Castle Hill (Virginia)
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Castle Hill (Virginia) is an historic, privately owned, 600-acre (243 ha)
plantation Plantations are farms specializing in cash crops, usually mainly planting a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Plantations, centered on a plantation house, grow crops including cotton, cannabis, tob ...
located at the foot of the
Southwest Mountains The Southwest Mountains of Virginia are a mountain range centered on Charlottesville, parallel to and geologically associated with the Blue Ridge Mountains, which lie about 30 miles (50 km) to the west. The range is breached by the Rivann ...
in
Albemarle County Albemarle County is a United States county located in the Piedmont region of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Its county seat is Charlottesville, which is an independent city entirely surrounded by the county. Albemarle County is part of the Ch ...
,
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...
, near
Monticello Monticello ( ) was the primary residence and plantation of Thomas Jefferson, a Founding Father, author of the Declaration of Independence, and the third president of the United States. Jefferson began designing Monticello after inheriting l ...
and the city of
Charlottesville Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in Virginia, United States. It is the seat of government of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Quee ...
, and is recognized by the
Virginia Landmarks Register The Virginia Landmarks Register (VLR) is a list of historic properties in the Commonwealth of Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atla ...
and the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
. 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 Peter Jefferson (February 29, 1708 – August 17, 1757) was a planter, cartographer, and politician in colonial Virginia best known for being the father of the third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson. The "Fry-Jefferson Map", cre ...
, and later the guardian of young
Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (, 1743July 4, 1826) was an American Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was the primary author of the United States Declaration of Indepe ...
after his father's death.


History

Through his marriage to Mildred Meriwether in 1741, Thomas Walker acquired the land comprising approximately 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 General Sir Banastre Tarleton, 1st Baronet (21 August 175415 January 1833) was a British military officer and politician. He is best known as the lieutenant colonel leading the British Legion at the end of the American Revolutionary War. He lat ...
to give the patriot
Jack Jouett John Jouett Jr. (December 7, 1754 – March 1, 1822) was an American farmer and politician in Virginia and Kentucky best known for his ride during the American Revolution in 1781. Sometimes called the "Paul Revere of the South", Jouett rode to ...
time to warn Governor Thomas Jefferson and the Virginia legislators of Tarleton's plan to capture them. In addition to frequent visits by Thomas Jefferson, Castle Hill has entertained other U. S. Presidents and historic figures including
George Washington George Washington (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revoluti ...
,
James Madison James Madison (June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison was popularly acclaimed as the ...
,
James Monroe James Monroe ( ; April 28, 1758July 4, 1831) was an American Founding Father of the United States, Founding Father who served as the fifth president of the United States from 1817 to 1825. He was the last Founding Father to serve as presiden ...
,
Patrick Henry Patrick Henry (May 29, 1736 ld Style and New Style dates, O.S. May 18, 1736une 6, 1799) was an American politician, planter and orator who declared to the Virginia Conventions, Second Virginia Convention (1775): "Give me liberty or give m ...
,
Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before Presidency of Andrew Jackson, his presidency, he rose to fame as a general in the U.S. Army and served in both houses ...
,
Robert E. Lee Robert Edward Lee (January 19, 1807 – October 12, 1870) was a general officers in the Confederate States Army, Confederate general during the American Civil War, who was appointed the General in Chief of the Armies of the Confederate ...
,
James Buchanan James Buchanan Jr. ( ; April 23, 1791June 1, 1868) was the 15th president of the United States, serving from 1857 to 1861. He also served as the United States Secretary of State, secretary of state from 1845 to 1849 and represented Pennsylvan ...
,
Martin Van Buren Martin Van Buren ( ; ; December 5, 1782 – July 24, 1862) was the eighth president of the United States, serving from 1837 to 1841. A primary founder of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as Attorney General o ...
,
John Tyler John Tyler (March 29, 1790 – January 18, 1862) was the tenth president of the United States, serving from 1841 to 1845, after briefly holding office as the tenth vice president of the United States, vice president in 1841. He was elected ...
,
Henry Clay Henry Clay (April 12, 1777June 29, 1852) was an American lawyer and statesman who represented Kentucky in both the United States Senate, U.S. Senate and United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives. He was the seventh Spea ...
, and
Daniel Webster Daniel Webster (January 18, 1782 – October 24, 1852) was an American lawyer and statesman who represented New Hampshire and Massachusetts in the U.S. Congress and served as the 14th and 19th United States Secretary of State, U.S. secretary o ...
. 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 William Cabell Rives (May 4, 1793April 25, 1868) 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 Deleg ...
(1793–1868). William Cabell Rives studied law under Thomas Jefferson at
Monticello Monticello ( ) was the primary residence and plantation of Thomas Jefferson, a Founding Father, author of the Declaration of Independence, and the third president of the United States. Jefferson began designing Monticello after inheriting l ...
, 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 Dolley Todd Madison (née Payne; May 20, 1768 – July 12, 1849) was the wife of James Madison, the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. She was noted for holding Washington social functions in which she invited members of b ...
, 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 The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
, 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 Fox hunting is an activity involving the tracking, chase and, if caught, the killing of a fox, normally a red fox, by trained foxhounds or other scent hounds. A group of unarmed followers, led by a "master of foxhounds" (or "master of hounds" ...
. 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.


Architecture

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.


Gardens

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 A landscape architect is a person who is educated in the field of landscape architecture. The practice of landscape architecture includes: site analysis, site inventory, site planning, land planning, planting design, grading, storm water manage ...
Rachel M. Lily.


Today

Castle Hill is a private residence.


See also

*
Thomas Walker (Explorer) Thomas Walker (January 25, 1715 – November 9, 1794) was a physician, Planter class, planter and explorer in Colony of Virginia, colonial Virginia who served multiple terms in the Virginia General Assembly, and whose descendants also had polit ...
*
William Cabell Rives William Cabell Rives (May 4, 1793April 25, 1868) 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 Deleg ...
* Amélie Rives Troubetzkoy * Julia Magruder


References

* K. Edward Lay, ''The Architecture of Jefferson Country'' (University Press of Virginia, Charlottesville and London, 2000) * Richard Channing Moore Page, M.D., ''Genealogy of the Page Family in Virginia'' (C. J. Carrier Company, Bridgewater, Virginia, 1965) * James Rives Childs, ''Reliques of the Rives'' (Reprint, Heritage Books, 2006) * Welford Dunaway Taylor, ''Amélie Rives (Princess Troubetzkoy)'' (Twayne Publishers, New York, 1973)


External links


"A Week's End Visit with Amélie Rives," New York Times Article, April 15, 1906


* ttp://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/regions/northamerica/unitedstates/virginia/placesweprotect/castle-hill.xml Nature Conservancy Virginia, "Historic Castle Hill Preserved" {{National Register of Historic Places in Virginia Houses in Albemarle County, Virginia Thomas Jefferson Plantations in Virginia Plantation houses in Virginia Federal architecture in Virginia Georgian architecture in Virginia Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia Houses completed in 1764 Houses completed in 1824 National Register of Historic Places in Albemarle County, Virginia 1764 establishments in the Colony of Virginia Rives family Brick buildings and structures in Virginia