The Pruden Farm at 21329 Quaker Road, beside Lake Burnt Mills, is an intact farm complex dating from the first half of the 19th century, consisting of the house, a kitchen, smokehouse, slave quarters and three log cribs (barns). This was the home of Nathaniel Pruden Sr. who was born in 1763 and died in 1836. He inherited the property from his father, also named Nathaniel. The property was owned by several members of the Pruden Family during the 19th century and was acquired by Reginald Pruden and his wife Sallie Atkins early in the 20thcentury. It remained the home and working farm of Reginald and his son Brooklyn and Brooklyn’s wife, Doris Stagg Pruden, throughout the 20th century. It is currently owned by the nieces and nephew of Doris Stagg Pruden.
Research by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, using tax records, dates the earliest story-and-a-half portion of the house (and the kitchen) to 1821-1822. An addition of two-and-a half stories was added in the 1830s causing one end chimney to be relocated to the side of the new portion, to allow for passage – on the first floor only – between the two sections. There are two stepped-shoulder chimneys in the 1:3 bond typical of the period. The interior is finished in the plain late-federal manner with paneled wainscoting, nine-over-nine windows, wide board floors and two stairways, one an interior winder.
The outbuildings remain largely intact with their original features, minus some beams and bricks that were re-purposed over the years. One original outbuilding – a small stilted dairy or milk house – was lost to a storm in 1990.
From Betty Stagg