Elk Hill is a historic house and farm complex located near Nellysford,

Nelson County, Virginia Nelson County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 14,775. Its county seat is Lovingston. Nelson County is part of the Charlottesville, VA Metropolitan Statistic ...

. Operated for more than 250 years, it is one of the earliest extant farms in Nelson County. The rural farm bounded in part by the South Fork of the

Rockfish River The Rockfish River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 tributary of the James River in central Virginia in the United States. Via the James River, it is pa ...

and Reid's Creek. The main house is a substantial two-story, three-bay wide frame dwelling with a central hall plan, with the original portion built between 1790 and 1810. Since Samuel Reid sold the farm in 1805 to Hawes Coleman (whose descendants owned it until 1977, it is unclear which family constructed the current house, particularly since the property contained the ruins of a smaller structure which was occupied into the 20th century. The house underwent a series of 19th-century additions and a major remodeling in 1902 in the neoclassical style. The property includes structures showing the succession of major crops in the area, from tobacco in the 18th and 19th centuries, to apples in the early 20th centuries. The current owner began a vineyard and winery late in the 20th century, partly on land once operated as High View Farm (ca. 1830s), as well as issued in 2005 a conservation easement to the Virginia Outdoors Foundation to protect its natural habitat and rural character. The contributing outbuildings include:

smokehouse A smokehouse (North American) or smokery (British) is a building where meat or fish is cured with smoke. The finished product might be stored in the building, sometimes for a year or more.

, built in the last quarter of the 18th century;

tobacco barn The tobacco barn, a type of functionally classified barn found in the USA, was once an essential ingredient in the process of air- curing tobacco. In the 21st century they are fast disappearing from the landscape in places where they were once ub ...

, built circa 1790–1810; 19th century chicken house, two seat

outhouse An outhouse is a small structure, separate from a main building, which covers a toilet. This is typically either a pit latrine or a bucket toilet, but other forms of dry (non-flushing) toilets may be encountered. The term may also be used ...

, and double

crib barn Crib barns were a popular type of barn found throughout the U.S. south and southeast regions. Crib barns were especially ubiquitous in the appalachian Mountains, Appalachian and Ozark Mountain states of North Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennesse ...

; garages built in 1902 and in 1955; and a stone boundary/retaining wall, built in the last quarter of the 18th century. an
Accompanying photograph
/ref> It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 2007.

References

Houses in Nelson County, Virginia Plantation houses in Virginia Greek Revival houses in Virginia Neoclassical architecture in Virginia Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia National Register of Historic Places in Nelson County, Virginia {{NelsonCountyVA-NRHP-stub