By Veronica Corley Chufo

ISLE OF WIGHT -- These walls have stories to tell.

They tell of a plantation owner who freed his slaves and gave them land, of a pastor who preached land ownership to freed slaves, of a once-thriving downtown, of a 200-year-old plantation house still occupied by descendants of the original owners.

To preserve those stories, the state Department of Historic Resources on Wednesday approved listing Isle of Wight's Robert Tynes House, Suffolk's Mount Sinai Baptist Church, Hampton's Phoebus Historic District, James City County's White Hall Plantation and 21 other sites across the state on the Virginia Landmark Register. They will be forwarded to the National Register of Historic Places for possible inclusion.

Across the state, about 2,400 properties are listed on the state and national registers, said Randy Jones, spokesman for the historic resources department.

ROBERT TYNES HOUSE

It looks like an old farmhouse shrouded in trees just south of Smithfield on U.S. Route 258. Robert Tynes, a farmer, built it in 1750.

His son, Timothy Tynes, later took it over and amassed more than 4,000 acres of land over the years.

He never married and died in 1802. His will stipulated that his 81 slaves be freed when he died and 2,600 acres be split up between them.

"It was quite a remarkable thing to do at that period of time," said Toni Anderson, who bought the house three years ago.

Some say it was because he sparred with his brother, who refused to name a son after him. But there were whispers that he had a relationship with one of his slaves.

Whatever the reason, the man made a mark on those freed slaves' lives for generations to come. Today, there are clusters of black residents who still live in the vicinity of the original lands willed to the former slaves. Many of them took Tynes as their last name, according to the application filed with the Virginia Landmark Register.

"One of the reasons I fell in love with the house and bought it is because it has a wonderful history," Anderson said. "In his will, he called everyone by name. I was taken by the fact that he cared enough about the individuals that he called them by name."

MOUNT SINAI BAPTIST CHURCH

Before there was a stately Gothic-style brick church on Holy Neck Road in the southwestern tip of Suffolk, there were freed black slaves who met outdoors on log pews shaded by brush.

The Rev. Israel Cross, who founded Mount Sinai Baptist Church in 1867, encouraged the churchgoers to join him and build a permanent building.

They outgrew the church they built in 1871 and moved in 1881 to Holy Neck Road. Then they rebuilt that church in 1921, hiring a German-born architect who designed a Victorian Gothic Revival-style church - rare in such a rural setting.

Cross, who learned to read and write while a slave, used his pulpit to encourage education and land ownership. Today, many African-American residents own land near the church, likely due to Cross' efforts, according to the church's application. He donated land for schools and bargained with what was then Nansemond County for more classroom space, promising that the community would build schools if the county would provide the teacher.

The church "continues to serve as an African American religious institution" today, according to its application.

PHOEBUS HISTORIC DISTRICT

Phoebus began as a settlement in the 17th century, and over the years it became a stopover between Hampton and the ferry stop to Norfolk.

Traffic steadily increased in the 1800s when the Army built Fort Monroe on a spot that had been a military outpost since the early 1600s. The fort became a safe haven for runaway slaves during the Civil War, and the freed slaves spilled into Phoebus.

A railroad built in 1881 from Richmond to Newport News included a spur that ran straight through town to a bustling port there.

The independent city continued to grow until 1952, when Hampton annexed it. The Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel was built in 1957, bypassing Phoebus and drying up the ferry and rail services.

Time seemed to stop for the town.

With little new development for nearly 50 years, a high concentration of historic buildings from the city's 1874 to 1957 heyday were preserved, according to the application.

It's now undergoing revitalization with an eye toward preservation.

The Phoebus Historic District, just off Interstate 64, encompasses the historic business area on Mellen and Mallory streets and a significant number of houses. Of the 426 buildings included in the district, 60 percent may soon be eligible for a combination of federal and state tax credits of as much as 45 percent for qualified preservation or rehabilitation.

WHITE HALL

White Hall, near Toano, was built for blacksmith William Geddy in 1805-06, and his descendants have lived in the house nearly continuously for two centuries.

"As far as I know, it is the oldest house in James City County that's still occupied by the original family," said Bert Geddy, whose son lives there.

It's amazing it survived the Civil War, when Union troops marched through the area to Richmond, Geddy said.

To him, the house represents the American dream. The Geddys, immigrants from Scotland, worked hard and collected hundreds of acres of land where the three-story house was built, he said. He pursued the register to qualify for preservation grants to fix up the place.

"I'm hoping to put some time, money and effort into it," he said.