Discover 7 hidden attractions, cool sights, and unusual things to do in Farmville (United States). Don't miss out on these must-see attractions: Robert Russa Moton Museum, Ruffner Hall, and First Baptist Church. Also, be sure to include Lankford Student Union in your itinerary.
Below, you can find the list of the most amazing places you should visit in Farmville (Virginia).
Table of Contents
Robert Russa Moton Museum
Museum in Farmville, Virginia. The Robert Russa Moton Museum is a historic site and museum in Farmville, Prince Edward County, Virginia. It is located in the former Robert Russa Moton High School, considered "the student birthplace of America's Civil Rights Movement" for its initial student strike and ultimate role in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case desegregating public schools. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1998, and is now a museum dedicated to that history. The museum were named for African-American educator Robert Russa Moton.
The former Moton School is a single-story brick Colonial Revival building, built in 1939 in response to activism and legal challenges from the local African-American community and legal challenges from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). It houses six classrooms and an office arranged around a central auditorium. It had no cafeteria or restrooms for teachers. Built to handle 180 students, already by the 1940s it struggled to hold 450; the County, whose all-white board refused to appropriate funds for properly expanding the school facilities, built long temporary buildings to house the overflow. Covered with roofing material, they were called the "tar-paper shacks."[1]
Address: 900 Griffin Blvd, 23901-2236 Farmville
Ruffner Hall
Building. The Rotunda is the name given to a building on the campus of Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia. It was formerly known as Ruffner Hall, but the name was changed in 2019. The original Rotunda was built in 1839 and gradually expanded along with the school over several decades, to eventually include its iconic rotunda dome, until its completion in 1907. The building was eventually destroyed in a fire on April 24, 2001. The then-Longwood College began to rebuild the structure, and it was reopened just before the fourth anniversary of the fire, on April 23, 2005. The new Rotunda, in contrast to the old, has a basement to increase instructional space.[2]
Address: Farmville, 201 High Street
First Baptist Church
Church in Farmville, Virginia. First Baptist Church is a historic African-American Baptist church located at Farmville, Prince Edward County, Virginia. It was built between about 1855 an 1895, and is a one-story, rectangular brick Late Gothic Revival style church building on a full basement. The building features a square tower centered on the primary façade, pointed arch windows with stained- and milk-glass panes, a primary entry with double leaf doors topped by a pointed arch transom and, on the interior, original wood pews and beaded board wainscoting. The church was the site of a number of meetings related to the desegregation of Prince Edward County schools during the 1950s and 1960s.
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2013. It is located in the Farmville Historic District.[3]
Lankford Student Union
Student center
Address: 201 High St, 23909 Farmville
Farmville Historic District
Historical place in Farmville, Virginia. Farmville Historic District is a national historic district located at Farmville, Prince Edward County, Virginia. It encompasses 246 contributing buildings and 1 contributing object in the central business district and surrounding residential areas of Farmville. It includes a variety of commercial, residential, institutional, and industrial buildings dating from the mid-19th to early-20th centuries. Notable buildings include the Paulett-Gill house, Farmville Presbyterian Church, Johns Memorial Episcopal Church, Farmville Methodist Church, Hotel Weyanoke, the warehouses of the Dunnington Tobacco Company and Central Virginia Processing, Inc. the former Craddock-Terry Shoe Company, the former Cunningham and Company tobacco prizery, Norfolk and Western Railroad passenger station, Doyne Building, the Watkins M. Abbitt Federal Building, Prince Edward County Courthouse, and the former Farmville High School. Located in the district is the separately listed First Baptist Church.
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.[4]
Longwood University
Public university in Farmville, Virginia. Longwood University is a public university in Farmville, Virginia. Founded in 1839, it is the third-oldest public university in Virginia and one of the hundred oldest institutions of higher education in the United States. Previously a college, Longwood became a university on July 1, 2002.
Three undergraduate academic colleges—the Cook-Cole College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Business and Economics, and the College of Education and Human Services—supported by the Cormier Honors College and coupled with the College of Graduate and Professional Studies serve an enrollment of 5,096.
In early April 1865 both Gens. Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant marched past the north end of campus on Lee's retreat to Appomattox just days before the end of the American Civil War; at the south end of campus lies the former Robert Russa Moton High School, site of the historic 1951 student strike that became one of the five court cases culminating in the historic Brown v. Board of Education decision; and Israel Hill, a community of free black people formed around the turn of the 19th century, stands two miles from campus.[5]
Address: 129 N Main St, 23901 Farmville
Real Living Cornerstone Navona Hart
Address: 238 N Main St, Farmville