Brooklyn Store and Post Office
Also known as: VDHR File No. 41-7
Why it's listed
Built about 1850 in the village of Brooklyn, in western Halifax County, Virginia, this two-story frame building served as a country store and post office. It sits on the road linking Halifax and Danville and has a gabled front facing the road, weatherboard siding, metal roofing, a fieldstone basement and a Greek Revival pedimented gable. Inside, a large salesroom retains early shelving, including unusually deep shelves probably used for bolts of cloth, and a fragment of an 1895 postal notice marks the post office corner. A rear office has a winder stair, and the second floor held storage and probable lodgings. Merchant William Easley likely had it built, and the Barksdale family later ran it alongside a nearby tobacco factory. It was considered the largest store on the road between Halifax Court House and Danville. The post office and store closed in 1903. The building was rehabilitated in 1994-1995 and is significant for its commercial history and its preserved features of a nineteenth-century country store.
Significance in brief: It is significant under Criterion A in the area of commerce as a well-preserved antebellum country store. It keeps a gabled front elevation, a salesroom with specialized shelving, an office with probable lodgings above, and evidence of a pulley for hoisting goods. Its period of significance runs from about 1850 to 1903, when the post office and store closed. The nomination judges its significance to be local.
Machine-generated summary. This summary was generated by a language model from the official nomination document and has not been reviewed line by line by an editor. It may contain errors. Check the source document before relying on any detail. Source: nomination document (PDF) · National Archives catalog entry. NRHP reference 95001557, listed January 22, 1996. Summary generated October 2026 (model claude-sonnet-5-5, prompt v1.0-2026-10-29, confidence high).
Key facts
| Address | VA 659 N side, 0.1 mi. W of jct. with VA 820, Brooklyn |
|---|---|
| County | Halifax County |
| Listed | January 22, 1996 |
| Reference number | 95001557 |
| Resource type | Building |
| Period of significance | ca. 1850-1903 |
| Architectural style | Greek Revival |
| Criteria |
|
| Areas of significance | Commerce |
| Level of significance | Local |
| Status (as stated in the nomination) | Rehabilitated in 1994-1995 after being under-utilized from the early twentieth century until 1994; current function listed as work in progress. |
| Acreage | 0.5 |
| Coordinates | 36.67712, -79.15099 (NPS GIS) |
What listing means for this property
For a publicly owned building or structure, listing mainly matters when federal funds, permits or licences are involved: projects then go through Section 106 review so effects on the property are considered. Listing also strengthens applications for preservation grants and, for leased income-producing uses, can enable the federal rehabilitation tax credit.
General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change; confirm with your State Historic Preservation Office or a qualified adviser.
Sources and further reading
- National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places database (snapshot May 2026), reference 95001557.
- Nomination form (PDF, National Archives) — catalog entry
- Wikipedia article (used for cross-checking only; text not reproduced here)
- Wikidata Q14712088
- This listing as JSON
Last updated October 2026. Found an error? See the editorial policy for how to report it.