The Village of Ettrick stands on a site of a Native American village that was destroyed in 1676 by colonial settlers. The documentary record for the colonial era is sparse, though the land is thought to have been farmed as part of a tobacco plantation. By the 19th century, local flour and cotton mills as well as tobacco warehouses and worker housing emerged in Ettrick, perhaps fueled by the growth of nearby Petersburg. The town had a brief renaissance in manufacturing after the Civil W that was later crippled by economic factors. The 1882 establishment of the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute (now Virginia State University), an HBCU, replaced manufacturing interests as the village’s economic driver.
In anticipation of the development of the University’s Multi-Purpose Center, Fine Arts facility, and various other venues, Hanbury Preservation Consulting in collaboration with the William and Mary Center for Archaeological Research conducted intensive surveys of five properties in the project vicinity which ranged from an evolved vernacular house to bungalows and the ca. 1860 Summerseat named for court sessions held there in the summer by a local magistrate.