The College Farm Operation was formed in 1990 with the consolidation of land, personnel, equipment, and/or funds from the departments of Animal Science, Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences, Dairy Science, Entomology, Horticulture, and Plant Pathology, Physiology, and Weed Science. Kentland Farm, acquired in 1987, was incorporated into the overall operation which was designed to serve all College of Agriculture and Life Sciences departments.
The unit presently includes land adjacent to the Virginia Tech Campus, along Rt 460 by-pass, several tracts on the outskirts of Blacksburg, and Kentland Farm located eight miles from campus on the New River.
Kentland dates back to1820 when James Randall Kent (1792-1867) acquired 1,630 acres of Virginia Tech's present tract. By 1860 Kent was by far the largest landholder in Montgomery County with 6,000 acres. The farm housed 40 horses and 1,100 additional head of livestock. It produced 15,000 bushels of corn annually and 3,600 bushels of small grain. The value of Kentland in 1860 was $126,000. No other land owner in the county had holdings valued at more than $63,000. With other non-farm assets, the Kent estate was worth $322,000.
While the Kent estate was growing in the mid-1800's, Mr. Kent built Kentland Manor in 1834-35. It is a two-story, five-bay, Flemish-bond brick I with sophisticated Federal and Greek Revival detailing. Behind the manor house is a two-level, hexagonal Flemish-bond, brick meat house with a wood-shingled pyramidal roof. These buildings, a mill, and other structures comprise the 350-acre Kentland Farm Historic and Archeological District. It was officially recognized by the Virginia Board of Historic Resources in April 1991 and was entered in the National Register of Historic Places in July 1991.
A total of thirteen archeological sites have been identified within the historical district. Five Native American utilization areas are included there. All date to the Late Woodland period (A.D. 800-1600).
Today, Kentland is managed to help meet the academic needs of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, to care for the farm's natural resources, and with appreciation and constant attention to the historical nature of the facility.
