Long Grass Plantation

Long Grass Plantation is a historic house and rural historic district in Mecklenburg County, Virginia, situated in the former Roanoke River basin. The property began as part of the Tarry family’s extensive landholdings and developed into a large agricultural plantation associated particularly with tobacco cultivation. George Tarry established Long Grass on land belonging to his father, Samuel Tarry, and the estate eventually encompassed approximately 2,000 acres. The surviving house incorporates an early hall-and-parlor dwelling, generally dated to about 1797 or 1800, together with substantial nineteenth- and twentieth-century additions. The principal architectural phase occurred in 1831–1832, when Jacob W. Holt, a builder-architect associated with Warrenton, North Carolina, added a large two-story Greek Revival front section. The expansion included a formal entrance and porch with neoclassical and Jeffersonian features and was undertaken around the time of George Tarry’s marriage to Mary Euphemia Hamilton. The scale and finish of the addition reflected the family’s increased agricultural wealth, which was generated in part through tobacco production using enslaved labor. Around 1857, Holt further altered the older portion of the house, raising its roof and adding an Italianate rear porch. Long Grass was supported by a substantial group of agricultural and domestic outbuildings. Surviving or documented dependencies include an ice house, smokehouse, kitchen and laundry, schoolhouse, tobacco pack house, tobacco barns, and a log tenant dwelling. The property also retains evidence of former agricultural and commercial activity, including foundations associated with tobacco barns, a mill, ferry landing, tannery, brick-making area, blacksmith shop, and other structures. Tobacco was sorted, cured, dried, and packed on the property before being transported toward the Roanoke River for shipment. The plantation’s history also encompasses the lives and labor of enslaved people and, after emancipation, formerly enslaved families and their descendants. Historical mapping indicates that slave quarters were located away from the main house, while domestic servants lived in or near the house. After the Civil War, the Tarry family reportedly conveyed acreage to some former slaves, with portions remaining in descendant ownership. These elements are important to interpreting Long Grass within the broader history of slavery, emancipation, agriculture, and African American landholding in the Virginia–North Carolina border region. A major environmental and ownership change occurred in the 1950s, when the construction and filling of Buggs Island Lake, also known as John H. Kerr Reservoir, submerged most of the original plantation acreage and associated landscape. Much of the flooded land is now under the control of the United States Army Corps of Engineers. Approximately 27 acres surrounding the surviving house remain privately owned. The Tarry family returned to the property in the late 1950s after the house had been leased to a tenant farmer during the Great Depression. Mid-century work modernized the house with bathrooms, a kitchen, updated utilities, and alterations to the connecting hyphen. Bruce and Sudie Park of Raleigh, North Carolina, acquired the property in the early 1990s. A major rehabilitation undertaken from 1992 to 1994 repaired the house, upgraded mechanical systems, restored porches and foundations, installed a terne-metal roof, and added carefully planned interior spaces while retaining the historic room arrangement and architectural symmetry. Long Grass Plantation was listed on the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places on July 21, 1995. It is not a commercial consumer brand; the name identifies a historic property, cultural landscape, and architectural resource.

Long Grass Plantation developed from Tarry family landholdings in the Roanoke River basin of southern Virginia. Samuel Tarry controlled a substantial estate, and his son George established Long Grass on property associated with the family. The earliest surviving portion of the main house is a small hall-and-parlor structure dating to approximately 1797, or possibly the opening years of the nineteenth century. The plantation expanded as the Tarry family cultivated tobacco and operated a range of agricultural, craft, transport, and domestic facilities. The house’s most important expansion took place in 1831–1832. Jacob W. Holt added a large two-story Greek Revival section to the front of the earlier dwelling. The new block was connected to the original house by a one-story hyphen and included a formal entrance, porch, transom, sidelights, and other neoclassical details. The addition was associated with George Tarry’s marriage to Mary Euphemia Hamilton and expressed the family’s rising economic position. That prosperity was tied to tobacco agriculture and to the forced labor of enslaved people. The plantation’s social structure included enslaved domestic workers near the house and field laborers housed in separate quarters. A Civil War-era map places those quarters away from the main residence. Holt returned around 1857 to remodel the older section. He raised its roof to create a full second story and added a relatively elaborate Italianate porch at the rear. By the nineteenth century, Long Grass included a large smokehouse, kitchen and laundry, ice house, schoolhouse, tobacco pack house, barns, tenant housing, and other dependencies. Tobacco was processed in the pack house, where it was sorted, cured, dried, and packed for movement toward the Roanoke River. The estate also had a ferry and landing, a mill, tannery, blacksmith shop, brick-making area, and mill works. Archaeological traces of these activities remain in the form of foundations, millstones, and artifacts, although portions of the landscape are now underwater. Emancipation changed the labor and ownership relationships surrounding Long Grass. The Tarry family continued to employ freed people for many years and reportedly granted acreage to former slaves, some of whose descendants retained land in the area. During the Great Depression, the house was leased to a tenant farmer. The Tarry family returned in the late 1950s, after the landscape had been transformed by the construction of Buggs Island Lake, also known as John H. Kerr Reservoir. Most of the former plantation, including related historic sites, roads, and buildings, was flooded. The submerged acreage is largely associated with the United States Army Corps of Engineers, while approximately 27 acres around the surviving house remain privately held. Mid-century renovations introduced modern utilities and changed some interior functions. The connecting hyphen was raised, bathrooms were installed, the dining-room arrangement was altered, and a kitchen was attached to the older section. The former schoolhouse was also adapted as a lake cottage, with a kitchen, bathroom, and sleeping loft. Other dependencies experienced mixed preservation outcomes: the ice house, smokehouse, and several other buildings survived, while a nineteenth-century carriage house or livestock barn was eventually demolished after severe deterioration and storm damage. A 2016 storm caused a large tree to fall onto the kitchen and laundry outbuilding, damaging its fireplaces. Bruce and Sudie Park acquired the property in the early 1990s and undertook a comprehensive rehabilitation from 1992 through 1994. The work included structural repairs, new foundations for porches, updated mechanical systems, a new terne-metal roof, interior alterations designed to preserve room symmetry, and custom millwork. The house also contains distinctive decorative features, including an eighteenth-century Chinese hand-painted wall covering donated from a North Carolina family home. Long Grass Plantation received recognition on both the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places on July 21, 1995. Its significance rests on its architecture, surviving outbuildings, agricultural history, relationship to slavery and post-emancipation landholding, and the dramatic alteration of its historic setting by reservoir construction.

• 1995

  Historic-register listing

  [1]Long Grass Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  Long Grass Plantation was listed on the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places on July 21.

• 1994

  Park family rehabilitation completed

  [1]Long Grass Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  Bruce and Sudie Park’s extensive restoration and modernization project was completed after their purchase of the property.

• 1950

  Reservoir construction changes the historic landscape

  [1]Long Grass Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  Buggs Island Lake, or John H. Kerr Reservoir, flooded most of the original plantation acreage.

• 1950

  Mid-century modernization

  [1]Long Grass Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  The house and schoolhouse were renovated, modern services were introduced, and the schoolhouse was adapted as a lake cottage.

• 1857

  Italianate alterations

  [1]Long Grass Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  Holt remodeled the older section, raising its roof and adding an Italianate rear porch.

• 1832

  Greek Revival expansion

  [1]Long Grass Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  Jacob W. Holt added the large front section and connecting hyphen that define much of the house’s present appearance.

• 1797

  Construction of the earliest surviving house section

  [1]Long Grass Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  The original hall-and-parlor portion of the Long Grass house was built, or substantially established, around this period.

Historic plantation house, architectural landmark, and cultural landscape rather than a commercial brand.

• Historic residential architecture · 1797

  Long Grass Plantation main house

  The principal house combines an early hall-and-parlor dwelling, a large 1831–1832 Greek Revival addition by Jacob W. Holt, and later Italianate and twentieth-century alterations. Its notable features include a formal neoclassical entrance, connecting hyphen, historic porches, preserved room symmetry, and a donated eighteenth-century Chinese hand-painted wall covering.

• Historic agricultural and domestic structures · 1800

  Long Grass Plantation outbuildings

  The associated resources include an unusually large ice house, smokehouse, kitchen and laundry, former schoolhouse, tobacco pack house, tobacco barns, and a log tenant dwelling. Together they document food storage, domestic work, education, tobacco processing, agricultural labor, and tenant life on the historic property.

• 1992

  Comprehensive preservation rehabilitationStrategy

  Background

  After Bruce and Sudie Park purchased the property, the deteriorating historic house required extensive structural, mechanical, and interior work.

  Action taken

  The owners commissioned a project that repaired the house, renewed utilities, rebuilt porch foundations, installed a new metal roof, and added compatible interior improvements.

  Aftermath

  The rehabilitation supported the property’s continued preservation and preceded its 1995 state and federal historic-register listings.

  Source

• 1950

  Adaptation to reservoir creationStrategy

  Background

  Construction of Buggs Island Lake transformed the plantation’s setting and submerged most of its historic acreage and associated landscape.

  Action taken

  The surviving house and a small private tract remained above water, while much of the former estate passed into the reservoir landscape managed by the Army Corps of Engineers.

  Aftermath

  Long Grass became a substantially reduced historic property whose significance is understood in relation to both its surviving buildings and the flooded plantation landscape.

  Source

1. 1Long Grass Plantationen.wikipedia.org