Berry Hill (Berry Hill, Virginia)
Berry Hill is or was a historic home and farm complex located near Danville, Pittsylvania County, Virginia, United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. However, may be in the process of being delisted in connection with industrial development plans by Mega Site, the City of Danville and Pittsylvania County.
History
Pioneer Nicholas Perkins acquired the land, which on his death was bequeathed to his eldest son Peter Perkins who became a planter and politician as well as important Virginia patriot during the American Revolutionary War. Perkins built a house for his bride, Agnes Wilson, daughter of pioneer surveyor and militia captain Peter Wilson, who surveyed for a road between the homestead of pioneer William Bean to the mouth of Sandy River. Perkins lived at Berry Hill and operated a ferry as well as a plantation. Perkins bequeathed the Berry Hill to his son Nicholas Perkins, who around 1810 sold Berry Hill to his cousin Major Peter Wilson. However, Peter Wilson died in 1814 and by 1819 it was owned by Robert Hairston, the brother in law of Wilson's daughter, who owned it through the American Civil War. In 1881 Hairston bequeathed this plantation to his daughter Ruth Hairston, who by 1898 married Albert Varley Sims.The main house was built in several sections during the 19th and early 20th centuries, taking its present form about 1910. Robert Varley Sims inherited it in 1966, and began the process which led it its inclusion on the Virginia landmarks register and ultimately the National Register of Historic Places.