The Tobacco Farm Life Museum.
A farmer checks on tobacco plants in Chatham.
Old farm implements like these are on display at the Tobacco Farm Life Museum in South Hill.
“Families brought in tills, equipment and other items they’d kept in storage because these things had sentimental value and they didn’t want to throw them out,” says Tobacco Farm Life Museum curator Leonard Smith. “There are implements here that are well over 100 years old that were passed down and used by generation after generation.”
Founded in 1996, the museum is the result of a partnership between South Hill’s Community Development Association and area tobacco farmers.
“The farmers recognized that the old methods had long since ceased to be used and, as technology and politics changed the face of the industry, and more and more farming families got out of the business, an entire way of life risked being forgotten,” explains Smith.
The museum is located at 306 W. Main Street in South Hill and is open Wednesday-Saturday, 10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. For more information about visiting, go to SouthHillVa.org
Vintage Cigarette Packaging
Bright Leaf Legacy
Methods for curing tobacco may have modernized, but family recipes remain fiercely guarded. Click here to discover more about these secret methods, passed down for generations, plus read about the efforts of the Tobacco Barn Preservation Project here. And for the complete legacy of tobacco in Virginia, click here to read more about the industry’s past, present and future.
