Virginia House
Encyclopedia
Virginia House is a country house on a hillside overlooking the James River
in Richmond, Virginia
, United States
.
The house was constructed from the materials of the 16th Century Warwick Priory
and shipped over and reassembled, completed several months before the stock market crash of 1929. Virginia House is in the Tudor architectural style but incorporates a range of designs from other English houses and has modern facilities such as seven baths and central heating.
It belonged to Alexander and Virginia Weddell, an interior designer who had created a lavish interior for the house, salvaging many materials from the priory and other old English manors and adding further elegant English and Spanish antiques, oriental carpets, silks, and silverware. Today Virginia House is operated by the Virginia Historical Society
as a museum; however, the house as it was in the 1930s remains mostly intact except for gradual crumbling sandstone replacement. Immediately to the west of the property is Agecroft Hall
.
, England, founded in 1109. In 1536, at the Dissolution of the monasteries
, the priory was shut down and the land later bought by a fishmonger named Thomas Hawkins alias Fisher, during the reign of Edward VI
. Fisher demolished most of the monastic buildings and erected the house which he named "Hawk's Nest," set among gardens. He entertained Elizabeth I
at the house. In 1620, during the reign of James I
, Dutch gables were added to the front façade. The property was bought in 1709 by Henry Wise, Royal Gardener to Queen Anne of England. In the mid-19th century it was purchased by the Lloyds Bank
family who put the manor up for sale at auction in 1925.
The auction of the Warwick Priory was to take place on September 23, 1925, and was described in the catalogue as a "Highly Important Unreserved Demolition Sale" offering such items as "rare old oak doors, large quantity of floor boards, the whole of the joists and other timbers, and enormous quantities of excellent brick, sandstone, old oak and other beams, timbers and girders". The Weddells, however, offered a lump sum of 3,500 pounds for the entire remaining structure and secured a deal before it was held. The purchase by the Americans caused an outrage in the English press and the Weddells were heavily frowned on given that the heritage property was to be demolished. The objection to the purchase was also backed by a member of the House of Commons who proposed that the sale be invalidated in order to prevent this "act of vandalism". However, it was rejected and important persons in England gradually learned what their intentions were, and on April 13, 1926, another member F.G. Rye, sent a letter to Alexander Weddell saying, "Had you not stepped in and bought the materials of
the partially demolished structure, they would have been lost for all time, whereas now they will be utilised in the erection of a new building."
The Tudor mansion was dismantled, but concerned that the stone would swifly disintegrate during the demolition phase, Weddell's advisers ordered that a small explosive device be triggered off in the centre of the house and to salvage the remaining stones. However; the explosion had the effect of splitting the walls intact meaning that much of the building could be salvaged and shipped to the United States. The first shipments would arrive in Richmond, Virginia
, in early 1926 but were soaked in seawater and had to be dried in a barn for up to six months. From the very beginning, the Weddells planned on deeding the house to the Virginia Historical Society
and to allocate the west wing as a museum once rebuilt in Virginia and intended it to become the Societies' new headquarters.
Virginia House was constructed by the General Contracting firm of Allen J. Saville, Inc., although several different architects were employed during the rebuilding. Foundation work began on November 6, 1925 and was officially turned over to the Weddells on January 1, 1929. The total cost of the construction of Viriginia House was $236,968.83, with an additional $15,000 spent on buying the lot.
The Weddells lived at Virginia House until their death in a tragic train accident in 1948. The house became the permanent residence of the historic society. On June 13, 1990, Virginia House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
.
Although many stones and materials were salvaged and used to rebuild the Hawkins priory in Virginia, the reconstructed house incorporated other designs and influences. Following the acquisition of the property, the Wedells hired chief architect Henry Grant Morse
and scouted the English countryside, surveying properties and considering various designs they could incorporate in the rebuilding process. As a result, the reconstruction is not a replica of the original building. The west wing of the house is actually a replica of Sulgrave Manor, a small manor house in Northamptonshire
, England, which once belonged to Lawrence Washington
, an ancestor of America's first president, George Washington
. However, the center of the house is a reproduction of the original Warwickshire priory and uses the curvilinear gables, strapwork design, and balustrades that the English commonly adapted from the Low Countries in the early 17th century. The east wing of the house; however, is based on Wormleighton Manor
, a Spencer-Churchill family estate in England.
The original boundary of Virginia House property, recorded in the Clerk's Office of the Circuitcourt of the County of Henrico, Virginia, is described as lot 9, Block 41, Windsor Farms, in the plan of Windsor Farms made by Algn J. Saville, Inc., dated September 15, 1926. In 1928 Virginia Weddell requested that a two-story porch be added to expand the master bedroom suite and to build a second-floor sunroom. This was constructed in January 1932 by the contracting firm of Claiborne and Taylor, and was designed again by Henry Morse using Briar Hill sandstone. Further developments were made in the 1930s. On May 29, 1935, a shipment of Cotswold Stone Roofing Slate arrived from England, thicker, heavier and lighter in color than Virginia Buckingham Slate
, and were used to emphasize the height of the steep roof. The Cotswold slate has provided the house for minor roof repairs ever since. The house experienced some difficulties with the durability of the Warwick sandstone however, due to the continual rain and freeze thaw weathering during the winter months and gradually had to be replaced after 1936. On April 14, 1936, an adjacent 7.77 acres (31,444.1 m²) lot was purchased to accommodate an expansive landscape plan.
In 1941, Virginia Weddell hired architect William Lawrence Bottomley
and purchased antique stone columns from the Spanish Duke of Infantado, to reconstruct an ancient Spanish loggia on the southwest elevation of the house. Bottomley was able to incorporate the existing parapets, finials, and pierced railings and posts from the north library bay windows into the loggia design, with a ceiling reconstructed from a sixteenth-century house on the grounds of a manor in Knole, Kent
, England. Wall tiles were used which tindicated use of gunpowder on the original property. Bottomley, however, was quite critical of his work and believed his loggis was too symmetrical and lacking in the quality of picturesqueness and romance that the rest of the house displayed and proposed an octagonal stairway be added on the outside corner of the loggia. However his idea was rejected by the Weddells, and it was completed in 1946. Bottomley was paid $10,764 and received a ten percent commission for his drawings and construction.
The main entrance hall is a grand, high ceilinged room using oak panelware from the Warwickshire priory. The ornate, "L" shaped staircase is actually a reconstruction of the original 16th-century staircase of the priory repurchased from an antique shop in London
and includes an acanthus
leaf newel cap and overscaled newel posts in its design. The floor in the entrance hall is made from a composite made up of terracotta, asphalt
, and wood shavings known as zenitherm, with tiles arranged in an irregular rectangular formation. The room beyond the entrance hall also uses oak paneling, but uses materials derived from another English manor house in Warwickshire. The floor is made of wide-plank oak and has a fifteenth century stained glass oval window in the south wall using leaded glass from the Warwick priory. A Tudor rose motif is located on the plaster ceiling, and the Weddells hired Italian artisans to complete it in 1925-26. Adjacent to this room to the east is a drawing room, this time with heraldic reliefs on the plaster ceiling and featuring a cylindrical Florentine soapstone fireplace.
The rear hall again uses old oak high paneling and has small six by nine inch oil portraits of Renaissance figures. Freestanding Corinthian columns in the hallway form an ornamental gateway and stained glass doors at the end enter the rear porch arcade. The dining room was furnished with oak from Redbourne Manor in Hertfordshire
, England which was bought later and has an imposing Portland stone fireplace positioned midway in the room. The floor is made of old resawn pegged oak and the Tudor rose ceiling motif is repeated in the room. The gallery room is located in the northwest corner of the house, furnished with vertical oak paneling and a zenitherm floor which is used for the exhibition of artwork and historic artifacts from the Virginia Historical Society collection. In the southeast wing of the house is the Sulgrave Room, is a reproduction of the Washington family's Sulgrave Manor. The east wall of the room has a window and door which were originally used at Sulgrave Manor and the fireplace mantel is made of an oak beam, once used at the original priory. Heavy oak timbers are used to construct the open beam ceiling in this room, with mottled plaster walls. To the east of the house is a three-bay garage wing extension which is the residence of the gardener.
The grand second floor library room is also of major note, with a high cathedral-like ceiling and a grand conference table used for board meetings by the Virginia Historical Society. Again, as with the Sulgrave room, the mantelpiece is made from the Hawkins manor oak and is notably carved with an Old English inscription that reads, "0 ye fyre and heate bless ye the Lord." Behind the library panelling is a secret hidden passage, added at Alexander Weddell's request, leading to his private study. The rest of the second floors consists of living quarters and bathrooms, including many rooms of staff of the Virginia Historical Society and Virginia Weddell's bedroom, bath, and study.
in 1927, and over some twenty years built over 8 acres (32,374.9 m²) of scenic gardens containing close to 1,000 types of ornamental plants, from formal spring tulip
displays, hollies
, and magnolia
s, to wisteria
, rose
s, and sprawling hydrangea
drape balconies and garden rails. The first phase of the plan was to create an informal
Tudor-style garden on the original 1 acres (4,046.9 m²) site that the Weddells purchased for the house site, using a steeply sloping southern hillside by creating interconnecting cascading ponds, flagstone walkways, and terraced garden beds. In 1932, the second phase reworked the original concept by overlaying a cross-axis and planting further beds for flowers such as tulips and iris. The third phase of the plan took place in 1939, when the Weddells purchased a large adjacent piece of land on the southern side of the house down towards the James River. Gillette extensively planted grass and positioned evergreens in an asymmetrical pattern which he believed would demonstrate a romantic mirroring of the rambling architecture of the house. Today, Gillette's original blueprints and notes preserved in a collection at the Fiske Kimball Fine Arts Library at the University of Virginia
and Garden Week tours are held in Virginia House gardens in the spring, attracting thousands of visitors annually.
James River
The James River may refer to:Rivers in the United States and their namesakes* James River * James River , North Dakota, South Dakota* James River * James River * James River...
in Richmond, Virginia
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
The house was constructed from the materials of the 16th Century Warwick Priory
Priory Park, Warwick
Priory Park is an urban park located in the centre of Warwick, England. Originally the land was the grounds of a 12th century priory dedicated to St Sepulchre and built in 1124 but this was closed down by King Henry VIII during the dissolution of the Monasteries...
and shipped over and reassembled, completed several months before the stock market crash of 1929. Virginia House is in the Tudor architectural style but incorporates a range of designs from other English houses and has modern facilities such as seven baths and central heating.
It belonged to Alexander and Virginia Weddell, an interior designer who had created a lavish interior for the house, salvaging many materials from the priory and other old English manors and adding further elegant English and Spanish antiques, oriental carpets, silks, and silverware. Today Virginia House is operated by the Virginia Historical Society
Virginia Historical Society
The Virginia Historical Society , founded in 1831 as the Virginia Historical and Philosophical Society and headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, is a major repository, research, and teaching center for Virginia history...
as a museum; however, the house as it was in the 1930s remains mostly intact except for gradual crumbling sandstone replacement. Immediately to the west of the property is Agecroft Hall
Agecroft Hall
Agecroft Hall is a Tudor-style estate currently on the James River in Virginia, United States, though originally built in Pendlebury, Lancashire, England in the late 15th century. It is now operated as a museum. It was the home of Lancashire's Langley and Dauntesey families before falling into...
.
History
Virginia House was originally located on the grounds of the former Priory of the Augustinian Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem in WarwickWarwick
Warwick is the county town of Warwickshire, England. The town lies upon the River Avon, south of Coventry and just west of Leamington Spa and Whitnash with which it is conjoined. As of the 2001 United Kingdom census, it had a population of 23,350...
, England, founded in 1109. In 1536, at the Dissolution of the monasteries
Dissolution of the Monasteries
The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their...
, the priory was shut down and the land later bought by a fishmonger named Thomas Hawkins alias Fisher, during the reign of Edward VI
Edward VI of England
Edward VI was the King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death. He was crowned on 20 February at the age of nine. The son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, Edward was the third monarch of the Tudor dynasty and England's first monarch who was raised as a Protestant...
. Fisher demolished most of the monastic buildings and erected the house which he named "Hawk's Nest," set among gardens. He entertained Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
at the house. In 1620, during the reign of James I
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...
, Dutch gables were added to the front façade. The property was bought in 1709 by Henry Wise, Royal Gardener to Queen Anne of England. In the mid-19th century it was purchased by the Lloyds Bank
Lloyds Bank
Lloyds Bank Plc was a British retail bank which operated in England and Wales from 1765 until its merger into Lloyds TSB in 1995; it remains a registered company but is currently dormant. It expanded during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and took over a number of smaller banking companies...
family who put the manor up for sale at auction in 1925.
The auction of the Warwick Priory was to take place on September 23, 1925, and was described in the catalogue as a "Highly Important Unreserved Demolition Sale" offering such items as "rare old oak doors, large quantity of floor boards, the whole of the joists and other timbers, and enormous quantities of excellent brick, sandstone, old oak and other beams, timbers and girders". The Weddells, however, offered a lump sum of 3,500 pounds for the entire remaining structure and secured a deal before it was held. The purchase by the Americans caused an outrage in the English press and the Weddells were heavily frowned on given that the heritage property was to be demolished. The objection to the purchase was also backed by a member of the House of Commons who proposed that the sale be invalidated in order to prevent this "act of vandalism". However, it was rejected and important persons in England gradually learned what their intentions were, and on April 13, 1926, another member F.G. Rye, sent a letter to Alexander Weddell saying, "Had you not stepped in and bought the materials of
the partially demolished structure, they would have been lost for all time, whereas now they will be utilised in the erection of a new building."
The Tudor mansion was dismantled, but concerned that the stone would swifly disintegrate during the demolition phase, Weddell's advisers ordered that a small explosive device be triggered off in the centre of the house and to salvage the remaining stones. However; the explosion had the effect of splitting the walls intact meaning that much of the building could be salvaged and shipped to the United States. The first shipments would arrive in Richmond, Virginia
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
, in early 1926 but were soaked in seawater and had to be dried in a barn for up to six months. From the very beginning, the Weddells planned on deeding the house to the Virginia Historical Society
Virginia Historical Society
The Virginia Historical Society , founded in 1831 as the Virginia Historical and Philosophical Society and headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, is a major repository, research, and teaching center for Virginia history...
and to allocate the west wing as a museum once rebuilt in Virginia and intended it to become the Societies' new headquarters.
Virginia House was constructed by the General Contracting firm of Allen J. Saville, Inc., although several different architects were employed during the rebuilding. Foundation work began on November 6, 1925 and was officially turned over to the Weddells on January 1, 1929. The total cost of the construction of Viriginia House was $236,968.83, with an additional $15,000 spent on buying the lot.
The Weddells lived at Virginia House until their death in a tragic train accident in 1948. The house became the permanent residence of the historic society. On June 13, 1990, Virginia House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
.
Exterior
Virginia House is a large, asymmetrical, two-story long rectangular stone building with massive sandstone walls, small medieval windows, characterized by two high Flemish gables that date to the 1620 remodeling of the Thomas Hawkins Priory in Warwickshire, England. The adjacent cross-gable roofs and crennelated balustrade over the carriage entrance provide a horizontal cross-axis on either side of the gabled central bays. Two rear ells of the house project into the garden terrace, one of them containing the two-story cathedral-ceilinged library, and the other a drawing room and the master bedroom wing. Polygonal bays and oriel windows project from the north and south sides with heavy perimeter walls constructed of recycled sandstone. Over a window on the west side of the north elevation of Virginia house is a coat of arms commemorating the visit of Queen Elizabeth I to the Priory in England in 1572. The leaded-glass, quarrel-paned casement windows widely used in Virginia House also salvage authentic crown glass dating from the 16th to the 19th century from the English priory. Tne interior of the property is richly embellished with oak furnishings.Although many stones and materials were salvaged and used to rebuild the Hawkins priory in Virginia, the reconstructed house incorporated other designs and influences. Following the acquisition of the property, the Wedells hired chief architect Henry Grant Morse
Henry Grant Morse
Henry Grant Morse was an American architect. Based in New York City, he worked in a partnership for the Hawes & Morse firm for many years. He was noted in particular for his work on Virginia House in Richmond, Virginia which is partly a reconstruction of a Tudor manor shipped over from...
and scouted the English countryside, surveying properties and considering various designs they could incorporate in the rebuilding process. As a result, the reconstruction is not a replica of the original building. The west wing of the house is actually a replica of Sulgrave Manor, a small manor house in Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...
, England, which once belonged to Lawrence Washington
Lawrence Washington
Lawrence Washington may refer to:*Lawrence Washington , great-great-grandfather of George Washington*Lawrence Washington , grandfather of George Washington*Lawrence Washington , George Washington's half-brother and mentor...
, an ancestor of America's first president, George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
. However, the center of the house is a reproduction of the original Warwickshire priory and uses the curvilinear gables, strapwork design, and balustrades that the English commonly adapted from the Low Countries in the early 17th century. The east wing of the house; however, is based on Wormleighton Manor
Wormleighton Manor
Wormleighton Manor is a manor house in the civil parish of Wormleighton in the historic county of Warwickshire, England. It belonged to the wealthy Spencer family during the sixteenth and seventeenth century...
, a Spencer-Churchill family estate in England.
The original boundary of Virginia House property, recorded in the Clerk's Office of the Circuitcourt of the County of Henrico, Virginia, is described as lot 9, Block 41, Windsor Farms, in the plan of Windsor Farms made by Algn J. Saville, Inc., dated September 15, 1926. In 1928 Virginia Weddell requested that a two-story porch be added to expand the master bedroom suite and to build a second-floor sunroom. This was constructed in January 1932 by the contracting firm of Claiborne and Taylor, and was designed again by Henry Morse using Briar Hill sandstone. Further developments were made in the 1930s. On May 29, 1935, a shipment of Cotswold Stone Roofing Slate arrived from England, thicker, heavier and lighter in color than Virginia Buckingham Slate
Buckingham Slate
Buckingham Slate refers to a specific type of slate quarried near Arvonia in Virginia. The Buckingham Slate Company is the only active quarry and manufacturer of slate in Virginia...
, and were used to emphasize the height of the steep roof. The Cotswold slate has provided the house for minor roof repairs ever since. The house experienced some difficulties with the durability of the Warwick sandstone however, due to the continual rain and freeze thaw weathering during the winter months and gradually had to be replaced after 1936. On April 14, 1936, an adjacent 7.77 acres (31,444.1 m²) lot was purchased to accommodate an expansive landscape plan.
In 1941, Virginia Weddell hired architect William Lawrence Bottomley
William Lawrence Bottomley
William Lawrence Bottomley, born February 24, 1883 in New York, New York, was a noted architect in twentieth-century New York, New York, Middleburg, Virginia and Richmond, Virginia...
and purchased antique stone columns from the Spanish Duke of Infantado, to reconstruct an ancient Spanish loggia on the southwest elevation of the house. Bottomley was able to incorporate the existing parapets, finials, and pierced railings and posts from the north library bay windows into the loggia design, with a ceiling reconstructed from a sixteenth-century house on the grounds of a manor in Knole, Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, England. Wall tiles were used which tindicated use of gunpowder on the original property. Bottomley, however, was quite critical of his work and believed his loggis was too symmetrical and lacking in the quality of picturesqueness and romance that the rest of the house displayed and proposed an octagonal stairway be added on the outside corner of the loggia. However his idea was rejected by the Weddells, and it was completed in 1946. Bottomley was paid $10,764 and received a ten percent commission for his drawings and construction.
Interior
The interior to Victoria House is elegant with oak furnishings and an assortment of English and Spanish antiques, oriental carpets, silks, and silverware. The first floor consists mainly of large, elaborate rooms, intended for social meetings and to house the functions and exhibits of the Virginia Historical Society. The second floor was restricted and used for the living quarters of the Weddells and their staff although it features a large library, which now functions as the boardroom and research facility of the Virginia Historical Society.The main entrance hall is a grand, high ceilinged room using oak panelware from the Warwickshire priory. The ornate, "L" shaped staircase is actually a reconstruction of the original 16th-century staircase of the priory repurchased from an antique shop in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and includes an acanthus
Acanthus (ornament)
The acanthus is one of the most common plant forms to make foliage ornament and decoration.-Architecture:In architecture, an ornament is carved into stone or wood to resemble leaves from the Mediterranean species of the Acanthus genus of plants, which have deeply cut leaves with some similarity to...
leaf newel cap and overscaled newel posts in its design. The floor in the entrance hall is made from a composite made up of terracotta, asphalt
Asphalt
Asphalt or , also known as bitumen, is a sticky, black and highly viscous liquid or semi-solid that is present in most crude petroleums and in some natural deposits, it is a substance classed as a pitch...
, and wood shavings known as zenitherm, with tiles arranged in an irregular rectangular formation. The room beyond the entrance hall also uses oak paneling, but uses materials derived from another English manor house in Warwickshire. The floor is made of wide-plank oak and has a fifteenth century stained glass oval window in the south wall using leaded glass from the Warwick priory. A Tudor rose motif is located on the plaster ceiling, and the Weddells hired Italian artisans to complete it in 1925-26. Adjacent to this room to the east is a drawing room, this time with heraldic reliefs on the plaster ceiling and featuring a cylindrical Florentine soapstone fireplace.
The rear hall again uses old oak high paneling and has small six by nine inch oil portraits of Renaissance figures. Freestanding Corinthian columns in the hallway form an ornamental gateway and stained glass doors at the end enter the rear porch arcade. The dining room was furnished with oak from Redbourne Manor in Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
, England which was bought later and has an imposing Portland stone fireplace positioned midway in the room. The floor is made of old resawn pegged oak and the Tudor rose ceiling motif is repeated in the room. The gallery room is located in the northwest corner of the house, furnished with vertical oak paneling and a zenitherm floor which is used for the exhibition of artwork and historic artifacts from the Virginia Historical Society collection. In the southeast wing of the house is the Sulgrave Room, is a reproduction of the Washington family's Sulgrave Manor. The east wall of the room has a window and door which were originally used at Sulgrave Manor and the fireplace mantel is made of an oak beam, once used at the original priory. Heavy oak timbers are used to construct the open beam ceiling in this room, with mottled plaster walls. To the east of the house is a three-bay garage wing extension which is the residence of the gardener.
The grand second floor library room is also of major note, with a high cathedral-like ceiling and a grand conference table used for board meetings by the Virginia Historical Society. Again, as with the Sulgrave room, the mantelpiece is made from the Hawkins manor oak and is notably carved with an Old English inscription that reads, "0 ye fyre and heate bless ye the Lord." Behind the library panelling is a secret hidden passage, added at Alexander Weddell's request, leading to his private study. The rest of the second floors consists of living quarters and bathrooms, including many rooms of staff of the Virginia Historical Society and Virginia Weddell's bedroom, bath, and study.
Gardens
Virginia House is set in carefully planned landscape gardens which contains a diversity of plants and plantings. Virginia Weddell hired the noted landscape architect Charles GilletteCharles Gillette
Charles Gillette was a prominent landscape architect in the upper South that specialized in the creation of grounds supporting Colonial Revival architecture, particularly in Richmond, Virginia...
in 1927, and over some twenty years built over 8 acres (32,374.9 m²) of scenic gardens containing close to 1,000 types of ornamental plants, from formal spring tulip
Tulip
The tulip is a perennial, bulbous plant with showy flowers in the genus Tulipa, which comprises 109 species and belongs to the family Liliaceae. The genus's native range extends from as far west as Southern Europe, North Africa, Anatolia, and Iran to the Northwest of China. The tulip's centre of...
displays, hollies
Holly
Ilex) is a genus of 400 to 600 species of flowering plants in the family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. The species are evergreen and deciduous trees, shrubs, and climbers from tropics to temperate zones world wide....
, and magnolia
Magnolia
Magnolia is a large genus of about 210 flowering plant species in the subfamily Magnolioideae of the family Magnoliaceae. It is named after French botanist Pierre Magnol....
s, to wisteria
Wisteria
Wisteria is a genus of flowering plants in the pea family, Fabaceae, that includes ten species of woody climbing vines native to the eastern United States and to China, Korea, and Japan. Aquarists refer to the species Hygrophila difformis, in the family Acanthaceae, as Water Wisteria...
, rose
Rose
A rose is a woody perennial of the genus Rosa, within the family Rosaceae. There are over 100 species. They form a group of erect shrubs, and climbing or trailing plants, with stems that are often armed with sharp prickles. Flowers are large and showy, in colours ranging from white through yellows...
s, and sprawling hydrangea
Hydrangea
Hydrangea is a genus of about 70 to 75 species of flowering plants native to southern and eastern Asia and North and South America. By far the greatest species diversity is in eastern Asia, notably China, Japan, and Korea...
drape balconies and garden rails. The first phase of the plan was to create an informal
Tudor-style garden on the original 1 acres (4,046.9 m²) site that the Weddells purchased for the house site, using a steeply sloping southern hillside by creating interconnecting cascading ponds, flagstone walkways, and terraced garden beds. In 1932, the second phase reworked the original concept by overlaying a cross-axis and planting further beds for flowers such as tulips and iris. The third phase of the plan took place in 1939, when the Weddells purchased a large adjacent piece of land on the southern side of the house down towards the James River. Gillette extensively planted grass and positioned evergreens in an asymmetrical pattern which he believed would demonstrate a romantic mirroring of the rambling architecture of the house. Today, Gillette's original blueprints and notes preserved in a collection at the Fiske Kimball Fine Arts Library at the University of Virginia
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...
and Garden Week tours are held in Virginia House gardens in the spring, attracting thousands of visitors annually.