Staunton

First settled in 1732, the city of Staunton is named for Lady Rebecca Staunton, wife of Virginia’s Colonial Governor William Gooch. Staunton is in the heart of Virginia’s storied Shenandoah Valley and at one time was the geographical center of the state, which once stretched westward all the way to the Mississippi River and encompassed parts of what is now West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Illinois and Pennsylvania. Given its central location and fertile setting, it quickly developed into an early center for trade and commerce, particularly for the export of agricultural products.

Its importance was cemented in 1854 with the arrival of the Virginia Central Railroad. Staunton became a center of banking, manufacturing and retail trade in the mid-nineteenth century. In 1856, future President Woodrow Wilson was born to a local Presbyterian minister and his wife. Wilson's restored birthplace and Presidential Library and Museum attract thousands of tourists. The city was largely spared from destruction during the Civil War, a significant factor in the remarkable number of historic structures that have been preserved in the downtown area. The town, which has experienced a remarkable renaissance in recent years, is an intriguing, often quirky choice for tourists who are looking for attractions a bit more off the beaten path. This blog will introduce a few of them to you.

Illustration of Staunton, circa 1851 (click to enlarge).
















Architect T.J. Collins came to Staunton from Washington, DC, in 1891 and in a mere twenty years designed or remodeled over two hundred buildings, most of which exist today. Collins designed the gatehouse (photo below), bridge, tower, tombs and other structures at Thornrose Cemetery, which contains more than 1,770 graves of Confederate soldiers.

Note: Photos on this blog from Staunton's web site and from links displayed on web site.
















Woodrow Wilson Birthplace


The nation’s 28th president comes to life in a tour of the 12-room Greek Revival Presbyterian manse furnished with items appropriate to the time of his birth here in 1856. As president elect in 1912, Wilson returned to Staunton on his 56th birthday and spent the night in the house in which he was born. The museum next door houses the only presidential library in Virginia, even though eight presidents were born in the state. The museum offers much to learn about the president’s life as a lawyer, college professor, president of Princeton University, U.S. president and peacemaker following World War I, for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize as the Founder of the League of Nations (the predecessor of today’s United Nations). His controversial veto of prohibition legislation (congress overrode his veto) and enactment of a national income tax are also explored. On the plus side, his administration gave women the right to vote and established Mother's Day as a national holiday. The terraced boxwood gardens and Wilson’s restored Pierce-Arrow limousine are part of the tour. The automobile has been restored to full working order, and the car traveled to Washington DC for the dedication of the new Woodrow Wilson Bridge on May 15, 2008.


Hours: 9-5 Mon-Sat, noon-5 Sun Mar-Oct; 10-4 Mon-Sat, noon-4 Sun Nov-Feb. Adults $14, Senior/AAA/Active Military $12. 540-885-0897. 18 N. Coalter St.

Trivia:
Wilson was the first lay president of Princeton University.
He was the only president to retire to Washington, DC and is buried in Washington National Cathedral (Episcopal) alongside his second wife, an Episcopalian.
Himself the son of a Presbyterian minister, Wilson's mother and first wife were both daughters of Presbyterian ministers.

Below: Bow knot boxwood garden and gazebo at rear of house. The Wilson family never knew anything like it, because during the short time they were in residence, the rear yard was home to outbuildings, pigs and chickens. The local chapter of the Garden Club of Virginia installed these handsome boxwood gardens in the 1930s; they hired famed Richmond based landscape architect Charles Gillette to design them.



Blackfriars Playhouse


The 300-seat Blackfriars Playhouse is the world's only re-creation of Shakespeare's original indoor theater. Opened in 2001, the playhouse offers the works of Shakespeare presented under original conditions, on a simple stage, without elaborate sets, and with the audience sharing the same lighting as the actors. Actors play multiple roles and interact with the audience. Home to the American Shakespeare Center, Blackfriars offers performances year round. Located at 10 S. Market Street, adjacent to the Stonewall Jackson Hotel. 540.851.1733.

Hopewell - Sin City of the South

The tiny colonial village of City Point (now Hopewell) is where General Ulysses S. Grant directed a 10-month siege of nearby Petersburg from the grounds of Appomattox Plantation (above), the ancestral home of the Eppes family.

But present day Hopewell was developed in 1914 by the DuPont Company (Wilmington, Delaware), attracted by its deep port and good railroad connections. Hopewell Farm, part of the Eppes plantation adjacent to the village of City Point (established 1613), was sold to the DuPonts in 1912 for industrial development. Because the Eppes family had come to America on a ship named Hopewell, they requested that the DuPonts name the 800 acre tract "Hopewell."


The company first built a dynamite factory and then switched to the manufacture of guncotton during World War I. An additional land purchase brought the total acreage to 2,400, and DuPont brought in a huge workforce (28,000 employees in 1914), presenting the company with an enormous challenge – how to train and house them.

The changes to the town were mind-boggling. From 1840-1912 the population of City Point remained stagnant at 300. Three years later there were 40,000 DuPont employees laboring in Hopewell. In a matter of just months DuPont cleared the corn fields and pine groves to create a city complete with paved streets, schools, libraries, social and hunt clubs, gymnasiums, churches and shops. The factories stood across the railroad tracks from the town proper, where the thousands of employees were housed in rows of wooden tenements (see photo below). Apartments were rented by shifts to accommodate the crush of factory workers. Hopewell became the largest supplier to Britain of guncotton, the ingredient necessary for smokeless gunpowder. A billion pounds of guncotton were produced during WWI. Hopewell was a dirty, grimy, foul-smelling place, since production required the use of sulfuric and nitric acids.


Because the town population was mostly men earning high wages while living apart from their wives and family, a rowdy street life developed. The town became known as “Sin City of the South.” Floating brothels moved up and down the James River, a saloon occupied every block, and shootings and murders were commonplace. Since there was no local police force, Hopewell was a haven for thieves, prostitutes, con-men and gamblers.

At lunchtime on December 9, 1915, a fire broke out in a Greek restaurant, and strong winds spread the flames all over the town. Within hours over 300 buildings were in ashes, but the foremen called the workers back to their stations for the 11:00 pm shift – the manufacturing plants had been spared. Miraculously, there was no loss of life, and within weeks DuPont had rebuilt the buildings lost to the fire.

By 1918, at the close of WWI, the guncotton plants were shut down, and Hopewell was all but a ghost town. Although DuPont’s development department began considering a postwar role for Hopewell as early as 1915, it was left abandoned at war’s end. However, the Tubize Corporation established a plant producing artificial silk at the old DuPont site in 1923, the same year that the city of Hopewell annexed the neighboring village of City Point. With the addition of a new Allied Chemical plant, Hopewell prospered afterward and became known as the "Wonder City." Dupont eventually returned to Hopewell, and the current plant manufactures Melinex® PET and Kaladex® PEN polyester films at what is the largest polyester film facility in the world.

Trivia: One of the residents who left Hopewell after the fire was William “Billy” Haines, who had run away from his home in Staunton at the age of 14. After working a manual labor job for DuPont, at the age of 15 (!) he operated a popular dance hall in Hopewell that was lost to the conflagration. He then went north to New York City, where he became a model. He entered his photograph in a “New Faces of 1922" contest and won a screen test, which took him to Hollywood, where he signed with MGM. He became one of the greatest silent film stars of the 1920s and early 30s, and was the top grossing male movie star of 1930. He was lifelong friends with Joan Crawford, a staunch Republican, and decorator and confidante to Ronald and Nancy Reagan.


The Beacon Theater (see photo of the elaborate brick work) opened in 1928 as the Art-Deco Broadway Theater and showcased silent films, including those of former resident William “Billy” Haines. Of special pride to locals was the $20,000 theatre organ in place at the time of its grand opening. Sadly, the Beacon closed its doors in 1981, but reopened as a special function venue in 2005. When funds are in place, a complete restoration as a functioning theater will take place.

Natural Bridge

11 miles SW of Lexington, Virginia, Natural Bridge is a celebrated natural wonder located in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Rockbridge County (named for this feature). Natural Bridge is a limestone formation in which Cedar Creek, a small tributary of the James River, has carved out a gorge forming an arch 215 feet high with a span of 90 feet. It is the remains of the roof of a cave or tunnel through which the creek once flowed. Natural Bridge is both a Virginia Historical Landmark and a National Historical Landmark (designated in 1998).

Natural Bridge was a sacred site of the Native American Monacan tribe, who believed it to be the site of a major victory over pursuing Powhatans centuries before the arrival of European settlers in Virginia.

In 1927 a large stone was found with engraved initials “G.W.” and bearing a surveyor's cross, which historians accept as proof that George Washington surveyed the bridge around 1750.


In 1774 Thomas Jefferson purchased 157 acres of land including the Natural Bridge from King George III of England for 20 shillings ($160 in today’s money). He called it “the most sublime of nature's works.” Jefferson built a two-room log cabin, beginning its use as a retreat. While President in 1802, he conducted a personal survey of the property. In 1817 Jefferson leased 10 acres of his land at Natural Bridge to Patrick Henry, a "free man of colour" who cultivated the land "on the sole conditions of paying the taxes annually as they arise, and of preventing trespasses."

After Jefferson’s death Natural Bridge was sold in 1833 as part of his estate, and soon thereafter lodgings were erected for the increasing number of visitors. The bridge remains in private hands to this day.

Natural Bridge was one of the wonders of the new world that Europeans visited during the 18th and 19th centuries, second in popularity only to Niagara Falls. Vacationing guests from all over the world took day trips from Natural Bridge on horseback or horse drawn carriages to explore the countryside.


A famous painting by Frederick Church, c. 1852

Today, in order to view the bridge from below, tickets must purchased. The top of the bridge can be seen for free from U.S. Highway 11, which runs directly on top of it. However, fences on either side of the highway block the view of the canyon from the bridge.

Following the trail under the bridge, in addition to seeing it from its less-often-photographed side, visitors may walk to the end of the trail, beyond which may be seen the remnant of the waterfall that helped form the bridge.

Poplar Forest - Jefferson's Retreat

While already in his sixties and serving his second term as president, Thomas Jefferson designed and built a brick octagonal villa in Palladian style at Poplar Forest, a plantation inherited from his wife’s father. Jefferson usually went to Poplar Forest several times a year to oversee plantation production, but a primary reason for these extended stays was to avoid visitors at Monticello, his principal home. Jefferson's original vision for this private retreat was a place to read, think and spend time with his grandchildren after he retired.

Poplar Forest was 90 miles southwest of Monticello and reaching it required a three-day ride by horse and carriage. At the time of construction, Poplar Forest was at the cusp of what was then regarded as wilderness. Most Americans didn’t know what lay west of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and for the first few visits Jefferson used a guide to be able to find his inherited estate.

The plantation originally spanned more than 4,800 acres, and in 1806 Jefferson began construction of an eight sided villa atop a gentle hill that afforded a view of the forest and the twin Peaks of Otter. By the time of his death Poplar Forest was a working tobacco and wheat farm with 94 slaves on the property. Two centuries later, the property is now partly surrounded by subdivisions and acreage that the Corporation for Jefferson’s Poplar Forest wants to acquire, so that it can restore the area surrounding the home to its original appearance. It has spent $8.5 million to reclaim more than 600 acres since 1984 and hopes to continue to create more open space.

Poplar Forest is believed to be the nation’s first fully octagonal house. Numerous windows allow natural light inside and integrate the interior with the outside landscape, a design feature uncommon of American houses of that era. A 100-foot-long side wing housed a kitchen, storage room and smokehouse, and the wing’s low, flat roof served as an outdoor terrace (photo below).


Anchoring the house is the central dining room, now restored to its former 20-by-20-by-20-foot cubic dimensions. Because it was a windowless space, it was lit by a 16-ft. long narrow skylight. Renovators took out attic space that private owners had added and reinstalled the skylight, which was twice destroyed by hailstones in Jefferson's time.


Four octagonal rooms surround the dining room, including the parlor where Jefferson kept more than 900 books and spent much of his time reading alone or with his grandchildren. That room features floor-to-ceiling, triple-sash windows (when fully raised these windows serve as doors) and opens to a four-columned portico (photo below) overlooking the south lawn, which in Jefferson’s days included a sunken garden he designed in European style. Poplar Forest’s landscape restoration has just begun.

Above photo: Rob Tabor
The northeast and east rooms of the home remain unfinished, allowing visitors to see how Jefferson’s workers framed and constructed the house and how restorers discovered the original home’s “footprint.” The bedchambers contained beds placed in space saving alcoves, echoing Jefferson's bedroom at Monticello. Twin staircases leading to the lower level rooms are housed in bump outs on the east and west sides, so as not to disrupt the symmetry of the interior spaces. Two octagonal "privies" were placed on a horizontal axis with the house, but shielded from view by artificial "hills" planted with trees (watercolor at end of post shows placement).

Above photo by Rob Tabor

Unfortunately, twenty years after Jefferson's death the house fell victim to a disastrous fire, leaving only a burnt-out shell. It was rebuilt, but not according to Jefferson’s designs.

Jefferson struggled with debt in his final years and willed Poplar Forest to grandson Francis Eppes (1801-1881) in order to remove it from his estate. During the last three years of Jefferson's life, his grandson occupied the property and villa. Jefferson died in 1826 thinking Eppes would raise a family at his beloved retreat, but two years later Eppes sold the house and nearly 1,000 acres to a neighbor at about a quarter of the property’s assessed value. Eppes then moved with his wife, baby daughter and slaves to Florida. This is perhaps understandable, since the house at Poplar Forest, designed as one man's private villa retreat, was so idiosyncratic that it was unsuitable for raising a family.

The house, situated southwest of Lynchburg, VA, was dramatically altered by subsequent owners in an effort to fashion it into a workable farmhouse. It remained a private home until 1984. A $6 million, 20-year restoration to return the house to its original floor plan and condition during the time it was occupied by Jefferson is still underway.

The immediate grounds around the house as they appeared in Jefferson's time are shown in this watercolor rendering. A circular drive with a 500 foot diameter surrounds the house, and the south sunken garden ornamental border plantings are evident. Two small tree mounds at the end of the wing axes shield octagonal brick privies. The twin Peaks of Otter are shown in the distant horizon.

Poplar Forest, a National Historic Landmark, is open to the public April through November, Wednesday through Monday (closed every Tuesday and Thanksgiving Day) from 10:00a to 4:00p. Adults $14.00; Seniors (age 60+) and Active Military $12.00; College Students $7.00; Youth 12-18 $6.00; Youth 6-11 $2.00; Under 6 free. Admission includes a guided house tour and self-guided grounds exhibits. 434.525.1806

Google Maps, Mapquest and GPS use 1542 Bateman Bridge Road, Forest, VA.
Poplar Forest is located in Bedford County, approximately 20 miles southwest of Lynchburg.
Driving directions are found on the estate's web site:
http://www.poplarforest.org/visit/directions

Humpback Covered Bridge (Covington)

Photo by Fabio Brazil


Venerable Humpback Bridge lays claim to being the oldest of Virginia's eight remaining covered bridges. Located in Alleghany County, just west of Covington, it was built in 1857. The road that passes through the bridge was part of the James River and Kanawha Turnpike. Humpback Bridge stretches over Dunlap Creek, a tributary of the Jackson River that joins the Cowpasture River near Iron Gate to form the great James River.

The first structure was built in the 1820s and was washed away by a flood on May 12, 1837. Just five years later the second fell victim to the flood of July 13, 1842. The third, as the annual report of the turnpike company put it, "gave way" in 1856.

The 100-foot-long, single-span bridge cture is four feet higher at its center than it is at either end, thus the name, "Humpback". Traffic across the bridge ceased in 1929 when a "modern" steel truss bridge was built, bypassing the wooden structure. The covered bridge stood derelict (and was even used by a nearby farmer to store hay) until 1954. That year, thanks to the fund-raising efforts of the Business and Professional Women's Club of Covington and the Covington Chamber of Commerce, it was restored and preserved as part of Alleghany County's history.

It can be reached from I-64 by taking exit 10 to Route 60 and traveling one-half mile east, or by taking Route 60 west from Covington.

Historic St. Luke's Church (Smithfield)

For nearly 200 years, Historic St. Luke's Church was affectionately called "The Old Brick Church." Historic St. Luke’s, circa 1632, is the oldest church of English foundation, the oldest continually standing brick structure, and the only surviving original Gothic building in this country. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1960 and listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1966.

Historic St. Luke's Restoration, Inc. (1953) took on the enormous task of restoring the "Old Brick Church" when the building's foundations were discovered to be crumbling and the walls buckling. Fully restored and rededicated in May 1957, this Gothic structure stands as a unique link to America's historic past. The Flemish-bond brick work, especially the crenelated gable flanking the wall of stained glass windows, is exceptional (see photos at end of post). Since the 1957 restoration, the organization has also repaired 19th-century stained glass windows and completed an extensive study about the circa 1630 English Chamber Organ.


While the church is in fair condition, time and the elements have taken its toll. Historic St. Luke's Church, as a “Save America's Treasures” Official Project, will begin a new phase of preservation. Save America’s Treasures (Department of Interior) was organized by First Lady, Hillary Clinton, and then chaired by Laura Bush.

Christ Episcopal Church of Smithfield Virginia often holds an 11am Sunday service at Historic St. Luke's Church. Christ Church is the daughter church of St. Luke’s. Traditionally, when the congregation moved from St. Luke’s in 1832, they continued to use St. Luke’s as a summer chapel and later a community worship location.

History Of The 1630 English Chamber Organ

The organ now housed at Historic St. Luke’s Church was owned by the Le Strange family of Hunstanton Hall, Norfolk, England, for over 300 years. It was purchased in 1630 by Sir Nicholas Le Strange, who belonged to a family of talented instrumentalists; so much emphasis was placed on music that several music teachers and composers lived in their household.

With the end of WWII, the burden of estate taxes and expenses of maintaining large manor houses was too great for many English families. Hunstanton Hall was sold and divided into apartments. The contents of the estate house were sold at auction in 1949. The chamber organ was described for the sale as "The Unique Tudor Organ - a Positive Organ in paneled oak case, the painted front pipes of wood mounted in perspective (circa 1660). The inner sides of the folding doors are painted with representations of David before Saul and Jephthah's daughter. The organ has a compass of four octaves and is in playing order."

The organ was bought by Captain J. Lane, an eccentric collector of musical instruments. In the mid 1950s Historic St. Luke's Church was undergoing restoration and the organ was purchased from Captain Lane, who represented it as a "rare English organ c.1665 and built by Bernard Smith". (Smith was a noted maker of organs in the late 17th Century.) The attribution is now known to be wrong and the instrument has been proven to date from before Smith's time, thus making it contemporary with the church building (1630s). When the organ arrived in Virginia, it was still somewhat playable, but climatic conditions and amateur attempts to repair it eventually silenced it.

In 1990 an article by Linda McNatt in the Virginian-Pilot began to stir new interest among early music enthusiasts. Andrew Ashbee, a leading authority on 17th century viol music and John Jenkins, had suspected that the organ sold by Capt. Lane was that purchased by the Le Strange's in 1630. In 1994, John and Linda Shortridge and music historian Barbara Owen spent a few days examining and documenting the organ. This led to a re-examination of the instrument's "paper trail" and correspondence with Ashbee and other British historians, as well as organ-builder Noel Mander, who had initially packed the organ for shipment.

The organ is now on display in the church where it has stood for 50 years, there for the enjoyment of the public. Organ benefit concerts have been held annually to pay for its restoration. Note: this organ is not used for worship services; a modern pipe organ is located in the balcony

Click link at right for Bacon's Castle, another 17-century brick structure located west of Smithfield.

Directions to Historic St. Luke's Church:
www.historicstlukes.org/directions.htm

Prestwould Plantation

Situated on the bluffs high above the point where the Dan and Stanton Rivers converge in Southside, Virginia, is the family house of English-born Sir Peyton Skipwith (1740-1805). Built by slave labor in 1794 in a post-revolutionary Georgian style, Prestwould Plantation prospered to become one of the wealthiest properties in America and today remains the most complete gentry home in Virginia. When the house was built, the countryside (now Mecklenburg County) surrounding it was practically a frontier. There are original stone walls and metal gates surrounding the lawn, and a huge oak tree still stands watch over the river banks. Many of the original outbuildings and Lady Jean's Garden remain, and the original two-family slave house still stands on the manor house property. The site has one of the largest collections of slave writings in the country. Detailing life from the plantation from the slave perspective, it has attracted much scholarly attention.

Orchestrated by Dr. Julian Hudson, the Executive Director of Prestwould, several leaders in the preservation movement have worked closely together to restore one of America's finest historic sites. Considered one of the most documented non-political American families, the Skipwiths left an incredible trail of paperwork including books, diaries, detailed invoices, letters, certificates, etc. After spending the majority of her life in Britain, Jean Miller returned to Virginia in 1786 in preparation for her marriage in 1788 to Sir Peyton Skipwith. With her she brought enough glass and ceramic tablewares, cooking implements, flatware, fire tools, lighting devices, and table and bed linens to admirably furnish a large house, clearly wishing to duplicate the British gentry's style of life to which she was accustomed. Lady Jean Skipwith ran the plantation after her husband died in 1805; her library was one of the largest assembled by a woman in America.

Prestwould Plantation contains over 5 generations of decorative history. The legacy began with Lady Jean's English influences as reflected in her wallpaper selections of delicate, small scale, repetitive, leaf designs such as "Angle Leaf" that was installed on the dining room walls. She was particularly fond of green colors, which included arsenic green. In sharp contrast to the light and airy fashions of the late 18th century, Humbertson Skipwith and his wife Leila Robertson, the second generation, transformed the interior decoration in 1831 to the bold, masculine neoclassical style. Richly colored, wool flocked broad borders, side papers, and three magnificent sets of block printed scenics were imported from France to grace the walls of Prestwould. One of the most spectacular rooms to view the 1831 French papers, grained walls, richly carved and painted furniture, and red moreen seat covers is the first floor family room called The Saloon, measuring 27 by 23 feet.

Among the most remarkable features of Prestwould is the large number of documented Skipwith family furnishings that survive. They offer an intimate view of the gentry's way of life in the Virginia Piedmont just after the American Revolution, and they reveal much about the trade network that supported the comfortable standard of living on comparatively remote estates such as this. When Prestwould was completed in 1795, the Skipwiths began a furnishing campaign that lasted several years. From London came wallpapers; Scotch, Brussels, and Kidderminster carpets and accompanying borders; substantial quantities of "furniture callicoe" and "Sattin hair cloth" for upholstery; and furniture that included "a Pair [of] large Pier Glasses, fitted up in handsome gilt Pillar Molding Frames." The looking glasses arrived late in 1799 and remain in the drawing room today.

Also still in the house is the pair of "new British Globes with Compasses in Standing Mahogany Frames." Made in London of plaster and papier-mache, they cost more than fifteen pounds, a substantial sum at the time. Other surviving British furnishings include an unsigned clock of about 1800, now on the parlor mantel, and a mahogany clothespress of about 1775 with the painted mark "HM" for Hugh Miller (d.c. 1761), Lady Skipwith's father, a Scottish merchant. The Skipwiths' family ties must have facilitated their access to many British goods.

Tradition has it that Sir Peyton Skipwith won the land on which Prestwould was built (5,342 acres) from William Byrd III in a marathon poker game. A manor house such as Prestwould was not easy to build in the late 1700s. Stone and wood were abundant, but all hardware, paint, wallpaper and rugs had to be ordered from England. The lime-sandstone used to build the house was quarried from the plantation, and the lumber came from the property, as well. The stone construction is unusual for a manor house of the period, when most great houses were built of brick or wood. The house has a hip roof and porches on three sides. The windows have nine over nine light sash (six over six on the upper floor). Other original buildings include a gazebo, a plantation business office, a loom house, slave house, meat house, and a spring house. The original landscape plans are intact and are illustrated in a free brochure available when touring the estate. All doors/frames and windows/frames are original, and all of the original hardware remains intact. Original to the house, an early punkah (Indian-style fan) was suspended from the ceiling of the dining room (see photograph). Slaves or servants would pull the fan back and forth by one or two ropes, providing cooling to the diners while keeping flies and other insects off the food below.

Outwardly conventional, the house is distinguished from earlier American mansions by a marked division between rooms used for entertainment, family life, and service. This was played out in the creation of distinct zones for each activity. The hall was the only true public room, and it was here that access to the different realms was regulated. The west side of the first floor housed reception rooms, along with the saloon beyond. Private family quarters were placed to the east, with additional bedrooms and a nursery on the second floor. A side door and secondary staircase provide direct service to the dining room and upper bedrooms. Servants were relegated to outbuildings and the cellar, where there is a large central room resembling an English servants' hall, along with two well-finished, heated rooms that were probably quarters for high-ranking household staff.

Photos: Octagonal garden summer house and slave house.


With all her many accomplishments, Lady Jean Skipwith is best known today as the mistress of one of the most important gardens of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The detailed records she kept of her garden at Prestwould make it one of the best-documented gardens of the period and were invaluable to the Garden Club of Virginia, which undertook an interpretive restoration in 1980. The plan, consisting of a grid of walks with garden beds in between, is quite like the kitchen gardens of James River and other southern plantations, but several elements show that it was carefully adapted to Lady Skipwith's needs as a plant collector and experimenter. A traditional garden, for instance, would have been on axis with the main hallway of the house, but at Prestwould the garden is sited along the east side of the house, visible from the entrance drive, as if to make a statement that gardening was a separate and special activity at the plantation. The north-south central walk in the garden is fifteen feet wide, to accommodate a pony cart, and extends the length of the lot, 630 feet. Three crosswalks, also fifteen feet wide, traverse the 230-foot width, dividing the garden into six beds. The central crosswalk continues through an orchard to the walled graveyard. Customarily, a summerhouse was placed at the end of one of the garden walks, but Lady Skipwith's summerhouse, complete with a cellar for the storage of roots and plants, was situated to one side of the main walk. Here she spent many hours, reading and keeping the plantation books and her garden journal.

Visitors to Prestwould Plantation, on the north side of the Roanoke River (Kerr Reservoir) opposite Clarksville in south-central Virginia, can enjoy the gardens and octagonal summer house (photo above), separate office house, loom house, slave garden and more. The house is open for tours May 1 through October 31 and is the site for various festivals and weddings. Prestwould is located three miles north of Clarksville on US15, and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2003.
Call Edith at 434-374-8672.

The following photographs are of the front facing the river (the "social" facade); the first photo at the top of this post is of the land facing, or "business" facade. Note that all three porches (front, back, side) are of identical design. The black and white photograph shows the river facade of the manor house before the most recent restoration.