Chatmoss was one of about 50 Hairston family plantations in Virginia, North Carolina, and Mississippi, a vast network encompassing tens of thousands of acres and worked by thousands of enslaved African Americans. Alcey and Samuel Harden Hairston received the 2,900-acre Chatmoss from Alcey’s parents, Samuel and Agnes Hairston, among the wealthiest couples in Virginia. Samuel Harden Hairston died in 1870 when a gallery at the Virginia Capitol building collapsed. Fire consumed the original Queen Anne-style plantation house on 4 July 1928. An English country-style house replaced it but later burned. In 1958 Chatmoss Country Club was established on the site.