Vineyard Tract

The Virginia General Assembly in 1769 appropriated public funds to purchase a tract of land for the cultivation of grapes and production of wine. Frenchman Andrew Estave managed the vineyard, just north of here. Three enslaved African Americans, purchased at public expense, and three bound apprentices worked on the land. At least five slaves ran away from the property early in the 1770s. The vineyard failed by 1776. Virginia established a hospital for Revolutionary War soldiers on the site in 1777. The land was later given to the College of William and Mary, which sold it in 1791.