State historical marker to be dedicated for Old Folks Home in Essex County

A state historical marker approved by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources (DHR) will be unveiled this weekend for the Old Folks Home, a facility in Essex County that offered care and boarding for poor, elderly Black people in the early 1900s.

The dedication ceremony for the marker is set for noon Saturday, March 29, at the marker’s location across U.S. Route 17 from 28882 Tidewater Trail, Dunnsville. Limited roadside parking will be available at the dedication site. Guests may also find parking at Angel Visit Baptist Church at 29566 Tidewater Trail, which is less than a mile away from the dedication site. Free shuttle service is available from the church to the site beginning at 11 a.m. This event is free and open to the public.

What’s the Old Folks Home?

The Woman’s Baptist District Missionary Convention opened The Old Folks Home in Essex County circa 1909 to provide care for impoverished elderly Black people, some of whom had been enslaved and did not know their families. The home was supervised by a live-in matron and an all-woman trustee board. It offered its residents life essentials as well as end-of-life arrangements. Funded by churches, individual donors, and timber sales, the home operated for approximately 30 years, through the late 1930s. It exemplified a nationwide social reform that began in the late 1800s in which charitable groups, often led by women, established residences for the indigent elderly as alternatives to public almshouses. During its years of operation, The Old Folks Home — like other residences for senior Black people — experienced the effects of racism and poverty.

The seven founding trustees and six women who later became trustees of the Old Folks Home will be recognized at the dedication.