Local Apple Orchard History

Less than five minutes off Main Street in Waynesboro rests a century-and-a-half-old farmhouse called Rose Cliff. Historians guess that the original structure dates back to the 1850s when the Brooks family built the house near their growing apple orchard. Just before the turn of the century, Craig and Lillian Loth bought the property and developed it into a commercial fruit farm. They grew all sorts of apples, including the heirloom Albemarle Pippin—one of Thomas Jefferson’s two favorite apples! Trees along the South River mark the edge of the sprawling property and provide shelter for wildlife on the land and in the water. The house is now registered in the National Register of Historic Places and is part of the Tree Street Historic District in Waynesboro.

Photo Credit to Anne Vess, 2006 https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/historic-registers/136-5051/

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