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Greenlee Tavern
The property now at 338 Arnolds Valley Rd first operated as the Greenlee Tavern and Ferry, built by James Greenlee (1707-1757) and Mary McDowell Greenlee. The first mention of this home was in court records related to a drowning inquiry in 1750 at the ferry crossing. It was one of the early waystations as immigrants, largely from Ireland and Scotland as well as people who they enslaved, moved into this part of the Appalachians to live or to visit nearby Natural Bridge. This included onetime owner of Natural Bridge President Thomas Jefferson, whose granddaughter Cornelia J. Randolph to Virginia J. Randolph (Trist) had concerns about the state of the property at the time. Here’s how she described the space, via a letter archived by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation:
“[...]When we got to Greenlee’s the house was an excelent[sic] brick house as well built as the houses of Lynchburg & there were three others building in the same yard two of brick & one of stone the one we went into was well finish’d in the inside but the filthiest place, I could not help thinking of sister Ellens wondering when she was a little girl if the house in which she was had been sweep’d today & the people & the children look’d as if their cloths[sic] never had been taken off since they were put on new. I felt exactly as if the place was polluted. I could not bear to touch any thing, & at night they carried us into a very good little room, but the sheets of our bed were dirty & we were obliged to sleep on the outside of the this night. as sister Ellen had such a dreadful pain in the face that she walked up and down the room all night & did not sleep at all, grandpapa said he had a very nice comfortable bed but he slept in the room with two or three people.”
An Early Case of Legal Self-Emancipation
Records from Augusta County, which once included this area, via Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish settlement in Virginia by Lyman Chalkley show a person called Nat enslaved by Mary McDowell Greenlee successfully sued her for their freedom in 1778.
Excavated Items
Pottery shards and other items were uncovered while digging MidMountain’s garden on the site of what we believe was once a kitchen building in spring of 2025. The green glazed pieces represent a type of pottery that was common in the 1750s according to Washington & Lee University archeologist Donald Gaylord.
The Greenlee Tavern Basement
Nearby Glenwood Furnace relied on the skills of enslaved people to operate, creating iron bars like the bar below found on site. Smiths, also often enslaved people, would then work those bars on sites like this one to create items like nails and the hinges on the original door seen here leading to another section of the basement. Those enslaved people often lived in basements like this as well as attics, work buildings, and separate slave dwellings on site.
Tavern owner James Greenlee (1707-1757) was among the first known slaveowners in this area. When his estate was settled in 1763, several people were listed as property, including a 35-year-old “mulatto boy” named “Natt” who may be the same “Nat” who successfully sued Greenlee’s widow for freedom in 1778.
About Glenwood furnace via Virginia Department of Historic Resources:
“Glenwood Furnace was built in 1849 for Judge Francis T. Anderson and Botetourt County lawyer David Shanks. The iron furnace complex at Glenwood, located near Natural Bridge in Rockbridge County, included the iron furnace and its support facilities, as well as facilities necessary to support the workers and animals who operated the furnace. Iron ore mines were located in the close vicinity. The original cold-blast charcoal stack was 38′ high, and 9′ across the bosh. The furnace was constructed of dry-laid limestone and sandstone, with a brick chimney. The inner chamber, which contained the fire, was covered with fired clay to protect the outer walls. The Glenwood Furnace was originally connected to the ridge to the south by a charging bridge over which iron ore, limestone flux, and charcoal were wheeled and dumped into the central, brick-lined cavity. A casting house where molten iron was formed into pigs and sows by the sand molding process was located west of the furnace. The tub bellows were powered by a waterwheel set close to the stack. A race ran from Elk Creek to the waterwheel. Charcoal was produced on the mountain sides where timber was abundant. Approximately 5,000 acres were logged to supply coal to this furnace. The furnace was rebuilt and reconditioned in 1874 as a warm blast furnace. In the late 1880s Francis Anderson’s grandson sold the estate to the U.S. Government. The Glenwood Furnace (also known as the Cassandra Furnace) was abandoned in 1887.”
Estate of James Greenlee showing him as as one of the earliest slaveowners in the area, via Augusta County.
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