Martha “Patty” Hicks Buford (1836–1901) established the Church Home for Aged, Infirm, and Disabled Colored People as a hospital for needy members of the Black community in Brunswick County. Buford was a devout and active Episcopalian who worked to better the lives of African Americans in post-Reconstruction Southside Virginia. She also established schools and church schools to provide educational opportunities. Church members supported her labors through the Diocese of Virginia and the Episcopal Church Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society. The hospital was incorporated by the General Assembly during its 1881-1882 session, destroyed by fire on March 17, 1891, and quickly replaced with a larger hospital on the same foundation. The Church Home for Aged, Infirm, and Disabled Colored People is an unusual example of an institution established for African Americans following Reconstruction when there were no medical facilities available for them in Brunswick County. The hospital closed in 1907.
Many properties listed in the registers are private dwellings and are not open to the public, however many are visible from the public right-of-way. Please be respectful of owner privacy.
Abbreviations:
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark
Programs
DHR has secured permanent legal protection for over 700 historic places - including 15,000 acres of battlefield lands
DHR has erected 2,532 highway markers in every county and city across Virginia
DHR has registered more than 3,317 individual resources and 613 historic districts
DHR has engaged over 450 students in 3 highway marker contests
DHR has stimulated more than $4.2 billion dollars in private investments related to historic tax credit incentives, revitalizing communities of all sizes throughout Virginia