Greenfield (Fincastle, Virginia)

Greenfield
Overview from the east
LocationBotetourt Center at Greenfield, U.S. Route 220, Fincastle, Virginia
Coordinates37°26′17″N 79°54′50″W / 37.43806°N 79.91389°W / 37.43806; -79.91389
Area0.86 acres (0.35 ha)
Builtc. 1832 (1832), c. 1850
NRHP reference No.10000792
VLR No.011-0026
Significant dates
Added to NRHPJune 28, 2011
Designated VLRJune 17, 2010
Removed from NRHPJanuary 6, 2022

Greenfield, also known as Col. William Preston Plantation, Preston House, and Botetourt Center at Greenfield, is a historic plantation site located at Fincastle, Botetourt County, Virginia. The first plantation established by surveyor, militia officer and burgess William Preston (1729-1783) and which used enslaved labor beginning with his purchase of 16 Africans from the ship True Blue on August 28, 1759 in Nanjemoy, Maryland for 752pounds (to avoid a 5% Virginia sales tax), Greenfield became one of Botetourt County's largest plantations, encompassing more than 1,200 acres by the 1770s. In 1774 Col. Preston moved his family to another plantation, Smithfield, and a series of white overseers managed the farm, orchard and distillery at Greenfield.

Because fire had destroyed the plantation house in 1959, and the only remaining historic buildings were kitchen/quarters (c. 1832) and saddlebag slave dwelling (c. 1850), which were moved to the Bowyer-Holladay House nearby, although listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2011, Greenfield was delisted in January 2022.