About

USING THE REALITY OF OUR SHARED HISTORY TO BUILD A BETTER FUTURE

With honesty and integrity, Sotterley embraces our responsibility to interpret all aspects of our shared history.

We are dedicated to being an exceptional educational and cultural resource, with a full range of formal education programs, as well as events and visitor programs. We are 94 acres with over 20 authentic structures providing a stunning backdrop for our stories. In the tradition of our ancestors, we farm sustainable, and donate most of what we grow to local food pantries. We pay it forward.

Education Without Boundaries

Specializing in “outside the classroom,” interactive experiences for thousands of students annually

Preserving Our Treasures

Utilizing our irreplaceable and authentic structures and landscape to share our stories and history

Growing for Good

Supporting our community by farming sustainably, donating produce to those in need, and reducing run-off into local waterways

Building a Better Community

1 mind at a time and 1 heart at a time, we are creating connections, cultural enrichment, and providing opportunities for honest conversations

Sotterley connects people to our past so we may better understand our world today. Honest acknowledgment of our past is vital, creating an environment where dialogue is encouraged. This opens us to a place of healing. Our Descendants Project is part of this acknowledgment. We honor ALL of Sotterley’s descendants and families. We hear their voices. We embrace their journey back home. They model for all of us how we can find common ground through respect. Their stories are Sotterley’s history and our future.

CONNECTIONS: SOTTERLEY’S INCREASINGLY URGENT PURPOSE

Three full centuries after its founding, it is a peerless community asset that exists to help people find connection to our history, to the land, to our common values… and to one another.

For students, a field trip to Sotterley is a “hands-on” day of discovery, helping them make lasting memories and shape perspectives. Adult visitors benefit from tours and lectures that deepen their understanding of the connection between past and present.

There is no more powerful or increasingly rare way to understand how people thought, acted, and felt hundreds of years ago, than to step into the place where they lived, loved, and worked. Some of Sotterley’s stories are inspiring and some can be difficult, but despite its slave-holding past, or perhaps because of it, Sotterley can be a powerful beacon for a better, shared future.