Searching for enslaved persons’ pasts in old bricks — with Ben Jackson
Saturday, May 18th at 10:30
at the Floyd Masonic Lodge, 215 E. Main Street, Floyd, VA
This event is free to the public.
One man’s retirement was the beginning of a course of study about his origins. The pursuit led him to an unusual hunting expedition amid the handmade bricks from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that can still be found in buildings around Southwest Virginia. He’s been tracking down the handprints of slaves.
Ben Jackson grew up in Marion, Virginia, and worked in Hillsville until he retired. He’s a Woodlawn resident and has devoted a lot of time exploring bricks.
Jackson will be the featured guest at the Society’s May program, “History’s Fingerprints.” It will be held at the Masonic Lodge*, 215 East Main Street, in downtown Floyd.
Jackson told us, “I hope the program will bring awareness of the historical value of handmade bricks and the possibility of finding fingerprints on those bricks. Another goal is to generate awareness of Floyd County’s slave population.”
For a recent news story about Ben Jackson and his mission, see: Carroll County man specializes in finding the fingerprints of slaves in old bricks – Cardinal News (Carolyn Wilson, September 22, 2023)
* Floyd Masonic Lodge No. 329 (formerly Floyd Presbyterian Church), 1850–1853, Henry Dillon, architect
Perhaps the definitive example of Dillon’s antebellum building practice in Floyd is this former church, now a Masonic temple. The Greek Revival church was erected during a period of Presbyterian growth known as the Second Great Awakening. A pedimented gable front, pilasters, and an entablature with a wide frieze elevate the otherwise simple brick building. The temple-front form was commonly used for churches in this and surrounding regions beginning in the 1840s. Pattern-book details in the Grecian taste, derived from Asher Benjamin’s The Practical House Carpenter (1830), define the entrances, window surrounds, and steeple. The interior, although modified for masonic use, remains essentially intact.
Floyd Lodge No. 329 (Floyd Presbyterian Church), Society of Architectural Historians
https://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/VA-02-FD7