Hospital and School of the Good Shepherd

After the Civil War, many freed African Americans remained on the farms where they had been enslaved, but many others left in search of better opportunities, often leaving behind the sick, elderly, and very young without care and burdening local governments. Concerned by their plight, Mrs. Pattie Hicks Buford, wife of Judge F.E. Buford, first built the Chapel in the Woods to nurse the growing number of sick and elderly African Americans in her community. In 1883, she established the Church Home for the Aged, Infirm, and Disabled Colored People, a full-fledged hospital in Brunswick County. The Mission Rooms Bible House in New York initially sponsored the hospital, and after that support ended, Mrs. Buford traveled through the North to raise money from wealthy and influential friends. In 1891, fire destroyed the hospital, but supporters provided enough money to rebuild it and to create an orphanage known as the School of the Good Shepherd. Mrs. Buford died in 1901, and the orphanage and hospital continued operating until 1907. The hospital building was later renovated and used for several years as the Three Angels Inn before becoming a private residence, while the school and orphanage building still stands next door.

Virginia · United States