Many historic houses in Virginia are notable sites. The U.S. state of Virginia was home to many of America's Founding Fathers, four of the first five U.S. presidents, as well as many important figures of the Confederacy. As one of the earliest locations of European settlement in America, Virginia has some of the oldest buildings in the nation.
Listing includes date of the start of construction where known.
Berkeley Plantation, one of the first plantations in America, comprises about 1,000 acres (400 ha) on the banks of the James River on State Route 5 in Charles City County, Virginia. Berkeley Plantation was originally called Berkeley Hundred, named after the Berkeley Company of England. In 1726, it became the home of the Harrison family of Virginia, after Benjamin Harrison IV located there and built one of the first three-story brick mansions in Virginia. It is the ancestral home of two presidents of the United States: William Henry Harrison, who was born there in 1773 and his grandson Benjamin Harrison. It is now a museum property, open to the public.
Sherwood Forest Plantation Foundation is located on the north bank of the James River in Charles City County, Virginia. The main plantation house, built in 1730, was the home of the tenth president of the United States, John Tyler (1790–1862) for the last twenty years of his life. It is located on State Route 5, a scenic byway which runs between the independent cities of Richmond and Williamsburg. The house is located approximately 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from the river. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961.
Charles City County is a county located in the U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. The county is situated southeast of Richmond and west of Jamestown. It is bounded on the south by the James River and on the east by the Chickahominy River.
Northern Virginia, locally referred to as NOVA or NoVA, comprises several counties and independent cities in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. The region radiates westward and southward from Washington, D.C., the nation's capital, and has a population of 3,257,133 people as of 2023 U.S. Census Bureau estimates, representing over a third of the state's total population. It is the most populous region in both Virginia and the regional Washington metropolitan area.
William Grayson was a planter, lawyer and statesman from Virginia. After leading a Virginia regiment in the Continental Army, Grayson served in the Virginia House of Delegates before becoming one of the first two U.S. Senators from Virginia, as well as a leader of the Anti-Federalist faction. Grayson became the first member of the United States Congress to die while holding office.
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.
Carter Bassett Harrison was a politician from the U.S. state of Virginia.
First Families of Virginia were families in the British colony of Virginia who were socially prominent and wealthy, but not necessarily the earliest settlers. They descend from European colonists who primarily settled at Jamestown, Williamsburg, the Northern Neck and along the James River and other navigable waters in Virginia during the 17th century. These elite families generally married within their social class for many generations and, as a result, most surnames of First Families date to the colonial period.
Buildings, sites, districts, and objects in Virginia listed on the National Register of Historic Places:
Colonel Thomas Lee was a planter and politician in colonial Virginia, and a member of the Lee family, a political dynasty. Lee became involved in politics in 1710, serving in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly, and also held important positions as Naval Officer for the Northern Potomac Region and agent for the Northern Neck Proprietary. After his father died, Lee inherited thousands of acres of land as well as enslaved people in then-vast Northumberland and Stafford Counties in Virginia as well as across the Potomac River in Charles County, Maryland. These properties were developed as tobacco plantations. Northumberland County was later subdivided, so some of Lee's properties were in present-day Fairfax, Fauquier, Prince William, and Loudoun counties and counties in the present-day Northern Neck of 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.
Leven Powell was a Virginia planter, merchant, Continental Army officer and Federalist politician who served several terms in the Virginia House of Delegates as well as in the Virginia Ratification Convention representing Loudoun County, and one term as a United States representative for Virginia's 17th congressional district.
William Mason McCarty was a Virginia lawyer, plantation owner, and politician who served in the United States House of Representatives and Virginia Senate, as well as Secretary of the Florida territory and Acting Governor in the absence of Territorial Governor William Pope Duval.
Thomson Mason was an American lawyer, planter and jurist. A younger brother of George Mason IV, United States patriot, statesman, and delegate from Virginia to the U.S. Constitutional Convention, Thomson Mason would father Stevens Thomson Mason, and was the great-grandfather of Stevens T. Mason, first Governor of Michigan.
David Stuart was a Virginia physician, politician, and correspondent of George Washington. When Washington became President of the United States, he made Stuart one of three commissioners appointed to design a new United States capital city.
Belvale is an historic house in present-day Fairfax County, Virginia built between 1763 and 1766 by George Johnston (1700–1766), member of the Virginia Assembly 1758–1766, friend of Patrick Henry, and legal advisor to George Washington, who was a frequent visitor to the home. The home's original lands, described as lying on "Doeg's Run", were first granted on July 6, 1698 to Richard Carpenter, who bequeathed them in 1750 to his wife Mary and daughter Ann, who sold the property to Johnston in 1763. Belvale is sometimes called "Belle Vale Manor" in historical records. Belvale was Johnston's country seat; his town home was in the city of Alexandria.
Leesylvania was a plantation and historic home in Prince William County, Virginia, now part of Leesylvania State Park. During the 18th century, it was the home of Henry Lee II, his family and numerous slaves, and known for its productive land and especially the quality of its tobacco. Lee's sons Henry "Light-Horse Harry" Lee, Richard Bland Lee and Charles Lee, held prominent positions in Virginia during the American Revolutionary War and early federal government.
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.