Building values documented in the land-tax books are a valuable tool used to approximate the construction date of historic buildings, estimate an initial date of land settlement, and determine the dates of any additions. Understanding how buildings were assessed is helpful in interpreting the data. The method of valuation in 1820 was similar to how land and buildings are assessed today: by comparable sales and assessments in the neighborhood, and not based on a number of windows or closets.

 

Beginning in 1820 in Virginia, the value of buildings on land or lots was specified on land-tax lists in a separate column from the total assessed value of land and buildings. The land-tax lists, first required by an Act of the Virginia General Assembly in 1782, were compiled by County, and further divided into precincts.[1] Until 1820, the building values were lumped together with the land value. In 1817 the Virginia General Assembly passed an Act that specified how land and building values should be assessed, and broke out the building values in a separate column.[2] After a delay in complying with the law, another Act was passed in 1819 that accelerated compliance.[3]

 

Land values were determined by assistant assessors in each county. They prepared the land-tax books by copying the land-tax book of the previous year, and then making revisions. The assessor was responsible for ascertaining the value per acre of each tract of land. Legislation required that Such value shall be assessed as follows: the market price of the land or lot, upon the terms of sale usual in that part of the country in which it may lie…[4]

 

The assistant assessor did not necessarily have to view the land. He was permitted to obtain the necessary information from the land owner, on oath whenever the assessor thought it proper. It was also the duty of the assistant assessor to obtain other information on the value of the land or lots, and if the information was not satisfactory, he shall himself view it [the land], if it can be found by him. Land values were to include the value of buildings or other improvements, such as outbuildings.

 

It was the duty of the commissioners of the revenue to annually assess the value of any new building that had not been assessed previously. The law provided that they should not assess any new building with a value under one hundred dollars, or any building not finished to a point where it could be used. Existing buildings were assessed in 1820 even if they were valued under one hundred dollars, as evidence by the 1820 land-tax books. Buildings were valued based on the assessments of other area buildings.

 

In making the assessment of new buildings as aforesaid, they shall be valued, as nearly as may be, at the same rate, at which other buildings in the same neighbourhood shall have been valued by the assessors, under this act. Neither the commissioners, however, nor the assessors shall value any building until the same shall have been so far finished as to be fit for use; and they shall then assess it, whether entirely finished or not, at the same value as if it were finished on the plan on which it is designed. [5]

 

If a building was destroyed by any cause, the commissioner was required, at the next periodical correction of his land book, to deduct from the value of buildings the assessed value of any destroyed buildings. If ownership of a portion of land was transferred to another person, it was the responsibility of the commissioner to determine the value of that portion of the land and buildings being transferred so that the value could be deducted from the land taxes of the prior owner and added to the obligation due from the new owner. Any of the interested parties who were dissatisfied with how the commissioner valued the transferred property could appeal the assessment at the county court.

 

Once the assistant assessors completed the land-tax books, a board of principal assessors was called to attend each courthouse in the district in order to revise and correct the land-tax books. Afterwards, a general board was formed, constituted by at least two principal assessors from each district, who met in Richmond to revise and correct the books. After the revisions were completed by the general board, a copy of the tax book for each county was made and delivered to the state Auditor.