Belmead (Powhatan, Virginia)
Belmead is a historic home located near Powhatan, Powhatan County, Virginia, designed by architect Alexander Jackson Davis for Philip St. George Cocke — and constructed about 1845. Approximately 150 slaves worked the land, growing tobacco and grains.
The house is a two-story, Gothic Revival style stuccoed brick residence with a three-story central cross gable. It features a square tower with corner piers, crenellation, belt courses, ground level Tudor arched openings, and diamond-paned casement windows. The roofline has clusters of circular and polygonal shaped chimney stacks and stepped gable ends. The kitchen outbuilding was incorporated into an extensive two- and three-story addition built by the school.
In 1897, the property was conveyed to the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored People and opened as St. Emma's Industrial and Agricultural School for African American children. St. Emma Military Academy for boys and St. Francis de Sales School for girls are credited with educating 15,000 black students.
It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1969.
The schools were closed in the early 1970s.
In 2016, the order of Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, headquartered in Philadelphia, have put the 2,265 acres known as Belmead Plantation, or Belmead-on-the-James on the market. The sale of the property is managed by Plante Moran Real Estate Investment Advisors, which asked for proposals by Dec. 19, 2016. The community and alumni have formed a nonprofit group named, Belmead on the James, to mount a fundraising campaign.
The location is now closed to the public.
