Sweet Briar, VA – On Thursday, June 16th, the Board of Historic Resources and the State Review Board met to deliberate the historic designation of Hanover’s Brown Grove community. Upon both reviews, the boards found that Brown Grove is locally significant in the area of African American Ethnic Heritage as a rural historic district largely inhabited by descendants of families who established the community in the 1870s. The district as a whole continues to strongly embody a sense of a rural, working-class, African American settlement and the continued occupancy of multi-generational descendants of early inhabitants, the continued visitation and maintenance of historic cemeteries, and the vibrant and engaged congregation of Brown Grove Baptist Church reinforce the district’s robust integrity of association.

The Brown Grove Historic District is a historically African American rural community south of Ashland in Hanover County established during the Reconstruction Era. It is an excellent example of the rural landscape of African American heritage that grew from the plantation economy to a self-sufficient agricultural community and transitioned in the twentieth century into a middle-class residential neighborhood.

Those who spoke to advocate on behalf of the Brown Grove community included Diane Drake and Lakshmi Fjord and were presented by Marc Wagner of the Eastern Region of the Department of Historic Resources.

“It is indeed a wonderful blessing to celebrate Brown Grove Rural Historic District to Virginia Registry of Historic Places. “Let Freedom Ring” even louder on this Juneteenth Celebration day!”
Diane Smith Drake

“What a seismic shift over a very short space of time into DHR now taking a far more community-based approach to the preservation of historic African American and Indigenous historic communities and historic resources. “
Lakshmi Fjord

“The Chesapeake Climate Action Network could not be more pleased with the good news. Brown Grove has been the site of environmental justice for decades, and hopefully, now the community will have some protection for extractive industry,” says Virginia organizer Elle De La Cancela. “Today is a day to celebrate and to begin to redress the wrongs of our government.”

There have been several organizations and individuals that have contributed to this historic decision’s success. Some of these include: Virginia League of Conservation Voters, Sunrise Movement – Richmond Chapter, Del Elizabeth Guzman, Hanover County NAACP, SELC, VA EJ council, Friends of Buckingham,  African American Redress NetworkHoward University, Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center Columbia University, ICTJ, RASR resolutions addressing systemic racism, NAMATI
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The Brown Grove Preservation Group is a group of people who are dedicated to continuing the work our ancestors started.  We are committed to seeing our community grow by building homes, not industry.  We use faith and heart to work toward the betterment of the Brown Grove Community.