About

*Private site, currently not open to the public*

The Patrick Robert "Parker" Sydnor Log Cabin is a tangible representation of the history of African American families in Mecklenburg County. After Reconstruction, Virginia had the highest percentage of freed African Americans who bought real estate and established themselves as small farmers on plots of land often adjacent to former plantations.

The cabin site was originally located within one of the outlying "quarters" of Prestwould, the Skipwith family plantation. Early plantations were often divided into "quarters" that included agricultural fields and sets of slave cabins that housed the field workers. A 1798 plat of Prestwould Plantation, made by John Hill, designated the fork as Cabin Point. The location was also shown as Cabin Point on the 1864 map of the county by Jeremy Francis Gilmer, chief of the Engineer Bureau of the Confederate States War Department.

The property was sold out of the holdings of the Skipwith family of Prestwould Plantation in 1884 and was purchased in 1888 by Lovice (Vicey) Skipwith, a former slave at Prestwould. Vicey was a cook for private families, and while she later lived in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, and Brooklyn, New York, the cabin provided housing for other family members until the 1970s. Patrick Robert Sydnor (1854 - 1950), a carver of tombstones, was a known inhabitant of the log cabin on the old Cox Road and his productive life spanned the 19th and 20th centuries. The historic site land is still owned by the descendants of Parker Sydnor.

The property is not currently open to the public but is planned to be rehabilitated as a living history center in the community.