CDAC, descendants shape Reynolds Homestead memorial path
March 18, 2026
Representatives from Virginia Tech’s Community Design Assistance Center recently visited the Reynolds Homestead in Critz to meet with members of the Rock Spring Plantation Descendants Committee and discuss a conceptual design for a memorial path and gathering area. The project seeks to honor the lives of enslaved people who lived and worked on the property between 1825 and 1865 while creating a space for reflection, education, and community connection.
CDAC Director Elizabeth Gilboy and team members Caitlyn Ekberg and Sneha Kakkadan met with descendants committee members including Kimble Reynolds Jr., Kenneth Reynolds, Della Carter, Diane Poeshe, and Kevin Reynolds.
Their conversation builds on a broader effort to develop an interpretive trail linking the property’s two cemeteries — one for the Reynolds family and another for the enslaved community and their descendants — helping tell a more complete and inclusive history of the site.
Following the meeting, Reynolds Homestead Director Julie Walters Steele led the group on a tour of the house and surrounding grounds, giving the team an opportunity to document key features of the historic property as planning moves forward. The visit will help inform design concepts shaped by both historical research and descendant perspectives.
The collaboration is part of a multidisciplinary effort involving Virginia Tech faculty and students. Through CDAC, an outreach center in the College of Architecture, Arts, and Design, students gain hands-on experience working with community partners, while history students are contributing to interpretive materials using archival research and oral histories to ensure the stories shared along the trail are grounded in lived experience.
Funded in part by the Jessie Ball duPont Fund and a brownfields grant secured by CDAC, the project reflects Virginia Tech’s ongoing partnership with local communities to interpret, preserve, and honor regional history.
Construction of the trail is expected to begin this spring.