Tusculum (Amherst, Virginia)

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Tusculum
Tusculum rear driveway.jpg
Site of the farmstead
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Location2077 N. Amherst Hwy. (US 29), near Amherst, Virginia
Coordinates 37°38′10″N78°59′51″W / 37.63611°N 78.99750°W / 37.63611; -78.99750 Coordinates: 37°38′10″N78°59′51″W / 37.63611°N 78.99750°W / 37.63611; -78.99750
AreaLess than 1 acre (0.40 ha)
Architectural styleGeorgian, Federal
NRHP reference # 04001244 [1]
VLR #005-0020
Significant dates
Added to NRHPNovember 19, 2004
Designated VLRSeptember 8, 2004 [2]

Tusculum was a historic home located near Amherst in Amherst County, Virginia, United States. It was a two-story Georgian and Federal style frame house built in two principal phases. The north section was built possibly as early as the 1750s, with the south section added about 1805. It sat on a brick and stone foundation and was covered in beaded weatherboard siding. The house was acquired by the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities in 2003. [3] It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2004. [1] The house has been described as "one of the oldest and most architecturally significant dwellings in the Virginia Piedmont", and is said by one source to have been the birthplace of Senator William H. Crawford. [4]

Amherst, Virginia Town in Virginia, United States

Amherst is a town in Amherst County, Virginia, United States. The population was 2,231 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Amherst County.

Amherst County, Virginia U.S. county in Virginia

Amherst County is a county, located in the Piedmont region and near the center of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. The county is part of the Lynchburg, VA Metropolitan Statistical Area, and its county seat is also called Amherst.

Virginia U.S. state in the United States

Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States located between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are shaped by the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Chesapeake Bay, which provide habitat for much of its flora and fauna. The capital of the Commonwealth is Richmond; Virginia Beach is the most populous city, and Fairfax County is the most populous political subdivision. The Commonwealth's estimated population as of 2018 is over 8.5 million.

Tusculum was once owned by Elijah Fletcher, whose daughter, Indiana Fletcher Williams, was the founder of Sweet Briar College; [5] it was the childhood home of her mother, Maria Crawford. [6] [4] The college collaborated with the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities to purchase the house for preservation, and in 2006 it was carefully dismantled, and removed to a dairy barn on the college campus. Plans were announced, in 2008, to re-erect the house on land behind Sweet Briar House and turn it into a center for community history and outreach. [5] However, the cost of renovation proved to be too great, and in 2013 it was decided to offer the home for sale, with stipulations as to the manner in which it could be restored. [6] In 2014 the home was purchased by a local couple who announced plans to rebuild it at Forks of Buffalo, around eight miles from its original location in the vicinity of Clifford. [7]

Elijah Fletcher 19th century teacher, businessman, and mayor of Lynchburg, Virginia

Elijah Fletcher was a 19th-century teacher and businessman, who also served as mayor of Lynchburg, Virginia for two terms in the early 1830s, as well as on the city council.

Sweet Briar College United States historic place

Sweet Briar College is a private women's liberal arts college in Sweet Briar, Virginia. The college is on 3,250 acres (13,152,283 m2) in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, on the former estate of the college's founder, Indiana Fletcher Williams. Sweet Briar was established in 1901 as the Sweet Briar Institute and opened its doors in 1906. The college is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges to award the Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Fine Arts, Bachelor of Science, Master of Arts in Teaching, and Master of Education.

Sweet Briar House United States historic place

Sweet Briar House, also known as Locust Ridge, is a historic home located at Sweet Briar, Amherst County, Virginia. The original house was built about 1825, and was a Federal style brick farmhouse with a hipped roof. The house was extensively remodeled in 1851 in the Italian Villa-style. The remodeling added a two-level arcaded portico with a one-story verandah across the facade and two three-story towers of unequal height and form. Also on the property is a late-19th century latticed well house. The house now serves as the residence for the president of Sweet Briar College.

The Tusculum Institute at Sweet Briar College, dedicated to the discussion and preservation of local history and the support and teaching of historic preservation, takes its name from the house. [8] [9]

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James F. Jones Jr. is an American academic administrator and educator. He began his career as a professor of Romance languages and other humanities. His administrative posts have included being vice provost of Southern Methodist University and dean of its Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences; president of Kalamazoo College; president of Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut; and interim president of Sweet Briar College.

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Scotchtown (plantation) United States historic place

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Tusculum can refer to:

LuNeack House United States historic place

The LuNeack House is a historic residence in the Columbia-Tusculum neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. Built in 1894, it is a frame building with clapboard walls, two-and-a-half stories tall. The overall floor plan of the house is that of a rectangle, with the front and rear being the shorter sides, although the original shape has been modified by the extension of the rear and a hexagonal bay on the western side.

Norwell Residence United States historic place

The Norwell Residence is a historic house in the Columbia-Tusculum neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. A Victorian building constructed in 1890, it is a weatherboarded structure with a stone foundation and a shingled roof. The overall floor plan of the house is irregular: two and half stories tall, the house is shaped like the letter "L" but appears to be a rectangle, due to the presence of two separate porches that fill in the remaining area. Many ornate details characterize it, including imbricated shingles on the westward-facing gable end of the house, a frieze with spindles on the railing of the primary porch, and small yet cunningly crafted braces for the same porch. Yet more distinctive is the secondary porch, which sits atop the primary one; it features braces and spindles similar to those of the primary porch.

WNRS-FM is a AAA formatted broadcast radio station licensed to Sweet Briar, Virginia, serving Amherst and Amherst County, Virginia. WNRS is owned and operated by Stu-Comm, Inc. and simulcasts WNRN full-time.

John Coltrane Home United States historic place

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Edgewood, also known as Higginbotham House, is a historic home located at 138 Garland Avenue in Amherst, Amherst County, Virginia. It was built in 1818, by Arthur B. Davies a local attorney and Amherst County Court Clerk. It is a two-story, seven bay, "T"-plan brick dwelling in the Greek Revival style. It sits on an English basement and features a two-story pedimented wooden portico. Additions made in 1972 are in the Federal style. The house retains most of its original woodwork and mantels, and features murals painted by an unknown local artist. The building housed the Higginbotham Academy from 1851 to 1860, as well as the local Masonic Hall, and meeting place for a Methodist congregation.

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Sweet Briar (Geneseo, New York) United States historic place

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Virginia Center for the Creative Arts Private school

The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA) is an art colony in Amherst, Virginia, USA. Since 1971, VCCA has offered residencies of two weeks to two months for international artists, writers, and composers at its working retreat in the foothills of Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains. VCCA is among the nation's largest artist residency programs, and since 2004, has also offered workshops and retreats at its studio center in Southwest France, Le Moulin à Nef.

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The Princeton Ice Company built a dam in 1884 on former farmland so as to allow for the production of ice for sale to residents and businesses in Princeton, New Jersey. This company was the primary supplier of ice to the town during the era of the frozen water trade before the advent of artificial refrigeration. In 1902 a second dam was added so as to increase ice production capacity. The company dissolved itself in 1929, after technological change rendered the ice trade obsolete. The nearly 77 acres (31 ha) site has gone undisturbed in the decades since, apart from the 1958 addition of a colonial revival home designed by noted local architect, Rolf Bauhan.

James Henry Williams was a nineteenth-century Episcopal priest and philanthropist from New York who married an heiress from Virginia who ultimately founded Sweet Briar College after their only child, Daisy, predeceased them.

References

  1. 1 2 "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 2013-09-21. Retrieved 2013-05-12.
  3. ↑ J. Daniel Pezzoni (May 2004). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Tusculum" (PDF). and Accompanying two photos
  4. 1 2 "History of a Household" . Retrieved 23 March 2017.
  5. 1 2 Desrets, Christa. "Sweet Briar College plans to rebuild historic Tusculum in Amherst County" . Retrieved 23 March 2017.
  6. 1 2 Gore, Sherese. "Sweet Briar looks to sell 18th century Tusculum house" . Retrieved 23 March 2017.
  7. ↑ Gore, Sherese. "New life for this old Sweet Briar house" . Retrieved 23 March 2017.
  8. ↑ "About the Tusculum Institute" . Retrieved 23 March 2017.
  9. ↑ "Local Heritage" . Retrieved 23 March 2017.


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