Rich Neck Farm, also known as Richneck Plantation, was a historic home and farm located near Surry, Surry County, Virginia. The house was built about 1802, and was a 1-story, five-bay, double pile, central-hall plan brick dwelling in a pre-Georgian style. It had a gambrel roof with dormers and sat on a high basement. Long connected with the Ruffins, one of the prominent families of Southside Virginia, Rich Neck possessed a collection of buildings which were among the best preserved and most noteworthy of their type in the region. Original sashes, most of the doors, hinges (many with their leather washers), locks, and other hardware remained. The Ruffin family figured in Virginia's social and intellectual history throughout the colonial and early national periods. Its most notable member was Edmund Ruffin, an ardent secessionist and agricultural pioneer who is considered to be the father of

agronomy Agronomy is the science and technology of producing and using plants by agriculture for food, fuel, fiber, chemicals, recreation, or land conservation. Agronomy has come to include research of plant genetics, plant physiology, meteorology, and ...

. Research indicates Rich Neck remained in the Ruffin family until 1865. The house long stood vacant and in a state of disrepair. In 2011 Preservation Virginia listed Rich Neck Farm as one of the most endangered historic sites in Virginia. The house was destroyed by fire in 2012. Also on the property are two contributing granaries, a

smokehouse A smokehouse (North American) or smokery (British) is a building where meat or fish is cured with smoke Smoke is a suspension of airborne particulates and gases emitted when a material undergoes combustion or pyrolysis, together with t ...

office An office is a space where an Organization, organization's employees perform Business administration, administrative Work (human activity), work in order to support and realize objects and Goals, plans, action theory, goals of the organizati ...

, an

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 toilet, dry (non-flushing) toilets may be encountered. The term may als ...

, a

well house Well houses (Arabic: ''Biara'') were farmsteads established in the vicinity of orange groves in mid-19th century Palestine. In addition to luxury villas, the complex included a well, a water storage pool, a pumping system and irrigation channels. ...

, and a chicken house. an
''Accompanying photo''
/ref> Rich Neck Farm 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 v ...

in 1980.

References

Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia Farms on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia Georgian architecture in Virginia Houses completed in 1802 National Register of Historic Places in Surry County, Virginia Houses in Surry County, Virginia {{SurryCountyVA-NRHP-stub