Category: Virginia Historical Homes

Eltham is situated in New Kent County, and was the home of Captain William Bassett, the first of the family to come to Virginia. He died in 1672 and was succeeded by his son, William Bassett, who died in 1673. This second William Bassett was a member of the Virginia Council. There was a third […]

Wellington-on-the-Potomac is on the Fort Hunt road half-way between Mount Vernon and Alexandria. The house was built prior to 1760 and it was occupied by Colonel Tobias Lear who, for nearly fourteen years, was private and military secretary to General Washington and also private tutor to his adopted children, George W. Park Custis and his […]

About the year 1674, William Byrd, first of the name in Virginia, and his wife, Mary, came to the Colony and settled at the Falls of James River. In 1688 Byrd bought the plantation of Westover and took up his abode there. About 1730 his son, William Byrd II, built the present mansion, which is […]

SHIRLEY, one of the oldest and loveliest of the James River homes, is located just above the point where the Appomattox River enters the James. Shirley plantation is referred to in the old records as far back as 1611, Sir Thomas Dale, then governor of the Virginia Colony, having laid out and given title to […]

The mansion at Bremo was built by General John Hartwell Cocke during a period of several years, ending in 1819, under conditions which made possible its exceptional design and execution. The Bremo estate was part of a land grant to Richard Cocke in the latter part of the seventeenth century, and consisted of a very […]

Tuckahoe on James River, thirteen miles to the west of Richmond, is of peculiar interest to its owners because of the constant effort that has been made of late to preserve the early plantation character of the old buildings, grounds and garden, while keeping them fairly habitable according to modern standards. The home and place […]

Among the many beautiful and historic homes and gardens is that of Bremo Recess, built about 1812 by General John Hartwell Cocke. Here the general and his family resided while building Bremo, a larger and more pretentious establishment. Situated on elevated land some distance back from the James River, there is much of interest about […]

Brook Hill lies on both sides of the Brook Turnpike, where the road is shaded by noble cedars, and extends southwardly about a mile. This Brook Turnpike was the first improved road ever built out of Richmond, being constructed to afford communication between this section and the cities and country to the north. Down this […]

Twenty miles north of Richmond and five miles east of Ashland, in Hanover County, is the old Virginia plantation known as Hickory Hill. This was the home of the late Williams Carter Wickham, brigadier-general of cavalry, C.S.A., and is now the residence of his son, Henry Taylor Wickham, a member of the State Senate, who […]

The Oaks was originally situated in Amelia County, about twenty miles from Amelia Court House, on property owned by Benjamin Harrison IV, father of the builder of Lower Brandon. The exact date of its building is uncertain, but all the evidence points to 1745. The house remained in the possession of the Harrison family until […]