The First Methodist Meeting House

The first Methodist Meeting House in Petersburg was a theatre on West Old Street near the river rented by Gressett Davis. Robert Williams, a follower of John Wesley, came to Petersburg to preach in 1773 at the invitation of Davis ...

Ashland Farm

The Holtzclaw family acquired Ashland through a grant issued by Lt. Gov. Alexander Spotswood in 1724, and lived on this land until the 1920s. While a portion of the house dates to about 1725, the main residence was completed by ...

Site of Colonial Home

Royal Oak, home of Arthur Campbell, Indian fighter and Revolutionary leader who settled here in 1769, stood three hundred yards south. The house was a neighborhood fort and in it, in 1832, the first court of Smyth County was held.

Marker ...

The Battle of Trent’s Reach

On Jan. 23, 1865, the ironclads Virginia II, Richmond, and Fredericksburg, with five smaller vessels, descended the James River in an effort to attack the Union supply depot at City Point. A reliable report indicated that recent floods had washed ...

The Birthplace of George McDuffie

From these humble and obscure Georgia pinelands, assisted by the plantation-owning South Carolina Calhouns, George McDuffie rose to become Congressman, Senator, and Governor of South Carolina.

McDuffie's political prominence involved him in a renowned political dispute when his loyalty to John ...

Earliest Known Public High School for African Americans in Virgi

Petersburg, Virginia

Petersburg established a public school system in 1868, two years before the state’s mandate. Colored Elementary School #1 was conducted in the old church building of the African Baptist Church, which stood to your left. The building had been ...

First Wireless Station

On a hill 300 feet south of this point, the first naval wireless station on the Pacific Coast was erected in 1904.

Plaque erected in Sept 1954

Marker is on Club Drive, on the right when traveling south.

Courtesy hmdb.org

Battlefield Landmarks - West and North

July 3, 1863 - Third Day

"...The whole plain was covered with unarmed rebels, waving coats, hats, and handkerchiefs in token of a wish to surrender."

Lt. Col. Franklin Sawyer, U.S.A.

8th Ohio Infantry

You are standing at the Union position on Cemetery Ridge, ...

University of Georgia

Endowed with 40,000 acres of land in 1784 and chartered in 1785, the charter was the first granted by a state for a government controlled university. After Louisville and then Greensboro were first selected, the current site was chosen.

The first ...

Cyclorama Focal Point

July 3, 1863 - Third Day

"You will find hard work to convince yourself that you are not standing on the top of Cemetery Ridge in the very center of the position occupied by the troops of the Northern army on ...