Notes
This photograph of Red Hill is one of a collection taken by the Southside Soil Conservation Service (SCS) in October 1950. They provide documentation of "Miracle Day"—a SCS demonstration project at Red Hill organized to rehabilitate the neglected farmland for the use of the Patrick Henry Boys Plantation. The original photographs were in the care of former SCS official, Eugene Morris.
On September 23, 1950, a committee from the PHMF met at Red Hill and reserved about twenty acres of property, and the rest was to be used as farmland for the boys' home.
On October 18, 1950, "Miracle of Conservation", also known as "Miracle Day", was held at Red Hill to demonstrate farming practices while renovating approximately 250 acres of land, preparing it for use by the Patrick Henry Boys Plantation program. It was sponsored by the United States Soil Conservation Service, Virginia Forest Service, Virginia Commission of Game and Inland Fisheries, Virginia Extension Service through local county agents, veterans' training classes, and farm equipment and implement dealers in the area. The event was overseen by approximately 5,000 visitors.
The event was publicized on October 12, 1950 in "The Charlotte Gazette" in Drakes Branch, Virginia in Volume 76 – number 49 and also in the "Richmond-Times Dispatch" on September 24, 1950.
The photograph depicts Soil Conservation Service Regional Director Dr. Thomas Stephen Buie (1896–1973) speaking with O. Lynn Shelton, editor of the Halifax Gazette, known today as the Gazette-Virginian since 1963. They are standing near the boxwood maze that stands south of the former Henry residence. Dr. Buie was one of the speakers during "Miracle Day", remarking the importance of the Boys Plantation.
The boxwood maze were part of landscape beautification projects begun after Patrick Henry's death, and date to the 1840s or 1850s. They were planted by order of Elvira McClelland Henry (1808–1875), wife of Henry's son John (1796–1868). At the time of this photo, they sat in front of the open foundations of the mansion house, which caught fire in 1919.
The Patrick Henry Memorial Foundation borrowed the original photographs from Mr. Morris and made enlarged prints for its collection in August 2007. The original 3 1/2" x 5" photos were hand delivered back to Eugene Morris on or shortly after August 24, 2007.