Evelynton is a historic home near Charles City,

Charles City County 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. The a ...

, in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

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 ...

. It was built in 1937, and is a two-story, seven-bay, brick dwelling in the

Colonial Revival The Colonial Revival architectural style seeks to revive elements of American colonial architecture. The beginnings of the Colonial Revival style are often attributed to the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, which reawakened Americans to the arch ...

style. It has a gable roof with dormers, and flanking dependencies connected to the main house by

hyphens The hyphen is a punctuation mark used to join words and to separate syllables of a single word. The use of hyphens is called hyphenation. The hyphen is sometimes confused with dashes (en dash , em dash and others), which are wider, or with t ...

. Also on the property is a contributing frame servants' quarters. It was designed and built under the supervision of the prominent architect W. Duncan Lee (1884–1952). an
''Accompanying photo''
/ref> It was added to 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 ...

in 1989.

History

Originally part of

William Byrd II William Byrd II (March 28, 1674August 26, 1744) was an American planter, lawyer, surveyor and writer. Born in the English colony of Virginia, Byrd was educated in London, where he practiced law. Upon his father's death, Byrd returned to Virginia ...

's expansive

Westover Plantation Westover Plantation is a historic colonial tidewater plantation located on the north bank of the James River in Charles City County, Virginia, United States. Established c. 1730–1750, it is the homestead of the Byrd family of Virginia. S ...

and named for Byrd's daughter, Evelyn, Evelynton has been home to the Ruffin family since 1847. The family patriarch,

Edmund Ruffin Edmund Ruffin III (January 5, 1794 – June 17, 1865) was an American planter, politician, scientist, and activist best known as an early advocate for secession of the Southern slave states from the United States. He served in the Virginia Senate ...

, is often credited with firing the first shot of the Civil War at Fort Sumter. His earlier agricultural contributions, from scientific

soil test A soil test is a laboratory or in-situ analysis to determine the chemical, physical or biological characteristics of a soil. Possibly the most widely conducted soil tests are those performed to estimate the plant-available concentrations of nutri ...

ing to the publication of ''The Farmer's Register'' helped rescue 19th-century Virginia from a declining agricultural economy, and earned him the title "father of American agronomy." Evelynton was the site of fierce Civil War skirmishes in 1862, when General

George McClellan George Brinton McClellan (December 3, 1826 – October 29, 1885) was an American military officer and politician who served as the 24th governor of New Jersey and as Commanding General of the United States Army from November 1861 to March 186 ...

waged his destructive

Peninsula Campaign The Peninsula campaign (also known as the Peninsular campaign) of the American Civil War was a major Union operation launched in southeastern Virginia from March to July 1862, the first large-scale offensive in the Eastern Theater. The oper ...

; J.E.B. Stuart,

Stonewall Jackson Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson (January 21, 1824 – May 10, 1863) was a Confederate general and military officer who served during the American Civil War. He played a prominent role in nearly all military engagements in the eastern the ...

and John Pelham led the Southern offensive in the Battle of Evelynton Heights. The original house and out-buildings were burned during that conflict, and the current residence was erected two generations later by Edmund Ruffin's great grandson, John Augustine Ruffin Jr. and his wife Mary Ball Saunders. In 1937, Ruffin contracted architect W. Duncan Lee to build a new house. Lee had completed a restoration of Carters Grove in Williamsburg, overseen the expansion of the Virginia Governor's mansion, and designed fourteen of the stately homes along Monument Avenue. Lee's Colonial Revival mansion was built near the earlier house. The Lee-designed mansion is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The mansion and grounds were sold out of the Ruffin family after the death of Mr. Edmund Ruffin Saunders. The 2,500 acres (1,000 ha) farm is still family-owned and operated.

References

External links

Evelynton Plantation
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia Colonial Revival architecture in Virginia Houses completed in 1937 Houses in Charles City County, Virginia National Register of Historic Places in Charles City County, Virginia Byrd family (Virginia) Brick buildings and structures in Virginia {{CharlesCityCountyVA-NRHP-stub