About

Located in southern Pittsylvania County near the North Carolina border, Berry Hill is a remarkably complete Southside plantation grouping with a sprawling, much-evolved dwelling house and numerous outbuildings. The unusually high number of support structures preserves a rare image of the complexity of these large agricultural units, run essentially as industries. Most of the farm structures are log, while the outbuildings, including the kitchen/laundry, dairy, and smokehouse, are wood frame, illustrating an architectural hierarchy sometimes employed in secondary structures. The present form of the main house is the result of accommodating the nine generations of the Perkins, Wilson, Hairston, Sims families who have owned the Berry Hill property since the 1760s. The oldest section, possibly 18th-century, began as a plain three-bay structure. The house at Berry Hill is now a jumble of wings, chimneys, porches, and roofs, the latest section dating from around 1910.