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 and named after the Berkeley Company of England. In 1726, Benjamin Harrison IV built on the estate one of the first three-story brick mansions in Virginia. It is the ancestral home to two presidents of the United States: William Henry Harrison, and his grandson Benjamin Harrison. It is now a museum property, open to the public.
The Nathan and Mary (Polly) Johnson properties are a National Historic Landmark at 17–19 and 21 Seventh Street in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Originally two structures, one dating to the 1820s and an 1857 house joined with the older one shortly after construction. They have since been restored and now house the New Bedford Historical Society. The two properties are significant for their association with leading members of the abolitionist movement in Massachusetts, and as the only surviving residence in New Bedford of Frederick Douglass. Nathan and Polly Johnson were free African-Americans who are known to have sheltered escaped slaves using the Underground Railroad from 1822 on. Both were also successful in local business; Nathan as a [caterer] and Polly as a confectioner.
Otterburn is a Palladian-influenced Greek Revival plantation house near Bedford in Bedford County, Virginia. The hilltop house was first built in 1828 for Benjamin A. McDonald (1797-1871) and his wife, the former Sally Camm of Lynchburg, and overlooks the Little Otter Creek watershed. Benjamin A. McDonald, a prominent local Whig educated in Scotland, was appointed a local justice of the peace in 1832 and won election as Bedford County's first presiding justice in 1852. Re-elected twice, he served in the county's highest office from 1852 through 1864. His associated plantation in 1825 was 1,651-acre (668 ha), and included a gristmill, sawmill and dependent structures, mostly operated by enslaved labor. At its largest, the associated plantation encompassed about 2,800-acre (1,100 ha) acres, but in modern times includes fewer than 16-acre (6.5 ha) acres. Fire gutted the original house in 1841, and it was reconstructed in the Greek Revival style by 1843, with an unusual transverse hall plan, facade that makes the 2 1⁄2-story structure look only 1 1⁄2 stories, and the addition of a loggia, cross-gable roof with a wrought iron balustrade and Greek Revival detailing. The surviving wash house also dates to this mid-19th-century era. During the Civil War, Union soldiers reportedly confiscated flour barrels from the house, and damaged interior stairwell railings when rolling them out. After McDonald died in 1871, since his only child, a daughter, did not survive infancy, the property passed through several owners until 1950, when the house became the Hines Memorial Pythian Home, an orphanage operated by the Knights of Pythias. A detached dormitory added at this time remains but lacks historic significance. The orphanage closed in the early 1960s. For two years in the late 1960s the Otterburn Academy used the premises, as a private school formed during Virginia's Massive Resistance to desegregation. The property later became a rest home for the elderly. The house is being restored.
The United States Customhouse is a historic and active custom house at 2nd and William Streets in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Architect Robert Mills designed the custom house in 1834 in a Greek Revival style. It has been used by the U.S. Customs Service ever since, and today serves as a port of entry.
Bedford Historic Meetinghouse, also known as Methodist Meetinghouse and St. Philip's Episcopal Church, is a historic meeting house located at 153 W. Main Street in Bedford, Virginia. It was built in 1838, and is a brick building measuring 38 feet by 58 feet and in the Greek Revival style. It features a shallow, pedimented gable roof topped by a square belfry with a stubby, tapered spire. It was built as Bedford's first Methodist Church and houses the headquarters of the Bedford Historical Society.
Farmington is a house near Charlottesville, in Albemarle County, Virginia, that was greatly expanded by a design by Thomas Jefferson that Jefferson executed while he was President of the United States. The original house was built in the mid-18th century for Francis Jerdone on a 1,753-acre (709 ha) property. Jerdone sold the land and house to George Divers, a friend of Jefferson, in 1785. In 1802, Divers asked Jefferson to design an expansion of the house. The house, since greatly enlarged, is now a clubhouse.
Big Otter Mill, also known as Forbes Mill, is a historic grist mill located near Bedford, Bedford County, Virginia, USA. It was built about 1920 and is a large, 2½-story, mortise-and-tenon framed mill building, topped by an unusual and picturesque mansard roof. The mill retains a nearly complete set of early-20th century machinery, including a 13-feet diameter water wheel, which was used until the late 1940s. Also on the property are a contributing mill race and the foundation of a store. The building is under restoration as a mill museum.
Fancy Farm is a historic plantation house located at Kelso Mill, near Bedford, Bedford County, Virginia. It was built about 1785, and is a two-story, five bay brick dwelling in the Late Georgian style. It has a metal gable roof and two interior end chimneys. The interior features original woodwork. The house was restored in 1969–1971. Also on the property are a contributing brick storehouse, a frame kitchen with a stone chimney, and a frame quarters also with a stone chimney. The property features a panorama of the Peaks of Otter. Fancy Farm was used as the headquarters of Union General David Hunter in his Lynchburg campaign during the Valley Campaigns of 1864.
Elk Hill is a historic plantation house located near Forest, Bedford County, Virginia. It was built about 1797, and consists of a 2 1/2-story, three bay brick central section with flanking wings in the Federal style. It has a slate gable roof and a front porch added in 1928, when restored by the architect Preston Craighill. The main block has twin brick exterior chimneys. Also on the property are a contributing small, handsome brick office, a weatherboarded cook's house and storeroom, a lattice wellhouse, and icehouse.
Woodbourne is a historic plantation house located near Forest, Bedford County, Virginia. It was built in three two-story sections and representative of Federal period architecture. The earliest dates to about 1785, and is the frame east wing. The central stuccoed brick section was added about 1810, and the frame west wing between about 1815 and 1820. It has a slate gable roof with a central pediment and exterior end chimneys. Also on the property are a contributing small, handsome brick office, a weatherboarded cook's house and storeroom, a lattice wellhouse, and icehouse.
Hope Dawn is a historic home located near Lynchburg, Bedford County, Virginia. It was built about 1827, and is a 1 1/2-story, brick Federal-style farmhouse. It consists of a three bay main block and one bay south wing. The walls are laid in Flemish bond with scattered glazed headers and penciled joints. It has a standing seam metal gable roof. Also on the property are a contributing old stone and brick stable that has been remodeled into a guesthouse, a simple stone structure that served variously as a distillery and a chicken house, and a frame office.
The Bowling Eldridge House, also known as Ridgecrest, is a historic plantation house located near Lynchburg, Bedford County, Virginia. It was built between 1822 and 1828, and is a two-story, five bay dwelling of mortise-and-tenon frame construction. It has a gable roof with metal sheathing, exterior gable-end brick chimneys, a brick foundation, and beaded weatherboard siding. There is also an integral or earlier two-story ell with an exterior gable-end brick chimney and a pent room. The interior and exterior features Federal style details.
Rothsay is a historic estate located near Forest, Bedford County, Virginia. It was built in 1914, and is a two-story, five bay, brick and frame dwelling in a Georgian Revival / American Craftsman style. The house measures approximately 55 feet by 37 feet. It has a slate covered hipped roof and one-story front and side porches. Two two-story rear wings were added in 1918. Also on the property are a contributing dovecote / garden seat (1918), pump house (1914), smokehouse (1915), brooder house (1920), and four gate posts (1934) designed by Stanhope Johnson.
Bellevue is a historic home located near Goode, Bedford County, Virginia. The main house was built in three phases between about 1824 and 1870. It is a two-story, five bay, brick dwelling in the Federal style. It has a central hall plan, hipped roof, and two frame wings. Also on the property are a contributing school dormitory building known as Inkstand, as well as three dependencies, a garden, and a family cemetery. After the American Civil War, the house was altered to function as a high school for boys established by James Philemon Holcombe (1820–1873). It functioned into the late-19th century.
Locust Level is a historic home and farm located at Montvale, Bedford County, Virginia. It was built about 1824, and is a two-story, brick, central-passage-plan I-house with fine exterior and interior Federal-style detailing. It has a standing seam metal roof. Attached to the rear is a two-story mortise-and-tenon frame wing known variously as the Hall or the Dance Hall. Also on the property are a contributing kitchen and dining room building, a free-standing chimney, a meat house, spring house, family cemetery, and three mounting blocks.
Federal Hill is a three part, Palladian-type dwelling constructed in 1782 and located in Campbell County, Virginia. The original owner of Federal Hill, James Steptoe, served as the second clerk of Bedford County from 1772 to 1826. In addition to fifty-four years of service as the Clerk of Bedford County, Steptoe also remained a lifelong friend of Thomas Jefferson. Furthermore, Jefferson's unique, Palladian architectural influence can be observed in Steptoe's Federal Hill. Following Steptoe's death in 1826, Federal Hill continued to be occupied by the Steptoe family until 1850 when it was sold to the Carter Family of Fredericksburg. Today, the structure remains in private ownership as an occupied residence.
Avenel, also known as the William M. Burwell House, is a historic home located at Bedford, Virginia and now open to the public by appointment. Built about 1836, the two-story, brick dwelling displays a blend of Federal and Greek Revival styling. It is topped by a hipped roof and has a one-story wraparound porch. Also on the property are a contributing smokehouse, hen house, a frame 19th-century barn, and site of a kitchen building. It and the surrounding 250 acres were operated as a plantation using enslaved labor by William M. Burwell, who Bedford County voters ten times elected as one of their representatives to the Virginia House of Delegates, and whose father William A. Burwell had represented the area in the U.S. House of Representatives, as well as served as a private secretary for President Thomas Jefferson. Burwell's eldest daughter, Letitia M. Burwell (1831-1905) wrote two books in the Lost Cause tradition, the second, A Girl's Life in Virginia Before the War. She inherited the house, and attempted to bequeath it to the children of her two married sisters, but legal problems led to the property being sold to another family. "The Lady in White" or the "White Lady of Avenel", is the most commonly reported apparition at Avenel. The apparition is thought to be Mary Frances "Fran" Burwell. "The legend has it that she stayed on the front porch waiting for her husband to come home from the Civil War, but he never did." says Adam Sutphin, founder of SouthWest Virginia Ghost Hunters.
Burks–Guy–Hagen House is a historic home located at Bedford, Virginia. It was built about 1884, and is a two-story, brick dwelling in a Victorian Villa style. It features a three-level square tower with a mansard roof and complex bracketed wooden gable with a hood or "apron". It is set among romantically landscaped grounds and wood-bordered rear meadow. The house was built for Judge Martin P. Burks (1851-1928).
John D. Ballard House, also known as the Ballard-Worsham House, is a historic home located at Bedford, Virginia. It was designed by noted Lynchburg architect Stanhope S. Johnson and built in 1915. It is a two-story, brick dwelling in the Colonial Revival style. It has a steep deck-on-hip roof with terra cotta Spanish roofing tiles, a formal front facade with segmentally arched windows, and a one-story front portico, with grouped Doric order columns. Also on the property is a contributing meat house / tool shed.
Putney Houses are a set of two historic homes located in Richmond, Virginia. The Samuel Putney House at 1010 E. Marshall Street is a three-story, three bay Italianate style townhouse with rich architectural decoration. It features a delicate cast iron, one-story porch across the first story. The neighboring Stephen Putney House at 1012 E. Marshall Street is a three-story, three-bay stuccoed brick dwelling crowned by a bracketed cornice. It features magnificent two-story verandah of ornamental iron on the east side. Both Putney Houses were built in 1859, and have extensive rear ells. The ornamental ironwork is a product of the local Phoenix Iron Works.
