Earlysville Real Estate 

Earlysville, Virginia will never change.

It sits nestled in Central Virginia looking the same way it did when the Europeans first came here, like a beautiful and ancient parent.

And the highway slips genteelly down between orderly fields before climbing to hide in the mountains.

Large farms and estates are visible through colonnades of ancient cedars and white pine.

In Earlysville homes, guests are still welcomed to chairs in family parlors or ushered into generous kitchens to be served a slice of three-layer cake.

The land rolls gently, the woods are thick and streams meander through the hills.

Most of the landscape remains as always, but a fair amount of the rural farmland has newly become the home of commuters.

Today you see Volvos and Suburbans, the neatly trimmed yards, colonial homes and two car garages.

With the gradual passing of farm life, this simple country village has become a bedroom community for Charlottesville.

Earlysville will not forget its roots, however, and if you look carefully, you can see traces of turn of the century Earlysville in the present-day community.

Planted in the center of the village, Buck Mountain Episcopal Church remains a monument to the past.

Originally the church was built near the original site of the Michie Tavern, several miles up the road toward Dyke.

 It was later torn down and carefully rebuilt at its present location in 1868.

Michie Tavern’s transition was more distant. It was moved to Monticello Mountain, restore and opened to the public in 1929.

What was life like in Earlysville when it existed as a farm community? The people of Earlysville lived the typical life of most rural Virginians.

They had large families, cash was scarce, and everyone worked on the farm.

The drive to Charlottesville, made several times a day by today’s residents, was made by the farmers only a few times a year, or at most, once a month.

Traveling by horse and buggy, the trip to Charlottesville took approximately 3 hours one way!

The general stores in Earlysville, and the store in Advance Mills served most of the community.

The current Earlysville General Store was one of the original stores and has been operated by various local families throughout the year.

It is now owned by a Korean gentleman who speaks little English. Another store existed a short distance away and was operated by W.W. Wood from 1929 until his retirement in 1971.

A typical small store, it sold the basic necessities of bread, milk gas and kerosene.

Proprietor Wood, a leading citizen of Albemarle, was a member of the Board of Supervisors and was instrumental in locating the airport east of Earlysville.

 When the typical family of Earlysville needed a basic necessity, whether to purchase chickens, seed, fabric for new dresses, chairs or a coffin, rather than make the long journey to Charlottesville, they headed to nearby Advance Mills.

They would load their farm produce up and sell or trade them for their desired goods.

Earlysville children today are educated at Broadus Wood School, but until the consolidation of Albemarle High School, Broadus Wood taught grades 1-12.

The school was originally called the Earlysville High School.

When it burned to the ground in 1937, students and residents of the community rushed to build temporary classrooms which were called the “coops” because of their resemblances to chicken houses.

Long-time local resident Mrs. Ada Marie Kendricks remembers that in the 1930s her parents contributed potatoes and other produce in exchange for lunch for their children.

At the time the school served a hot plate lunch with the most delicious biscuits for 5 cents and soup for 3 cents.

The traditional pleasures of rural life are the quiet pleasures that are derived from hard work, seeing the straight line of plowed fields, trees heavy with ripening fruit, and friends and family gathering to help each other.

The community was a close community, where the work of a harvest was shared by a neighbor helping neighbor.

There were joyous gatherings among families, a wedding celebration, a dance or joining together to make apple butter.

Farm life is no longer the focus of the residents of Earlysville, but the heritage of the area remains the same.

In Earlysville, there is a sense of community, where residents work together to preserve the rural beauty and where neighbors can still be called on to help each other.

Established in 1745, Buck Mt. Church was situated in what was then Fredericksburg Parish, a name the parish still bears, and is probably the oldest church in Albemarle County.

The Rev. James Maury, one of Thomas Jefferson’s teachers, was rector of the church until 1768.

After a period of misuse and decay, the building was moved to its present in 1861. At one time the Baptists used the structure as a house of worship.

Since the early 1920s, Buck Mountain has been under the Archdeaconry of The Blue Ridge.

The Diocese of Virginia now is in charge of its work.

Little is known of the Buck Mountain Parish Hall prior to its relocation at its present site in 1936.

Gifts and fund raisers over the past 57 years have provided many improvements to the building.

Shortly after the 18th century turned into the 19th, James Early trooped westward to Albemarle from Orange County and bought 1,800 acres of land on Buck Mountain Creek.

Charlottesville was far away in those days. But although the mileage hasn’t changed from Buck Mountain Creek to the heart of the city, Charlottesville’s outer edges have steadily crept northward to Early’s land.

James Early had a son, John, for whom the town of Earlysville is named.

In 1833 john Early gave some land near Buck Mountain Creek for a church site.

The old frame church still stands today; the centerpiece of what is a 20th century blend of the historic and modern – present day Earlysville.

The nearby Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport serves as a regular reminder of the 20th century, but otherwise the village has all its trappings of country life.

Yet it is close enough, barring astronomical gas prices, for easy commuting to work in Charlottesville.

Modern subdivisions and rustic farm houses stand side by side at Earlysville, framed as they were back in John Early’s day by a magnificent ring of the Blue Ridge, one of the finest views in Albemarle.

Area residents have seen a boom in real estate prices over the years turning land rich, cash poor farmers into multi-millionaires.

The main reason the Earlysville area has grown is through the building of subdivisions right near the village proper and farther out toward the mountains in rustic settings like the one at Hickory Ridge.

Located about 4 miles west of U.S. Route 29, Earlysville is served by two main roads, county roads 743 and 663.

The major employers around Earlysville are the GE Fanuc plant and Badger Fire Protection.

Other things do change, but slowly.

This is why everyone wants a piece of this heavenly spot.

Another splendid Albemarle County enterprise is the Earlysville Supply Company, located at the place of that name.

A general country store business is transacted and everything in the way of first class merchandise can be found at the progressive establishment.

Full lines of dry goods, notions, clothing, boots, shoes, hats and caps, and fancy grocers are to be found here, all of which are sold at lowest rock bottom prices.

The general manager is Mr. W.B. Marshall, a gentleman of the fine business qualifications, who purchased the enterprise from James A. Fensley about two years ago.

The business is now one of the most prosperous in the county, and is valued at about $6,000. It is located about twelve miles from Charlottesville and six from the Southern Railway on one of the best drive-ways in the State.

Mr. Marshall was for a number of years a member of the firm Marshall Bros., well known throughout the State as artistic painters of fine country homes.

Mr. Marshall is also the proprietor of a splendid sassafras oil mill, which is located near his store.

This mill is of vast benefit to the surrounding country as thousands of roots are purchased each year for the manufacture of the oil.

The product is large, and the demand for it is constant.

Mr. Marshall is the owner of a handsome home such as befits a man of his standing.

It is most conveniently arranged, and is perhaps the most modern in its furnishings for miles around.

Everything about the place indicates activity and prosperity, and the genial proprietor can be found at all times ready for business on straight business lines.

Thanks for visiting....

Toby Beavers  - Charlottesville Realtor

 877-855-7913