Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

This building is constructed of materials from the ancient Priory of the Holy Sepulchre at Warwick, England, popularly known through the centuries as The Priory. The original structure was built in 1125, by the first Earl of Warwick. Following the dissolution of the monasteries it was rebuilt as a residence by Thomas Hawkins, and completed […]

Four thousand miles from its original site on the bank of the Irwell, in Lancashire, England, stands historic Agecroft Hall, one of the most distinguished relics of mediaeval England. This ancestral seat of the Langley family, who were a branch of the royal Plantagenets, is a typical wood and plaster mansion in the architecture prevalent […]

The Carlyle House was built in 1745 by John Carlyle of Dumfriesshire, Scotland, who came to Virginia in 1740. He was appointed as commissary of the Virginia forces during the French and Indian War. The mansion is situated on North Fairfax Street between Cameron and King Streets, and is surrounded by the Wagner Building. The […]

Reveille is one of the oldest houses in or about Richmond. It is situated on the Cary Street Road near the city limits. Although there are no records to show the exact date of its erection, as early as 1791 it was known as the Old Brick House Tract. According to tradition it got its […]

The Confederate Memorial Institute in Richmond, also called the Battle Abbey, had its inception in 1896, when the late Charles Broadway Rouss, a gallant soldier of the Army of Northern Virginia and later a successful man of affairs in New York City, donated $100,000 toward the erection of a Confederate memorial building on condition that […]