Within a few years of Emancipation, freedman Hugh Carr established River View farm, where he successfully raised tobacco, wheat, corn, and livestock. He became the largest black landholder in the Hydraulic Mills-Union Ridge area. After his death, his daughter Mary Carr Greer, longtime principal of the Albemarle Training School,and her husband, Conley Greer, lived at River View. Greer, a respected agricultural extension agent, made River View a model for black and white farmers alike. Their house and barn survive at what is now the Ivy Creek Natural Area, a 215-acre preserve open to the public. Visitors can learn about the hundred-year history of the Carr-Greer farm through an interpretive kiosk, brochures, self-guided walks, and eleven miles of trails.