma... Read More

Piedmont Mill Historic District in Franklin County features the water-powered Martin-Piedmont-Clements mill, built around 1866 by Albert G. Martin on Maggodee Creek, and two dwellings from about the same period. Water-powered grist mills constituted ... Read More

Rocky Mount Historic District is a small service, factory, and courthouse town sited near the center of Franklin County, within view of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the rolling, rural terrain of the Piedmont plateau. One hundred and eighty-four primar... Read More

Iron was made at this site by 1773 in a "bloomery" under the direction of John Donelson, father-in-law of President Andrew Jackson. A furnace was erected on the site and was sold in 1779 to Jeremiah Early and James Callaway, who patriotically changed... Read More

This ochre-colored mansion with its Greek Revival portico and Gothic Revival rear wing, is an architectural highlight on the scenic Halfway Road connecting Middleburg and The Plains in the Little River Rural Historic District. The core of Waverley is... Read More

One of the rare early landmarks of the Franklin County town of Rocky Mount, the Woods-Meade House is a vernacular dwelling with sophisticated overtones and a complex evolution. The front section was built ca. 1830 or earlier for Robert T. Woods, who ... Read More