Category: Virginia Historical Homes

Rippon Lodge is perhaps the oldest, and yet is probably the least known, of all colonial country houses still standing in Northern Virginia. It was built about 1725 by Richard Black-burn of Ripon, the old cathedral town in England, which in that day was spelled in the same way as its namesake in Virginia. In […]

ROANOKE ROANOKE was not incorporated as a city until 1884, and its growth since that time has been as if by magic. The site of Roanoke was one of great natural beauty and of strategic importance during pioneer days. New Antwerp, the first antecedent of Roanoke, was planned in 1802. Although never built it was […]

STAUNTON HILL BEFORE its reduction in area by family partition and sale, the Staunton Hill Plantation in Charlotte County, about three miles from Aspen, consisted of a number of tracts acquired partly by James Bruce of Woodburn, Halifax County, one of the wealthiest men of his day, and partly by Charles Bruce, his son by […]

BERRY HILL BERRY HILL, the home of Mr. and Mrs. Malcolm Graeme Bruce, is situated in Halifax County. The plantation was purchased by James Coles Bruce from his first cousin, Edward Coles Carrington, who inherited it from his uncle, Isaac Coles, who purchased it from Benjamin Harrison of Berkeley, in 1769. The present house was […]

Talbot Hall has been the plantation home of the Talbot family since 1800. The land appurtenant to this home was patented in 1650 to Wm. Langley as a body of 825 acres in consideration of his having imported sixteen persons into the colony. After remaining in the Langley family for one hundred and twenty-five years, […]

Old Fort Boykin, owned by Mrs. Herbert Greer, and located on the James River near Mogart’s Beach about five miles from Smithfield, is one of the show places of Eastern Virginia. The old fortress, which was built in 1812 in the form of a seven-pointed star, has been peserved. The estate, comprising five acres, includes […]

Bacon’s Castle is a perfect example of Tudor architecture. Its curved gables, jutting bays, steep roof, massive walls and cluster chimneys mark it as early colonial; while its deep window seats, wainscoted walls and low ceilings make the rooms exceedingly picturesque. Bacon’s Castle was built by Arthur Allen, who came to Virginia from England in […]

Shoal Bay lies in that section of Virginia known as the Cradle of the Republic, just five miles from Smithfield on the Suffolk-Smithfield highway. It is noted for being one of the lovely old colonial estates and as the home of the first formal gardening in Virginia. The old house, built in 1676 by the […]

One must have lived at Gunston Hall, in winter and summer, in spring and autumn, to have any true appreciation of its charm. The old house has a personality which only intimate acquaintance can disclose. It is a small house standing on a plateau well back from the Potomac, quite self-centered and remote, but it […]

More than three centuries ago Francis Eppes came to the Jamestown Colony in time to be a member of the first House of Burgesses. In 1635 this same Colonel Francis Eppes of the King’s Council in Virginia received a royal grant of 1,700 acres in Charles City County, as well as fifty acres more for […]