University collaboration to help plan interpretive trail at Reynolds Homestead

The Reynolds Homestead, in collaboration with the Rock Spring Descendants Committee and Virginia Tech faculty and students, is developing an interpretive trail that will connect the former plantation's two cemeteries — one for the Reynolds family and another for the enslaved and their descendants. 

On Oct. 15, Elizabeth Gilboy, director of the Virginia Tech's Community Design Assistance Center; Harry Gleason, CDAC project manager; and Lisa Tucker, head of the Department of Apparel, Housing, and Resource Management, visited the Reynolds Homestead to discuss the project. They were joined by Kimble Reynolds Jr., chair of the descendants committee; Julie Walters Steele, director of the Reynolds Homestead; and Lane Guilliams, associate director of foundation relations with LINK: Center for Advancing Partnerships.

Virginia Tech students will gain real-world experience through the project, applying lessons from the classroom as they conceptulize designs and present ideas to the community through CDAC, an outreach center in the College of Architecture, Arts, and Design. The center employs students to provide planning and design assistance to communities and nonprofit organizations across Virginia.

History students will also work with Jessica Taylor, associate professor of history and director of the Center for Oral History, to develop interpretive materials for the trail. The students will draw from source documents compiled by John Whitfield’s research on the enslaved community at Rock Spring Plantation, as well as from recorded oral histories.

The project is funded by a grant from the Louise R. Lester Family Foundation and a brownfields grant secured by CDAC. Construction of the trail is expected to begin in late spring 2026.