This week, work began on restrooms at Laurel Hill, the Birthplace of Civil War Major General James Ewell Brown “Jeb” Stuart. David Lawson and Son Builders is doing the construction. Shown here with the Stuart Concrete truck are Mike Young, Bill Carter, and D. J. Lawson pouring the footer.
Plans are in the works to eventually build a visitor’s center attached to the restrooms. The J. E. B. Stuart Birthplace Preservation Trust, Inc., the 501(c)(3) corporation that owns the 75-acre Laurel Hill Farm, is an all volunteer organization that continues its mission to share the many histories this land holds and give visitors a good experience. It does not take government funds for any of this work.
This organization started in 1990 and raised the money to purchase the property from the Brown and Dellenback families. The site is now on the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places.
Many people use the property to get close to nature, with multiple walking trails that take visitors down to the Ararat River and back. The site is part of the Virginia Birding and Wildlife Trail system. The property is open dawn to dusk for visitors to wander around. I see people walking their dogs at Laurel Hill and recently saw a couple with a Maine Coon Cat on a leash taking in the property.
The property interprets many histories, starting with the Native American life discovered when the College of William and Mary conducted archaeology on the property. This work helped the property be listed on the Virginia and National Registers.
The Civil War Encampment will be held the first full weekend of October since 1991. This year’s event is October 3-4. Children under 12 get in for free.
On June 29, 2026, Laurel Hill hosted the kickoff in Patrick County for the American 250 celebration, focusing on the history of the American Revolution at William Letcher’s grave. We were pleased to host this event, and over 200 people attended to eat BBQ, learn about the history, and see fireworks.
Letcher was killed on the property on August 2, 1780, by a pro-British Tory in front of Letcher’s wife, Elizabeth Perkins Letcher, and their daughter, Bethenia. Mrs. Letcher later married George Hairston and became the matriarch of the Hairston Family Dynasty living at Beaver Creek, the home still standing in Martinsville, Henry County, Virginia. Laurel Hill was in Henry County then, as Patrick County did not come into existence until 1791, a full decade after Letcher’s death. Letcher was J. E. B. Stuart’s great-grandfather.
Laurel Hill was placed on the registers because of its Antebellum farmstead designation. The Stuarts lived on the property from the mid-1820s to 1859, when Elizabeth Letcher Pannill Stuart sold the property to two men from nearby Mount Airy, her doctor Joseph Hollingsworth and Robert Galloway, who built the Opera House still on Main Street in the “Granite City.”
As part of that Antebellum history, the Stuart Trust does not shy away from the history that involves slavery. There is a slave cemetery with a marker acknowledging the contributions of the African Americans who lived on the land, along with an interpretive sign about these people who also called Laurel Hill home.
The Stuart Cemetery is located near the house and kitchen sites at the top of Laurel Hill. Several of the Stuart children are buried here. Archibald Stuart, the husband of Elizabeth Letcher Pannill Stuart and father of J. E. B. Stuart, who died in 1855, rested here until 1952, when he was moved to Saltville, Virginia, to be buried beside his wife and other children, including William Alexander Stuart and Mary Headen Stuart.
After the Stuarts, the history continued as the Mount Airy and Eastern Railway came by the property on its way from Mount Airy to Kibler Valley, mainly to haul the virgin timber cut along the Dan River. A few years ago, a new exhibit and interpretive sign were placed along the old roadbed that went from Mount Airy toward what is today Stuart, Virginia.
A pavilion with interpretive signs discussing the role J. E. B. Stuart played in the War Between the States, including his relationship with his wife, Flora, is also along the old roadbed. The five interpretive signs, written by author and historian Robert J. Trout, sit on a floor of brick pavers that people may order to honor anyone they wish. The brick pavers are $50, and you can find more information at https://www.jebstuart.org/pavilion.cfm.
Laurel Hill is on several Civil War Trail systems, including the Virginia Civil War Trails and the Civil War Discovery Trail, which connects the site to many other related places across the nation. A Civil War Trail sign is near the building at the entrance.
Finally, two Virginia Historical Highway Markers stand at Laurel Hill. The original sign from 1932, written by Douglas Southall Freeman and donated by Gerald Via and me, is placed along the old roadbed. For many years, this sign was the only thing that denoted the land’s historical importance. The newer sign from 2001 sits at the entrance along the Ararat Highway and was written by me.
We invite you to “Jine the cavalry” and join our efforts to preserve this important part of Patrick County history through a membership https://www.jebstuart.org/membership.cfm.
On September 12 at 2 p.m., a Memorial Service will be held at Laurel Hill for Stuart Trust Vice-President David Lusk, who recently passed away. No one loved Laurel Hill more than David, and we invite you to join us in remembering our friend.
The Laurel Hill website is www.jebstuart.org, and the Facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/JEB.Stuart.Trust.
