South Wales Golf Course

The land now occupied by South Wales Golf Course was first settled in the early 1800s by the Parr family, who called the property Rosedale. The Manor House on the site dates to about 1840, and the family soon after founded the Rosedale Stock Farm. The Parrs were the first in Virginia to import Aberdeen Angus cattle, the ancestors of much of the state's Black Angus stock today.

The farm passed to the Armstrong family in 1921. Mr. Armstrong oversaw construction of the bridge on old Jeffersonton Road, which still stands along the left side of the 12th hole. He operated the farm until 1929, when it was sold to Colonel Albert Pierce, a Chicago businessman who had owned a public utility company. Taking possession in 1930, Pierce added neighboring parcels to Rosedale and acquired new cattle, the previous herd having been sold before the purchase.