Proffit Historic District

Ben Brown and other newly freed slaves, who founded the community after the Civil War, first named the settlement Egypt and then Bethel. About 1881, the community became known as Proffit when the Virginia Midland Railway placed a stop here, stimulating further development between 1890 and 1916 by white landowners who built along Proffit Road. Prominent reminders of Proffit's black heritage are Evergreen Baptist Church, built in 1891, and several houses constructed by the Brown and Flannagan families in the 1880s. The district was listed on the Virginia Landmarks Register in 1998 and the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.