From enslavement to ownership - the family story behind Ivy Creek’s River View Farm

ALBEMARLE COUNTY, Va. (WVIR) - This Black History Month, a nature preserve in Albemarle County stands as more than just a place for hiking and open space. Long before it became trails and protected land, it was a Black-owned farm with a story that helped shape the community.

Today, Ivy Creek Natural Area is home to Historic River View Farm — land once purchased by Hugh Carr, a formerly enslaved man who built one of the largest Black-owned farms in Albemarle County.

“A lot of people visit Ivy Creek. We have wonderful hiking trails, but a lot of people don’t know about the history,” said Kathy Mallory-Orr, Youth Programs Education Director with the Ivy Creek Foundation.

Before it was preserved as public land, River View Farm was part of a thriving Black community known as Hydraulic Mills and Union Ridge. The area was home to Black churches, Black schools, and Black landowners who built lives there after emancipation. The Carr family was at the center of that community.

“They were teachers. They were church leaders. They were agricultural educators,” said Chloe Fridley, Director of Education for the Ivy Creek Foundation.

After emancipation, Hugh Carr saved money and purchased the land in 1870. For more than 100 years, through segregation and shifting political tides, his descendants kept the property in the family.

They built more than a farm.

They built opportunity.

Carr’s eldest daughter, Mary Carr Greer, went on to become a lifelong educator.

“His oldest daughter, Mary Carr Greer, and we have a local elementary school named after her,” Mallory-Orr said.

Greer Elementary School now carries her name, honoring a Black woman born on this farm whose legacy shaped generations of students.

That legacy began with a man who, as an enslaved person, was forbidden to read or write.

“His children went on to go to college. His grandchildren went on to go to graduate school. I mean, it’s just an amazing story of perseverance,” Fridley said.

Perseverance not just in education, but in humanity.

Even after knowing her father had been enslaved, Mary Carr Greer maintained what historical documents describe as cordial relationships with descendants of the family who once enslaved him, Mallory-Orr says.

“Even after knowing that her father was enslaved, there still seemed to be a cordial type of relationship with the family that had enslaved him,” Mallory-Orr said.

No malice.

Just forward movement. Building. Enduring.

Just beyond the trails and the barn at River View Farm sits a small cemetery — the final reminder of the family’s presence here. Hugh Carr, his wife, his daughter, and other family members are buried on the land they fought to own.

“Black history is surrounding you. And that’s true all across the state. Black history is all around you in Virginia,” Fridley said.

For generations, the Carr family worked this land. Today, it stands preserved, a living reminder that Black history here is rooted in ownership, resilience, and legacy.

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