Established in 1899 with the granting of a post office on land owned by D. C. McGregor, Light began to grow after the school on Jumbo Ranch in an area settled in the 1890s was relocated there. In 1905, a new two-room school building was constructed. Decline began when Fluvanna was surveyed in 1907 at the terminus of the Roscoe, Snyder and Pacific Railroad, and citizens soon moved their buildings and belongings a mile west to be on the rails. Although Light vanished, the area still supplies water to Fluvanna.