Middlesex 250th: Urbanna’s Scottish Factor Store is last of its kind

When structures survive more than 250 years there are always moments in time when there is a decision made — should they stay or should they go the way of the wrecking ball.

When that moment comes, survival often depends on the right people being in the right place and at the right time. An example of that is Urbanna’s colonial (circa 1760s) Scottish Factor Store, believed to be the only one of its kind still standing in America.

Scottish factors were commercial agents who managed the lucrative Chesapeake Bay tobacco trade on behalf of parent firms based in Scotland. Operating out of brick storehouses, they revolutionized local commerce by trading European manufactured goods to Virginia planters for harvested tobacco leaves through direct credit and cash.