Ben Dover (Manakin-Sabot, Virginia)

Ben Dover
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. Historic district
Virginia Landmarks Register
Property entrance
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Location	661 River Rd. W #36, Manakin-Sabot, Virginia
Coordinates	37°36′24″N77°44′39″W / 37.60667°N 77.74417°W / 37.60667; -77.74417
Area	193.9 acres (78.5 ha)
Built	1853 (1853)
Architectural style	Italianate, Colonial Revival
NRHP reference No.	00000311 [1]
VLR No.	037-0078
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	April 14, 2000
Designated VLR	June 17, 1998 [2]

Ben Dover, also known as Ben Dover Farm, is a historic home and plantation complex, recognized as a national historic district, located near Manakin-Sabot in Goochland County, Virginia, United States. The district encompasses 13 contributing buildings, 8 contributing sites, and 10 contributing structures.

History

Built in 1853 for William Beverley Stanard on the Dover Plantation and named Ben Dover because the farm was at the bend of the river. ^[3]

The farm's most notable inhabitant, William T. Reed, Sr., who bought several nearby properties and used them as a rural retreat, ^[4] was a close advisor to Governor Harry Byrd, ^[5] and transformed the Italian Villa house into a 1920s Colonial Revival mansion.

Charles Lindbergh landed his plane in a Ben Dover field during one of his many visits with Reed. ^{[6] [7]}

Site

The farm's original patentee in 1715, John Woodson, built a water-powered mill on this part of his plantation, which was still operated in the early 1900s. ^[8]

The main dwelling was built in 1853 as a villa or the Big House of the plantation, in an Italianate style. When renovated in 1930, it was transformed when given a Colonial Revival facade to mask decades of deterioration and poor patchwork.

Contributing buildings, many of later construction, include tenant houses, a converted servants quarters (former slave quarters), a garage, a number of barns and sheds, a bowling alley, a smokehouse, and a stable. Contributing structures include three water towers, two well houses, animal feeders, a chicken coop, a silo and a swimming pool. The eight sites include stone foundations or sites of buildings no longer standing. Among these sites are two ruinous barns, a bridge ruin, an old road trace, and remains of landscape terracing. Together they represent the evolution of the Virginia plantation from the mid-19th century to the present day farm. ^[9]

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000. ^[1]

References

1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
2. "Virginia Landmarks Register". Virginia Department of Historic Resources. Archived from the original on September 21, 2013. Retrieved June 5, 2013.
3. ""The Treehouse Guys" build on Kendigs' historic property". www.roanoke.edu. Retrieved January 16, 2026.
4. Cece Bullard, Goochland Yesterday and Today: a pictorial history (Goochland Historical Society and Donning Company 1994 ISBN=0-89865-911-6) p. 70
5. Fry, Joseph A. (1977). "Senior Adviser to the Democratic "Organization": William Thomas Reed and Virginia Politics, 1925-1935". The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. 85 (4): 445–469. ISSN   0042-6636.
6. "Historic Goochland County Farm Listed by Long & Foster's Pam Diemer". Long & Foster Newsroom. Retrieved January 16, 2026.
7. "LINDBERGH A 'CRACK SHOT.'; Governor Byrd Praises Him as Hunter After Virginia Trip". New York Times. New York Times. November 19, 1927. p. 9.
8. Bullard, p. 68
9. Heather M. MacIntosh (January 1998). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Ben Dover" (PDF). Virginia Department of Historic Resources. and Accompanying photo