Violet Banks

JUST before entering Petersburg from Richmond, over the Petersburg Turnpike, is a stone marker erected by the Daughters of the Confederacy. The road to the left leads to Violet Banks, the old estate of John Shure and the headquarters of General Robert E. Lee from June to September, 1864.

The colonial estate of John Shure has given place to a mod-ern subdivision. But it will repay the visitor to inspect the remains of the house. The rear portion of sixteen rooms, used as a hospital for Confederate soldiers, was shot away, but there remains the quaint facade framed by old holly trees. John Shure had a passion for all flowering trees and shrubs. The noble magnolia, in the front yard, with a spread of more than one hundred feet, was planted by him, and it was under this tree that General Lee pitched his tent many years later.


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