The owner of an 18th century farmhouse roughly three miles southwest of Smithfield received approval from Isle of Wight County supervisors on March 20 to operate the property as an event center.

The supervisors voted unanimously to approve an application by Joshua Mathias and Oak Level Acres for a conditional use permit for 15107 Courthouse Highway.

According to the application, Oak Level Acres plans to use roughly half of its 10.5 acres to host mainly weddings. The circa-1768 house would be used for small weddings, company lunches or dinners, and wedding parties to prepare for the ceremony. The majority of events would take place outside.

The application states Oak Level Acres “does not intend to construct or build any additional buildings, improvements or appurtenances on the property at this time.”

The application estimates event attendance will range from 20 to 200 people.

Parking would be on the property itself. Portable bathrooms would be brought in for all events. Outdoor structures would be temporary tents or arbors.

The property presently operates as a short-term rental. According to its AirBnB listing, the restored colonial home sleeps 13 people with four bedrooms and 2½ bathrooms.

The 10-acre property is surrounded on all sides by more than 1,000 acres of farmland and forestry and is roughly a quarter-mile from its nearest neighbor. Oak Level Acres LLC became the landowner in 2023.

The house has a connection to Isle of Wight County history. According to Helen Haverty King’s book “Historical Notes on Isle of Wight County, Virginia,” it was built in 1768 as the home of Francis Young, who was the county’s 1787-94 clerk of court. A descendant of Francis, Nathaniel Peyton Young, gifted Randall Booth, for whom the county courthouse records room is named, with a parcel of land at Oak Level on which Booth built a house. Booth had been enslaved by Young and tasked during the Civil War with hiding the county’s court records from Union troops.