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In the established church system that was in effect in the province of Virginia during the Colonial Period, a "glebe" was a farmstead tract provided by a Church of England parish to furnish its minister with subsistence and income. Glebe Farm, in the City of Suffolk, Virginia, was established at some time between 1637 and 1675 through the private donation of land to the Suffolk Parish of the Church of England. Because Glebe Farm was acquired through private donation, the Suffolk Parish was able to fight off a court case in 1817-1819 and maintain ownership of the property despite both the 1785 disestablishment of the Church of England in Virginia and the 1802 legislative statute that required the divestiture of the Episcopal Church’s glebe lands in Virginia.
On behalf of the Virginia Department of Transportation, The Louis Berger Group, Inc. (Berger) evaluated the National Register of Historic Places eligibility of the Glebe Farm. Berger conducted both archaeological and architectural fieldwork and in-depth research into the farm’s history, use, and development. Using these data, Berger developed a historical context for the farm and the delineation of the historic property’s boundary.
Through extensive archival research of deeds and parish records, Berger discovered that Glebe Farm has retained essentially the same boundaries since 1682, perhaps even earlier. Extant architectural resources on the property were documented through field survey and recorded in the Virginia Department of Historic Resources’ Data Sharing System. In addition to fields and ditches associated with the Colonial Period occupation, archaeological field survey and archival research located five archaeological sites dating from the Late Woodland period through the twentieth century. They concluded that Glebe Farm has a high potential for additional prehistoric and historic sites.
Berger concluded that Glebe Farm appears to be eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion A (for its integrity as a surviving colonial-period Anglican Church glebe) and Criterion D (for its potential to yield historic archaeological sites related to Glebe Farm, and for its existing and potential prehistoric archaeological sites)
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