Property Owners

Who owned the Richmond Hill property, and when?

From the 1740s through 1865 at least 200 people were enslaved by the 12 former owners of the Richmond Hill property. Two of these slave-owning families – the Coles and Adams – were among the earliest residents of Church Hill and they owned most of the land in Richmond. Coles already had a house adjacent to Richmond Hill when Richmond was established by William Byrd II in 1737. Two houses were originally located on the land. The first house, known as the Richard Adams House, was built c. 1790 and demolished in 1928. The second house, known as the Adams-Taylor House, was built in 1811-12 and today serves as Richmond Hill’s conference center. Each year nearly 5,000 people attend meetings, dialogues and a variety of spiritual and healing services in the rooms once used by slave-owners for dining and entertainment. Today they are used by people from people near and far to learn and plan for a better world.