Beverley | |
Location | Jefferson County, West Virginia, USA |
---|---|
Nearest city | Charles Town, West Virginia |
Coordinates | 39°15′3″N77°53′34″W / 39.25083°N 77.89278°W |
Area | 4 acres (1.6 ha) |
Built | 1760 |
Architectural style | Federal |
NRHP reference No. | 87000486 [1] |
Added to NRHP | March 20, 1987 |
Beverley, also known as Bullskin, is a farm near Charles Town, West Virginia that has been a working agricultural unit since 1750. The narrow lane that leads from U.S. Route 340 to the Beverley complex was, in the 18th and 19th centuries a toll road. The main house was built about 1800 by Beverley Whiting on the site of a c. 1760 stone house. The house is Georgian influenced Federal style, with a later Greek Revival portico. A number of outbuildings dating to the original 1760 house accompany the main house.
The original land was purchased from Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron in 1750 by Richard Stephenson. During the course of the next decade, Stephenson constructed a stone residence, two stone outbuildings, and other farm-related structures and put into operation the farming business that still operates here today. It is not known exactly when the two extant stone structures were constructed, but they were certainly standing by 1760. The surviving outbuildings are among the oldest buildings in West Virginia. The west outbuilding served as a school for a time during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The east outbuilding was used as a kitchen. Due to their age, these stone outbuildings are individually listed as Jefferson County Historic Landmarks.
Richard Stephenson was the father of seven children, two of whom rose to prominence in the Revolutionary War. Colonel John Stephenson served with noted distinction, but it was his brother, Colonel Hugh Stephenson who is better remembered. He had served previously in the French and Indian Wars and in Lord Dunmore's War. In 1775, he was recommended by George Washington to command one of the two Virginia rifle companies. Colonel Hugh Stephenson led the famous Bee Line March that left from Morgan Springs (near Shepherdstown) on July 16, 1775, and marched to Cambridge, Massachusetts to join the Continental Army, covering 600 miles in 24 days. Colonel Stephenson's half-brother, Colonel William Crawford, who also lived at what is now known as Beverley for a time, was also a noted Revolutionary soldier who was burned at the stake by Indians in 1782. George Washington was friends with Richard Stephenson and notes in his journal that he stayed at Bullskin with Richard during a visit to his own property in the area in May 1760. [2] George Washington performed the survey of the property for Richard Stephenson around 1750 which still survives to this day and is publicly displayed in the Boston Public Library.
The property passed by purchase from the Stephenson family to Dr. John Bull in 1777, and then to Beverley Whiting, in 1795. Beverley Whiting was a leading planter and man of affairs in post-Revolutionary Berkeley and Jefferson Counties, as evidenced by the fact that he served on the first grand jury empaneled in the newly formed Jefferson County, being sworn in on March 9, 1802. Around 1845 the name of the property was changed from "Bullskin" to "Beverley". Around 1870 the property was sold to John Burns, and the property has remained in the Burns family ever since. [3] [4]
Beverley has a double-pile center hall plan. The two-story brick house is set on a raised stone basement. It was altered in the nineteenth century and expanded. [5]
Frederick County is located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 91,419. Its county seat is Winchester. The county was formed in 1743 by the splitting of Orange County. It is Virginia's northernmost county. Frederick County is included in the Winchester, VA-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Washington-Baltimore-Northern Virginia, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA Combined Statistical Area.
Paw Paw is a town in Morgan County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 410 at the 2020 census. The town is known for the nearby Paw Paw Tunnel. Paw Paw was incorporated by the Circuit Court of Morgan County on April 8, 1891, and named after pawpaw, a wild fruit that grows in abundance throughout this region. On September 14, 2024 a group of local citizens organized by Maria Gloyd hosted the inaugural Pawpaw Festival in the Town Park. Hundreds of people attended the festival to hear lectures on how to grow and cultivate Pawpaw fruit, and listen to Appalachian music performed by the Paw Paw Community Choir, Ben Townsend, the Critton Hollow String Band, and Mary Hott with the Carpenter Ants. Paw Paw is the westernmost incorporated community in Morgan County, and the Hagerstown-Martinsburg, MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area.
William Fitzhugh was an American planter, legislator and patriot during the American Revolutionary War who served as a delegate to the Continental Congress for Virginia in 1779, as well as many terms in the House of Burgesses and both houses of the Virginia General Assembly following the Commonwealth's formation. His Stafford County home, Chatham Manor, is on the National Register for Historic Places and serves as the National Park Service Headquarters for the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park.
Thomas Lewis was an Irish-American surveyor, lawyer, politician and pioneer of early western Virginia. He was among the signers of the Fairfax Resolves, represented Augusta County at four of the five Virginia Revolutionary Conventions and the first session of the Virginia House of Delegates during the American War for Independence, and after the conflict, represented newly established Rockingham County at the Virginia Ratification Convention, as well as contributed to the settlement of an area that long after his death become part of West Virginia.
Buildings, sites, districts, and objects in Virginia listed on the National Register of Historic Places:
White House Farm, also known as White House Tavern and the Dr. John McCormick House, listed in the National Register of Historic Places, is located in Jefferson County, West Virginia, near the small town of Summit Point, about six miles from Charles Town, West Virginia. The farm consists of a ca. 1740 farmhouse, a stone barn, a springhouse of about the same age, a wooden curing shed, and 60+ acres of pasture and woods. The farm is one of the oldest in the county and has a rich history.
Fielding Lewis was an American merchant, member of the House of Burgesses and a Colonel during the American Revolutionary War. He lived in Fredericksburg, Virginia and also owned a plantation in Spotsylvania County, which later became known as Kenmore. His brother-in-law was George Washington, who was also his 2nd cousin, he was also 2nd cousins with Betty Washington.
The Randolph family of Virginia is a prominent political family, whose members contributed to the politics of Colonial Virginia and Virginia after statehood. They are descended from the Randolphs of Morton Morrell, Warwickshire, England. The first Randolph in America was Edward Fitz Randolph, who settled in Massachusetts in 1630. His nephew, William Randolph, later came to Virginia as an orphan in 1669. He made his home at Turkey Island along the James River. Because of their numerous progeny, William Randolph and his wife, Mary Isham Randolph, have been referred to as "the Adam and Eve of Virginia". The Randolph family was the wealthiest and most powerful family in 18th-century Virginia.
Thomas Ludwell Lee, Sr. was a Virginia planter and politician who served in the House of Burgesses and later the Virginia Senate, and may be best known as one of the editors of the Virginia Declaration of Rights.
Claymont Court, or simply Claymont, is a Georgian-style brick mansion, the grandest of several built near Charles Town, West Virginia for members of the Washington family. The current "Big House" was built in 1840 for Bushrod Corbin Washington, nephew of Supreme Court justice Bushrod Washington and grand-nephew of George Washington, to replace the 1820 main house on his plantation that burned in 1838.
Morgan's Grove is a rural historic district near Shepherdstown, West Virginia. The area is noted for its abundant springs. Several historic houses and farms are in the district, including:
Gap View Farm, near Charles Town, West Virginia, is a historic farm complex built in 1774. The farm was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 9, 1997.
Cool Spring Farm, located near Charles Town, West Virginia was first established along Bullskin Run around 1750. The Federal style second house on the property, built in 1813, is extant, with a Greek Revival–influenced third house, built in 1832 that shows the evolution of the farmstead. The farm is significant as an example of agricultural development in the Bullskin Run district and as examples of Greek Revival and Federal style vernacular design.
The Allstadt House and Ordinary was built about 1790 on land owned by the Lee family near Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, including Phillip Ludwell Lee, Richard Bland Lee and Henry Lee III. The house at the crossroads was sold to the Jacob Allstadt family of Berks County, Pennsylvania in 1811. Allstadt operated an ordinary in the house, and a tollgate on the Harpers Ferry-Charles Town Turnpike, while he resided farther down the road in a stone house. The house was enlarged by the Allstadts c. 1830. The house remained in the family until the death of John Thomas Allstadt in 1923, the last survivor of John Brown's Raid.
Belvoir was the plantation and estate of colonial Virginia's prominent William Fairfax family. Operated with the forced labor of enslaved people, it was located on the west bank of the Potomac River on the present site of Fort Belvoir in Fairfax County, Virginia.
Traveller's Rest, also known as the General Horatio Gates Home, is an historic plantation house located on Bowers Road near Kearneysville, Jefferson County, West Virginia. Built in 1773 and enlarged a few years later, it was the home of Continental Army General Horatio Gates from 1773 until 1790. The house is very little altered from that period, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1972. The house is located on private property, and is not normally open to the public.
Okeley Manor was an early 19th-century plantation in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. Okeley, the residence of prominent Alexandria physician Richard Chichester Mason (1793–1869), was one of the principal Mason family estates in Northern Virginia. Mason's plantation house was used as a hospital during the American Civil War and burned to prevent the spread of smallpox.
John Thornton Augustine Washington was a prominent Virginia farmer who served a term in the Virginia House of Delegates. Washington was a grandnephew of George Washington, first President of the United States.
William Beverley (1696–1756) was an 18th-century legislator, civil servant, planter and landowner in the Colony of Virginia. Born in Virginia, Beverley—the son of planter and historian Robert Beverley, Jr. and his wife, Ursula Byrd Beverley (1681–1698)—was the scion of two prominent Virginia families. He was the nephew of Peter Beverley (1668–1728), Speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses, and the grandson of wealthy Virginia planter William Byrd I (1652–1704) of Westover Plantation. Beverley's mother died shortly before her 17th birthday, and he was sent to England.
Ludwell Lee was an American lawyer and planter who served in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly representing Prince William and Fairfax Counties and rose to become the Speaker of the Virginia Senate. Beginning in 1799, following the death of his first wife, Lee built Belmont Manor, a planation house in Loudoun County, Virginia, which today is on the National Register of Historic Places.