About

Black Meadow is located in the rolling Piedmont landscape just north of Gordonsville, in Orange County near its boundary with Louisa County. It was owned by James Madison, who also gave it its name, until 1830, when he sold it to Coleby Cowherd, a prominent farmer. The property eventually passed to Cowherd's grandson, John Wickliffe Scott, who built its high-style Greek Revival main dwelling around 1856. The house is representative of the infiltration of pattern books and professional architectural designs into the traditional culture of rural Orange County. Black Meadow Farm, currently known as Wolf Trap Farm, also includes slave or tenant quarters, a bent barn stable, a multi-use shed (all dating to circa 1856); a circa 1916 milk house; a tenant house and a dairy barn, both circa 1943; and the Scott family cemetery. The farm's history exemplifies the evolution of agriculture in southern Orange County, which began with wheat and tobacco farming, then developed as a dairy complex during the 19th century. At the time of its listing in the registers, Black Meadow was in use as an equestrian facility.