Greenfield Slave Quarters

[farlymac]

The supervisors of Botetourt County, VA have chosen to move the former slave quarters and cook house at the Greenfield Center for Industry to another area of the park for display, so they can erect a new shell building on spec, hoping to lure more businesses.

One of the descendants of the slaves that worked the plantation has filed an injunction to halt all preparation because there are unmarked graves in the vicinity of the buildings. A judge put a hold on any injunction, giving the county and the contractor thirty days to respond. In the meantime, work continues on the removal.

The Cook House and Slave Quarters

Greenfield Plantation Slave Buildings by P F McFarland, on Flickr

Slave Quarters by P F McFarland, on Flickr

Cook House by P F McFarland, on Flickr



What will replace the Slave Quarters and Cook House

Industry by P F McFarland, on Flickr

See all the photos at https://flic.kr/s/aHsktdrdNC

PF

Shot in Redscale on Kodak Hawkeye Surveillance ti2420

 

[DominikDUK]

The colors work with the subjects. Just for clarification they want to move the original Slave Quaters to another location so that they can build a shoe box:bang:
Those superivsors are stupid sorry. Apparently they have never heard of tourism, history buffs and more importantly integrity and historic responsibility. The location appears rather nice too nice to be destroyed for a shoebox.The only good thing is that the buildings won't be outright destroyed

 

[rfaspen]

Everything DominikDUK said.

Worked all my life (including much of my childhood) resisting such stupidity.

The stupid always win. We all (everyone!) lose. Even the developer and new occupants lose, they just don't realize it. Once "place" and "history" are gone, they're gone. Not that I'm anti-economy, but there's more to us (humans) than that.

 

[gb hill]

Like your choice of film used but sadden by the choice of them wanting to move such an historical place. Kudos to you Phil for getting these photographs before they move it.

 

[farlymac]

Thanks, all.

As an update, the archaeological dig for the graves didn't turn up anything where they looked, so the removal work went on as planned. There was a photo in today's Roanoke Times showing the cook house already up on the moving dollies.

PF

 

[grouchos_tash]

The stupid always win.

It's sad but true.

 

[farlymac]

Update

Update

The buildings have been moved from their original locations, and set on another hilltop in basically the same orientation. Hopefully the county follows through with their promise to restore the buildings.

The path to the new location. It came through the parking lot for the trailhead.

Long Way Up by P F McFarland, on Flickr

Cook House by P F McFarland, on Flickr

Slave Quarters by P F McFarland, on Flickr



The buildings used to stand on a spot just to the right of center, in among those trees. Though the road was just below the hill, to the left, they had to be moved to the right where the slope was gentler, looping around to a spot behind where I was standing for this photo where they came out onto the two-lane. The road then splits at the bottom of the hill into four-lane divided, and they were trucked down the wrong way side so that traffic to the industries would not be disrupted, traveling on the other half of the road.

Former Placement by P F McFarland, on Flickr

This will all be flattened to make way for a shell building, which the county hopes will attract a new business.

Soon To Be Gone by P F McFarland, on Flickr

PF

Production Note:

Nikon N90s with AF Nikkor 28-80mm 1:3.5-5.6D
Kodak Ektar 100
ISO was accidentally set for 400, so these were all grossly underexposed. I was able to recover them in PS Elements 10, though there is quite a bit of noise in the skies, and “Slave Quarters” in general.