7 Old Staunton Road
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Last updated on November 21, 2024
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There was once a thriving African American community near Greenville called “Jack’s Hill.” The community consisted of emancipated African Americans after the Civil War seeking homes and employment. The community included two churches, Mt. Ead Baptist Church and Wayman Chapel A.M.E. Church, and a public school operating as early as 1871. The school closed when the Augusta County Training School opened in 1938. The working-class African community continued as a viable through segregation. The onset of World War II, the Civil Rights movement, the integration of public schools, and the out-migration of African Americans caused Greenville’s African American population to decline. Many of the structures of Greenville’s African American community have been burned, demolished, or incorporated into another structure.
Fannie Thompson House is the last unmodified structure remaining in what was once a segregated neighborhood that occupied a hillside across the South River. The house was one of many dwellings built by emancipated African Americans during the Reconstruction Era before 1900. Fannie Thompson was a laundress born into slavery in about 1846. The Johnson residents occupied the property that would become known as the Fannie Thompson House prior to Fannie Thompson's 1906 purchase of the property. Thompson moved to Jack’s Hill with her five children after the passing of her husband, and she lived in the home until she died in 1932. The Fannie Thompson House today is one of the only documented rural residential buildings in the region constructed by African Americans and inhabited by African Americans from Reconstruction through the Civil Rights era. The deed records of the Augusta County, Virginia Clerk, Circuit Court and the Land Tax Books indicate that the owners/occupants of the Fannie Thompson property from 1875 forward were African American. Sue Porter, who had married into the Thompson family, was the neighborhood’s last resident. When the current owner purchased the property, the house had been vacant since 1974. In 2018, the Fannie Thompson House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Fannie Thompson House is the last unmodified structure remaining in what was once a segregated neighborhood that occupied a hillside across the South River. The house was one of many dwellings built by emancipated African Americans during the Reconstruction Era before 1900. Fannie Thompson was a laundress born into slavery in about 1846. The Johnson residents occupied the property that would become known as the Fannie Thompson House prior to Fannie Thompson's 1906 purchase of the property. Thompson moved to Jack’s Hill with her five children after the passing of her husband, and she lived in the home until she died in 1932. The Fannie Thompson House today is one of the only documented rural residential buildings in the region constructed by African Americans and inhabited by African Americans from Reconstruction through the Civil Rights era. The deed records of the Augusta County, Virginia Clerk, Circuit Court and the Land Tax Books indicate that the owners/occupants of the Fannie Thompson property from 1875 forward were African American. Sue Porter, who had married into the Thompson family, was the neighborhood’s last resident. When the current owner purchased the property, the house had been vacant since 1974. In 2018, the Fannie Thompson House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
