Site Type: Historic Park / Natural Area

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Historical Significance:

The Ivy Creek Foundation maintains 6 miles of trails at the Ivy Creek Natural Area. Ivy Creek is the home place of Hugh Carr, who in the years following the Civil War found freedom from the shackles of slavery and racial discrimination in the rocky soil out of which he carved a dream - a 200-acre family farm know as Riverview Farm. At the end of the Civil War, the 22-year old Carr began work as a farm manager while building a farm of his own near the mill village of Hydraulic, a thriving black community (much of which lies under the Rivanna Reservoir.) By 1889 he had amassed over 200 acres of prime farmland. An illiterate man, Carr placed a high priority on the value of an education for his children. Five of his seven children received a college and/or teaching training degree. Their descendants have gone on to become prominent teachers, doctors, and influential community leaders. Carr's eldest daughter, Mary Carr Greer, was the Principal of the Albemarle Training School from 1931 to 1950, and Albemarle County's Greer Elementary School is named in her honor. After Mr. Carr's death in 1914, Mary Greer and her husband Conley Greer operated Riverview Farm as a model farming enterprise.

Physical Description:

Many of the original Carr family farm structures are still on the 200-acres farm, including the barn (functions today as an educational center), family cemetery, the orginial farm house, the spring that was the water source for the farm, stone walls and fences, remnant orchard trees, and many farm roads. There are several 200+ year old oak trees that stand testament to the land's past. The Ivy Creek Foundation maintains more than 6 miles of hiking trails that traverse the diverse habitats and pass farm relics.