Details on funds raised for Historic Greenfield
Historic Greenfield Fundraising Campaign Exceeds Expectations
A recent fundraising campaign has resulted in nearly a 170% increase in cash on hand for Botetourt’s Historic Greenfield Plantation. The campaign added about $33,000 to Greenfield’s coffers – money that will be used for public access programs at Greenfield, and in the preservation of the two antebellum slave structures at the site.
The fundraising campaign “exceeded our most optimistic expectations” said Judy Morris, chair of the citizens’ advisory committee that manages the Greenfield Historic Preservation Area. “We are especially pleased that donations came from people from all across the Roanoke Valley. The program enjoyed wide support.”
The fundraising campaign was designed to last only for the month of December. It received a boost from an anonymous donor who committed to a dollar-for-dollar match, up to an aggregate of $5,000, for donations received during that month.
More than 100 citizens contributed to the program in individual amounts ranging from $25 to $500, plus the $5,000 match. The median donation before the match was $50, a number that council vice chair Jim Johnston finds encouraging: “Compared to the large amount raised in total, the median was relatively small. This means that we reached a large number of grass roots citizens who want to support Greenfield,” Johnston said.
The fundraising benefitted not only from the anonymous donor’s match, but from a Botetourt County match as well. The County matches all Greenfield donations up to an annual aggregate of $50,000.
As a result of the twin match programs, the individual donations, totaling $11,600, were leveraged to a multiplied sum of $33,200 payable to Historic Greenfield.
Botetourt’s Historic Greenfield is a bucolic 29-acre site in Amsterdam, located at the eastern edge of the 18th century plantation of Colonel William Preston (1729-1783). Preston was an influential political and military leader of the Virginia colony. His Greenfield plantation in Botetourt County was the cultural, economic, and political center of the Virginia frontier.
The preservation site includes three rare antebellum log structures, two of which were part of the enslaved community at Greenfield. In the immediate surroundings of the preservation site, there are archaeological sites containing evidence of early Native American settlements. The area also includes two historically significant cemeteries, and the remains of “The Jefferson Gardens,” a terraced garden thought to have been built by William Preston’s heirs in the late nineteenth century.
A 15-member citizens’ council appointed by the Botetourt Board of Supervisors provides long-range planning and daily management of Historic Greenfield. The Advisory Council holds monthly meetings that are open to the public.
–Submitted by Steve Clinton
