Castle Hill | |
Location | Northeast of Cismont near the junction of VA 231 and VA 640, near Charlottesville, Virginia |
---|---|
Coordinates | 38°5′22″N78°18′13″W / 38.08944°N 78.30361°W |
Built | 1764/1824 |
Architect | Thomas Walker & Captain John Perry |
Architectural style | Colonial and Federal |
NRHP reference No. | 72001379 [1] |
VLR No. | 002-0012 |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | February 23, 1972 |
Designated VLR | November 16, 1971 [2] |
Castle Hill (Virginia) is an historic, privately owned, 600-acre (243 ha) plantation located at the foot of the Southwest Mountains in Albemarle County, Virginia, near Monticello and the city of Charlottesville, and is recognized by the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places. Castle Hill was the home of Dr. Thomas Walker (1715–1794) and his wife, Mildred Thornton Meriwether (widow of Nicholas Meriwether III). Walker was a close friend and the physician of Peter Jefferson, and later the guardian of young Thomas Jefferson after his father's death.
Through his marriage to Mildred Meriwether in 1741, Thomas Walker acquired the land comprising approximately 15,000 acres (6,100 ha) which would become the site for Castle Hill. In its square hall, the youthful, music-loving Jefferson once played the violin, while the still younger Madison danced. Here in 1781, Walker's wife delayed the British Colonel Banastre Tarleton to give the patriot Jack Jouett time to warn Governor Thomas Jefferson and the Virginia legislators of Tarleton's plan to capture them. [3]
In addition to frequent visits by Thomas Jefferson, Castle Hill has entertained other U. S. Presidents and historic figures including George Washington, James Madison, James Monroe, Patrick Henry, Andrew Jackson, Robert E. Lee, James Buchanan, Martin Van Buren, John Tyler, Henry Clay, and Daniel Webster.
The Walkers' youngest son, Francis Walker (1764–1806), married Jane Byrd Nelson, the daughter of Governor Thomas Nelson of Yorktown, and inherited Castle Hill. The estate was next inherited by Thomas & Mildred Walker's granddaughter, Judith Page Walker (1802–1882), who married U. S. Senator William Cabell Rives (1793–1868). William Cabell Rives studied law under Thomas Jefferson at Monticello, and was a friend of James Madison. At Castle Hill, Rives wrote a three-volume biography on Madison, entitled The Life and Times of James Madison (Little Brown & Co., Boston, 1859, 1866, 1868). A close friend of Dolley Madison, Judith Rives authored the novel Home and the World (D. Appleton and Company, New York, 1857), in which she wrote of life at Castle Hill as the fictitious “Avonmore.”
Colonel Alfred Landon Rives (1830–1903), son of William and Judith Rives, and chief of engineers to General Robert E. Lee during the American Civil War, inherited Castle Hill. After Rives died in 1903, and his widow, Sarah Catherine MacMurdo Rives, died in 1909, their daughter, Amélie Louise Rives Troubetzkoy (1863–1945), prominent romantic novelist, early feminist, and wife of artist, Russian Prince Pierre Troubetzkoy (1864–1936), inherited the property. At least three of Amélie's novels, Virginia of Virginia (Harper & Brothers, New York, 1888), The Quick or the Dead? (J. B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia, 1888), and Barbara Dering (J. B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia, 1893), are drawn from life at Castle Hill. Amélie and Castle Hill were both featured in a New York Times article published on April 15, 1906.
In the early 20th century, Amélie's sister, Mrs. Gertrude Rives Potts, who managed the estate after their father's death, was recognized as the first woman Master of Foxhounds. While at Castle Hill, Gertrude imported and trained a pack of English Foxhounds, bred and schooled her own horses, organized a hunting staff, and enlisted the consent of neighboring landowners to form a suitable country for the “Castle Hill Hounds.” Castle Hill later became part of the Keswick Hunt Club district.
Castle Hill's history as a slave plantation was chronicled in Lorenzo Dickerson's documentaries The Coachman and Byrdland, about the Dickersons and Byrds, families enslaved at Castle Hill by several generations of the Walkers. [4]
The original clapboard, colonial residence was built by Walker in 1764, with a front porch facing west and six dormer windows. William and Judith Rives added the brick, federal style addition to the home in 1824, which was built by Captain John Perry, one of Thomas Jefferson's master brickmasons. In 1844 the home's columned conservatories were added to each end of Perry's addition by another Jefferson brickmason, William B. Phillips.
Castle Hill's formal gardens were featured in an article written by Gertrude Potts published in the Historic Gardens of Virginia (The James River Garden Club, Richmond, 1923). The great box-hedges which stand at the top of the gardens are considered to be some of the tallest and most impressive boxwood in Virginia. The current expanded, multi-terraced and symmetrical formal gardens were designed in 1997 by Landscape architect Rachel M. Lily.
Castle Hill is a private residence.
Thomas Walker was a physician, planter and explorer in colonial Virginia who served multiple terms in the Virginia General Assembly, and whose descendants also had political careers. Walker explored the Western Colony of Virginia in 1750, a full 19 years before the arrival of famed frontiersman Daniel Boone.
The 2nd Confederate States Congress, consisting of the Confederate States Senate and the Confederate States House of Representatives, met from May 2, 1864, to March 18, 1865, during the last year of Jefferson Davis's presidency, at the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond, Virginia; the Confederacy's government effectively dissolved 16 days later, when it fled Richmond on April 3, 1865. Its members were elected in the 1863 congressional elections.
Francis Walker was an American planter and politician from Albemarle County, Virginia. He was member of the Virginia House of Delegates in 1788-91 and again in 1797–1801. He represented Virginia in the U.S. Congress from 1793 to 1795.
William Cabell Rives was an American lawyer, planter, politician and diplomat from Virginia. Initially a Jackson Democrat as well as member of the First Families of Virginia, Rives served in the Virginia House of Delegates representing first Nelson County, then Albemarle County, Virginia, before service in both the U.S. House and Senate. Rives also served two separate terms as U.S. Minister to France. During the Andrew Jackson administration, Rives negotiated a treaty whereby the French agreed to pay the U.S. for spoliation claims from the Napoleonic Wars. During the American Civil War, Rives became a Delegate to the Provisional Confederate Congress and the Confederate House of Representatives.
Benjamin Watkins Leigh was an American lawyer and politician from Richmond, Virginia. He served in the Virginia House of Delegates and represented Virginia in the United States Senate.
William H. Cabell was a Virginia lawyer, politician, plantation owner, and judge aligned with the Democratic-Republican party. He served as a Member of the Virginia House of Delegates, as Governor of Virginia, and as a judge on what later became the Virginia Supreme Court. Cabell adopted his middle initial in 1795—which did not stand for a name—to distinguish himself from other William Cabells, including his uncle, William Cabell Sr.
Alexander Brown was a Confederate soldier and American merchant, best known as the author of several books on the early history of Virginia.
George Lockhart Rives, was an American lawyer, politician, and author who served as United States Assistant Secretary of State from 1887 to 1889.
Alexander Rives was a Virginia attorney, politician and plantation owner. He served in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly, as a justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia and as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia.
Princess Amélie Rives Troubetzkoy was an American author of novels, poetry, and plays. The Quick or the Dead? (1888), her first novel, which sold 300,000 copies, created more of a sensation than any of her later work. Her 1914 novel, World's End was reputed to be "the best seller in New York City". Described as a genius who was morbidly sensitive, she was a woman of moods and fancies, but in manner, as simple as a child.
Midway Mills is an unincorporated community in Nelson County, Virginia, United States. Originally called Midway, the settlement was established on June 6, 1774, by Dr. William Cabell,, and was the first European settlement in Nelson County. It was named Midway because it was midway between Richmond and Lynchburg along the James River. The area, at that time part of "Old Albemarle County", was later divided into the counties of Albemarle, Amherst, Buckingham, Nelson, and Fluvanna between 1741 and 1809.
Point of Honor is an historic home, now a city museum, located in Lynchburg, Virginia. The property has commanding views of the city and the James River. Its name originated due to the land on which it is built being used as a clandestine dueling ground.
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Brigadier-General John Hartwell Cocke II was an American military officer, planter and businessman. During the War of 1812, Cocke served in the Virginia militia. After his military service, he invested in the James River and Kanawha Canal and helped Thomas Jefferson establish the University of Virginia. The family estate that Cocke built at Bremo Plantation is now a National Historic Landmark.
Alfred Landon Rives was an American engineer. He worked on various railroads, bridges, buildings and canals in Northern and Central America. He also served as a Confederate States Army officer during the American Civil War.
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William Randolph was American politician and county clerk. He was the son of Thomas Randolph of Tuckahoe in Goochland County, Virginia. He built the elegant two-story residence for Tuckahoe. Randolph held the positions of Clerk and Justice in Goochland County and he represented the county as a member of the House of Burgesses. He was the first Clerk of Albemarle County.
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