Chatmoss, VA

Chatmoss is a Henry County CDP named for a 2,900-acre Hairston family plantation in the Martinsville area. The plantation house was a Queen Anne-style building that burned in 1928; in 1958 the property became the site of Chatmoss Country Club. The 2020 Census counted 1,671 residents, and the CDP now sits within the Martinsville micropolitan setting. The country club's address still preserves the plantation name, even though the original house is gone from the property.

That transition leaves Chatmoss with a layered history. The Virginia historical marker notes that the Hairston plantation network was worked by enslaved African Americans, so the country-club landscape cannot be separated from the plantation system that came before it. Today the club's golf, tennis, and event grounds give the place its visible present, while Leatherwood Creek and the low wet areas around it point to the older landscape. Chatmoss is a name shared by a residential area, a club, and a difficult chapter of Henry County history.