Historic Saluda farm’s 1800s dairy house slated for upcoming demolition

From colonial days to the Civil War in Middlesex County, the most elaborate and cleanest kept buildings on county farms was the little dairy house out back.

Milk for the farm needed to be processed in extremely clean surroundings with clean buckets, trays and milk pans and clean hands. The building, as well as the dairy utensils, had to be spotless. The buildings were built for space to work in the processing of cream into butter and cheese, to keep the milk cool and to limit access of mice, dogs, cats and bugs.

Ice houses, privies, smokehouses, dovecotes and dairies were all outbuildings found on Middlesex County farms. One of the last dairies left in the county is the antebellum brick dairy at Walboro in Saluda. One side has been so structurally damaged by tree root intrusion that the building is scheduled to be torn down in the near future.

Walboro was built in 1853 by Philemon Taylor Woodward, lawyer, surveyor and clerk of Middlesex County from 1852 to 1892. Woodward is considered one of the most significant historical Middlesex County figures as he was the county clerk that defied a Confederate mandate in 1861 to send the county records to Richmond for safekeeping.

Instead he buried them under fodder in a barn-like structure on the Dragon Run and when Confederate forces were fleeing Richmond in 1865, burning the city behind them, Middlesex County records were safely stored in the barn. Most Virginia counties lost their ancient records to fire and are referred to as “Burn Counties.”

The brick dairy at Walboro is a one-room structure with two windows and, inside on the back wall, shelving for storage of pans, utensils, etc. It was primarily used for processing milk, butter, and cream.

Just a few feet from the dairy is a “milk and butter box.” It is a dry well about six feet deep covered by a wooden box with hinged lids. Food, including milk and butter, were lowered down to the bottom by a dumb waiter to be kept cool.

Edward A. Chappell, director of architectural research for Colonial Williamsburg, wrote in an article on farm dairies that, “It’s clear that dairy operations were relatively high-stakes activities. They were often for the white women in the house, much more elevated work than any other activity in the yard…