In 1800, Thomas Reeves purchased 150 acres of land in this area and passed it to his daughter, Elizabeth Reeves Hales, in 1836. Rev. William Stith and Elizabeth Davie Hardy came to the West Greene community in 1879, bought a farm, and started building the Hardy Homeplace. On January 5, 1881, Elizabeth Hales' son, William H. Hales, Jr., married Elizabeth D. Hardy, daughter of William Stith and Elizabeth Hardy, joining the Hales and Hardy families' land. William Stith and Elizabeth Hardy built the present “I-House” in 1886, where they farmed and raised eight children. Rev. Hardy was an honored Methodist minister, a county official, and pastor of Sardis Methodist Church, within sight of the homeplace. He was the grandson and namesake of William Stith, the third President of the College of William and Mary from 1752 to 1755. Direct descendants of the original builder and owner maintain the farm through the Wilkes Creek Plantation, LLC. The State of Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries designated the Hardy Homeplace as an Alabama Bicentennial Farm on December 7, 2017, and the Alabama Historical Commission listed it in the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage on March 29, 2018.