After years of planning, preparation, and work on the part of local organizations and residents, the Gwynn’s Island Historic District was named last week to the Virginia Landmarks Register.

Virginia’s State Review Board unanimously approved the listing during its quarterly meeting held in Danville on Thursday, Sept. 21. The decision followed a joint meeting with the Virginia Board of Historic Resources.

The listing will now go to the National Park Service for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places, along with four other sites across the state that were also approved.

A public hearing was also held on a request by the Mathews NAACP to place a historical marker on the island recognizing the exodus of African Americans that occurred in the early 1900s, but a decision was deferred and the matter is expected to be taken up at the board’s March meeting, according to Allison Thomas, one of the authors of the marker’s language.

Landmarks register

A press release...