History
The original 18th-century building included only the back section, with the more formal front being added in 1818. [5] There is some information that the front section was originally relocated from the John Royall estate, called Caxamelalea. However, experts from Williamsburg have refuted this based upon their inspection of the house. It has 18 rooms and at one time had 5 full baths. There are 4 chimneys, which serve 13 fireplaces, and 65 windows, 17 of which are dormers. One room in the basement appears to have been used to hold Yankee prisoners in the American Civil War; the room has a barred window and evidence of shackles on the wall. [6]
In 1832, Giles' son conveyed the property to William Henry Harrison, cousin of the president by that name. [3] Harrison, with his wife Lucy (née Powers), raised six children there, and established a school for boys in the home, named Amelia Academy. The Christian school was run principally to prepare its students for entrance to the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. The school's 1859–1860 flyer indicated a census of 25 pupils, and the school's board members included John Hartwell Cocke. [3]
In his final years running the school, William Henry was assisted by his eldest son, J. Hartwell Harrison. Two days before Christmas in 1881, William Henry, inconsolable and confused after the death of wife Lucy in Richmond that October, set out on horseback in the snow, supposing to visit her for Christmas. Hours later, his horse returned to the Wigwam without him, and he was discovered at a nearby intersection, having suffered a fatal heart attack. His burial in Richmond next to Lucy was arranged by Christmas, and the Wigwam passed to his son Hartwell. Hartwell eventually phased out the school there and made the Wigwam his home with wife Anna (née Carrington) and their six children. He farmed the property and became the area's local Baptist minister. [3]
The devastating effects of the Panic of 1893 resulted in Hartwell’s mortgage default in 1896, and the family's eviction from the home by the mortgage holder, his brother-in-law Lewis Harvie Blair. The family, including 4 children aged 7 to 17, had just finished putting in that year’s crops. In the mid-1900s, the property was owned and renovated by Hartwell's son, Robert C. Harrison. [3]
The Wigwam was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1969. [1] In the late-1990s, the home and farm underwent major renovations by new ownership.
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.
Amelia County is a county located just southwest of Richmond in the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. The county is located in Central Virginia and is included in the Greater Richmond Region. Its county seat is Amelia Court House.
William Branch Giles was an American statesman, long-term Senator from Virginia, and the 24th Governor of Virginia. He served in the House of Representatives from 1790 to 1798 and again from 1801 to 1803; in between, he was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates and was an Elector for Jefferson in 1800. He served as a United States Senator from 1804 to 1815 and then served briefly in the House of Delegates again. After a time in private life, he joined the opposition to John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay in 1824; he ran for the Senate again in 1825 and was defeated but appointed Governor for three one-year terms in 1827; he was succeeded by John Floyd, in the year of his death.
The Second White House of the Confederacy is a historic house located in the Court End neighborhood of Richmond, Virginia. Built in 1818, it was the main executive residence of the sole President of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis, from August 1861 until April 1865. It currently sits on the campus of Virginia Commonwealth University.
Stratford Hall is a historic house museum near Lerty in Westmoreland County, Virginia. It was the plantation house of four generations of the Lee family of Virginia. Stratford Hall is the boyhood home of two Founding Fathers of the United States and signers of the United States Declaration of Independence, Richard Henry Lee (1732–1794), and Francis Lightfoot Lee (1734–1797). Stratford Hall is also the birthplace of Robert E. Lee (1807–1870), who was General in Chief of the Armies of the Confederate States during the American Civil War (1861–1865). The Stratford Hall estate was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1960, under the care of the National Park Service in the U.S. Department of the Interior.
The Harrison family of Virginia is an American family with a history in politics, public service, and religious ministry, beginning in the Colony of Virginia during the 1600s. Their descendants include a Founding Father of the United States, Benjamin Harrison V, and three U. S. presidents: William Henry Harrison, Benjamin Harrison, and Abraham Lincoln. Governors, legislators and mayors are found in the Harrison family, as well as leaders in religion, education, and medicine. Entertainer Elvis Presley is also in their number.
Bacon's Castle, also variously known as "Allen's Brick House" or the "Arthur Allen House" is located in Surry County, Virginia, United States, and is the oldest documented brick dwelling in what is now the United States. Built in 1665, it is noted as an extremely rare example of Jacobean architecture in the New World.
Wilton House Museum is a museum in a historic house located in Richmond, Virginia. Wilton was constructed c. 1753 by William Randolph III, son of William Randolph II, of Turkey Island. Wilton was originally the manor house on a 2,000-acre (8.1 km2) tobacco plantation known as "World's End" located on the north bank of the James River several miles east of the city of Richmond. Between 1747 and 1759, William III acquired more than a dozen contiguous tracts of land. About 1753, Randolph completed building a Georgian manor house, which he named "Wilton," on a site overlooking the river.
Lower Brandon Plantation is located on the south shore of the James River in present-day Prince George County, Virginia.
Scotchtown is a plantation located in Hanover County, Virginia, that from 1771 to 1778 was owned and used as a residence by U.S. Founding Father Patrick Henry, his wife Sarah and their children. He was a revolutionary and elected in 1778 as the first Governor of Virginia. The house is located in Beaverdam, Virginia, 10 miles (16 km) northwest of Ashland, Virginia on VA 685. The house, at 93 feet (28 m) by 35 feet (11 m), is one of the largest 18th-century homes to survive in the Americas. In its present configuration, it has eight substantial rooms on the first floor surrounding a central passage, with a full attic above and English basement with windows below. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1965.
Ampthill is a plantation located in Cartersville, Virginia, United States, roughly 45 minutes west of Richmond, and just over an hour south of Charlottesville. The property is listed on both the National Register of Historic Places and the Virginia Landmarks Register.
Benjamin Harrison IV was a colonial American planter, politician, and member of the Virginia House of Burgesses. He was the son of Benjamin Harrison III and the father of Benjamin Harrison V, who was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and the fifth governor of Virginia. Harrison built the homestead of Berkeley Plantation, which is believed to be the oldest three-story brick mansion in Virginia and is the ancestral home to two presidents: his grandson William Henry Harrison, and his great-great-grandson Benjamin Harrison. The Harrison family and the Carter family were both powerful families in Virginia, and they were united when Harrison married Anne Carter, the daughter of Robert "King" Carter. His family also forged ties to the Randolph family, as four of his children married four grandchildren of William Randolph I.
Eldon House is a historic house and museum located in London, Ontario. The Eldon House property was converted into a public park, now called Harris Park. Eldon House is the oldest continued residence in the city of London. It was inhabited by the family of John and Amelia Harris from 1834 until they gave it to the City of London in 1959. The original owner, Captain John Harris, named Eldon House after the Earl of Eldon, whom he admired.
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.
Lodore is a rural unincorporated community in northern Amelia County just south of the Appomattox River in the U.S. state of Virginia. It is located along SR 616 at its intersection with the northern terminus of SR 636.
Needham is a historic home located near Farmville, in Cumberland County, Virginia. It was constructed in 1802, and is a two-story, three-bay, single-pile, central hall plan frame dwelling. It has a two-story rear ell, with one-story addition built in 1929, although most of the former outbuildings have now disappeared.
Winterham is a historic plantation house located near Winterham and Amelia Court House, Amelia County, Virginia, on Grub Hill Church Road. It was built about 1855 and is a two-story frame structure with a hipped roof in the Italian villa style. It has four original porches and a cross-hall plan. Also on the property are a contributing late 19th century farm dependency and early 20th century garage.
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.
