Esmont is a

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counterparts of incorporated places, such ...

(CDP) in

Albemarle County Albemarle County is a county located in the Piedmont region of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Its county seat is Charlottesville, which is an independent city and enclave entirely surrounded by the county. Albemarle County is part of the Char ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

, United States. The population as of the 2020 Census was 491.

Esmont Esmont is a historic home located near Esmont, Albemarle County, Virginia. The house was built about 1818, and is a two-story, three bay, square structure in the Jeffersonian style. It has a double pile, central passage plan. It is topped by ...

, Guthrie Hall, and Mountain Grove are listed 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 v ...

History

The town was built from land purchased from the former Esmont

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

estate, built by Dr. Charles Cocke, and for which the town was named. Having rich soil, the town has historically been a farming community with a predominantly

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

population. The area has been populated since the eighteenth century, though it did not acquire a post office until the later nineteenth century. Slate quarrying began near Esmont in 1883, and by the mid 1920s, the 6000 acre alwas the nation's largest soapstone producer. The quarry operation stopped in the 1960s due to environmental concerns. At its peak, Esmont had a depot for the

Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was a Class I railroad formed in 1869 in Virginia from several smaller Virginia railroads begun in the 19th century. Led by industrialist Collis P. Huntington, it reached from Virginia's capital city of Richmond t ...

, 3 stores, St. Steven's Episcopal Church (built of wood in 1914 and still in operation) and a bank (now converted into a post office). It has recently been the focus of an oral history project by the

Carter Woodson Carter Godwin Woodson (December 19, 1875April 3, 1950) was an American historian, author, journalist, and the founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH). He was one of the first scholars to study the h ...

institute. New Hope Baptist is a historically Black church in Esmont. In 1974, the pastor was Rev. H.J. Scruggs, Jr. In 1974, Esmont also boasted a Greencroft Garden Club.

References

Virginia Trend Report 2: State and Complete Places (Sub-state 2010 Census Data)
Unincorporated communities in Virginia Census-designated places in Albemarle County, Virginia Census-designated places in Virginia {{AlbemarleCountyVA-geo-stub