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Bacon's Castle

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Bacon's Castle
BaconCastle.jpg
Bacon's Castle in 2017
Bacon's Castle is located in Virginia
Bacon's Castle
LocationSurry County, Virginia
Coordinates37°06′32.4972″N 76°43′20.5824″W / 37.109027000°N 76.722384000°W / 37.109027000; -76.722384000Coordinates: 37°06′32.4972″N 76°43′20.5824″W / 37.109027000°N 76.722384000°W / 37.109027000; -76.722384000
AreaHampton Roads
Built1665; 358 years ago (1665)
Architectural styleJacobean and Greek revival
NRHP reference No.66000849
VLR No.090-0001
Significant dates
Added to NRHP1966[2]
Designated NHLOctober 9, 1960[3]
Designated VLRSeptember 9, 1969[1]

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.[4] Built in 1665, it is noted as an extremely rare example of Jacobean architecture in the New World.

The house became known as "Bacon's Castle" because it was occupied as a fort or "castle" by the followers of Nathaniel Bacon during Bacon's Rebellion in 1676. However, contrary to popular folklore, Bacon never lived at Bacon's Castle, nor is he even known to have visited it.

Today Bacon's Castle is an historic house museum and historic site open for guest visitation. Bacon's Castle is an official Preservation Virginia historic site and operates under its 501 (c)(3) not-for-profit status.

Discover more about Bacon's Castle related topics

Surry County, Virginia

Surry County, Virginia

Surry County is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 6,561.

Jacobean architecture

Jacobean architecture

The Jacobean style is the second phase of Renaissance architecture in England, following the Elizabethan style. It is named after King James VI and I, with whose reign it is associated. At the start of James' reign there was little stylistic break in architecture, as Elizabethan trends continued their development. However, his death in 1625 came as a decisive change towards more classical architecture, with Italian influence, was in progress, led by Inigo Jones; the style this began is sometimes called Stuart architecture, or English Baroque.

Bacon's Rebellion

Bacon's Rebellion

Bacon's Rebellion was an armed rebellion held by Virginia settlers that took place from 1676 to 1677. It was led by Nathaniel Bacon against Colonial Governor William Berkeley, after Berkeley refused Bacon's request to drive Native Americans out of Virginia. Thousands of Virginians from all classes and races rose up in arms against Berkeley, chasing him from Jamestown and ultimately torching the settlement. The rebellion was first suppressed by a few armed merchant ships from London whose captains sided with Berkeley and the loyalists. Government forces arrived soon after and spent several years defeating pockets of resistance and reforming the colonial government to be once more under direct Crown control.

Historic house museum

Historic house museum

A historic house museum is a house of historic significance that has been transformed into a museum. Historic furnishings may be displayed in a way that reflects their original placement and usage in a home. Historic house museums are held to a variety of standards, including those of the International Council of Museums. Houses are transformed into museums for a number of different reasons. For example, the homes of famous writers are frequently turned into writer's home museums to support literary tourism.

History

Soon after Surry County was formed in the English colony of Virginia in 1652, Arthur Allen built a high style Jacobean brick house in 1665 near the James River, where he and his wife Alice (née Tucker) Allen lived. He was a wealthy merchant and a Justice of the Peace in Surry County. Allen died in 1669, but his son, Major Arthur Allen II, inherited the house and property. Major Allen was a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses.

About mid-September, 1676, a number of the rebel followers of frontiersman Nathaniel Bacon seized the brick house of Major Allen and fortified it.[5] The garrison, commanded at various times by William Rookings, Arthur Long, Joseph Rogers and John Clements, retained control of the house for over three months while their cause declined. The death of Bacon in October left his forces under the leadership of Joseph Ingram, who proved to be unsuited to the command. Ingram dispersed his army in small garrisons, and as the demoralized troops began to plunder indiscriminately, the condition of the colony soon became deplorable.[5]

Royal Governor Sir William Berkeley began to conquer the isolated posts one by one, some by force and some by persuasion. On December 29, a loyal force aboard the vessel Young Prince, captured an unidentified "fort" which many historians have identified as Bacon's Castle. After withstanding a brief siege early in January, 1677, the loyalists used the "fort" as a base of operations for the last engagements of the rebellion, which ended before the month was out.[5]

The Allen family's brick home became known as "Bacon's Castle" because it was occupied as a fort or "castle" by the followers of Nathaniel Bacon during Bacon's Rebellion in 1676. However, contrary to popular folklore, Bacon never lived at Bacon's Castle, nor is he even known to have visited it.[5] Bacon was the proprietor of Curles Neck Plantation in Henrico County, about 30 miles upriver on the northern bank of the James River. Many historians believe the name "Bacon's Castle" was not used until many years after Bacon's Rebellion. In 1769, the Virginia Gazette newspaper in the capital city of Williamsburg used that name when it published several articles about Bacon's Rebellion.

During the Civil War, Private Sidney Lanier (2nd Battalion, Macon Volunteers), later one of the "Poets of the Confederacy", was stationed at nearby Burwell's Bay from May 1863 to October 1864 with the Confederate signal corps. He and his brother Clifford were devoted friends of the Hankins family, then owners of Bacon's Castle, and the brothers often visited the estate when they were on duty at Burwell's Bay. Virginia Hankins, or Ginna, as she was called, rejected Sidney Lanier's May 1867 proposal of marriage solely because of the obligation she felt towards her motherless younger brothers and sisters, but they remained lifelong friends.[6]

Ginna's brother, James DeWitt Hankins, was a law student at the University of Virginia at the outbreak of the war. He was a member of the Jefferson Society, a literary society at the university. He was commissioned June 22, 1861 as first lieutenant of artillery, Fourth Regiment, Virginia Militia. Later, he was promoted to Captain of the Surry Light Artillery and served through Appomattox. Captain Hankins was killed by William Underwood in a duel on October 18, 1866, at Isle of Wight Courthouse over insults previously exchanged between the two men while drinking in a tavern. The tragedy created intense excitement throughout the Virginia Tidewater where the families of both parties were prominent and well known, and started a long running feud between the Hankins and Underwood families. Despite the fact that dueling had been outlawed in Virginia in 1810 following the famous duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, and the fact that the so-called "duel" was essentially a shootout, Underwood pleaded not guilty at his murder trial on May 16, 1867. On May 30, the jury unanimously voted to acquit.[7]

At the request of Virginia Hankins, Sidney Lanier wrote "In Memoriam" for her brother who had been his friend.[8]

Like other James River Plantations, Bacon's Castle faced the problems of loss of manpower due to the emancipation of slaves, and insurmountable debt following the Civil War. Financially strapped, Ginna's father John Hankins had mortgaged the property prior to his death in 1870. Unable to raise money to pay the mortgage, Virginia Hankins sold the 1,200 acre estate in 1872 to the mortgage holder to pay off the debt and provide for her brothers' and sisters' education. The family moved to Richmond where she became a schoolteacher, learned in Latin, French, and German. She also wrote poetry and an unpublished novel. She never married. She died December 24, 1888, and is buried in Hollywood Cemetery.[8]

William Allen Warren, purchased the estate in 1880 and sold it to his son Charles Allen Warren in 1909. When Charles died in 1931 the estate passed through inheritance to his son Walker Pegram Warren who had been born in the mansion. Walker Warren and his wife used Bacon's Castle as a second home until their deaths in an automobile accident in 1973. The Warrens had no children and, the mansion and outbuildings and 40 acres of the plantation were acquired from their estate by the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities. The remaining 1,130 acres of the plantation were acquired by Virginia State Senator Garland Gray and later passed through inheritance to his son Elmon T. Gray and remain devoted to agriculture.

Discover more about History related topics

Colony of Virginia

Colony of Virginia

The Colony of Virginia, chartered in 1606 and settled in 1607, was the first enduring English colony in North America, following failed attempts at settlement on Newfoundland by Sir Humphrey Gilbert in 1583 and the Roanoke Colony by Sir Walter Raleigh in the late 1580s.

Jacobean architecture

Jacobean architecture

The Jacobean style is the second phase of Renaissance architecture in England, following the Elizabethan style. It is named after King James VI and I, with whose reign it is associated. At the start of James' reign there was little stylistic break in architecture, as Elizabethan trends continued their development. However, his death in 1625 came as a decisive change towards more classical architecture, with Italian influence, was in progress, led by Inigo Jones; the style this began is sometimes called Stuart architecture, or English Baroque.

Merchant

Merchant

A merchant is a person who trades in commodities produced by other people, especially one who trades with foreign countries. Historically, a merchant is anyone who is involved in business or trade. Merchants have operated for as long as industry, commerce, and trade have existed. In 16th-century Europe, two different terms for merchants emerged: meerseniers referred to local traders and koopman referred to merchants who operated on a global stage, importing and exporting goods over vast distances and offering added-value services such as credit and finance.

Arthur Allen II

Arthur Allen II

Arthur Allen II, also known as Major Allen was an American soldier and politician. During his life he served as a surveyor and was part of the Surry County militia. He was made a Major at some point between the fall of 1680 and the spring of the following year.

House of Burgesses

House of Burgesses

The House of Burgesses was the elected representative element of the Virginia General Assembly, the legislative body of the Colony of Virginia. With the creation of the House of Burgesses in 1642, the General Assembly, which had been established in 1619, became a bicameral institution.

Garrison

Garrison

A garrison is any body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it. The term now often applies to certain facilities that constitute a military base or fortified military headquarters. A garrison is usually in a city, town, fort, castle, ship, or similar site. "Garrison town" is a common expression for any town that has a military base nearby.

Bacon's Rebellion

Bacon's Rebellion

Bacon's Rebellion was an armed rebellion held by Virginia settlers that took place from 1676 to 1677. It was led by Nathaniel Bacon against Colonial Governor William Berkeley, after Berkeley refused Bacon's request to drive Native Americans out of Virginia. Thousands of Virginians from all classes and races rose up in arms against Berkeley, chasing him from Jamestown and ultimately torching the settlement. The rebellion was first suppressed by a few armed merchant ships from London whose captains sided with Berkeley and the loyalists. Government forces arrived soon after and spent several years defeating pockets of resistance and reforming the colonial government to be once more under direct Crown control.

Curles Neck Plantation

Curles Neck Plantation

Curles Neck Plantation is located between State Route 5 and the north bank of the James River in the Varina district of Henrico County, Virginia. One of the great James River Plantations, Curles Neck has remained in active use for almost 400 years and remains a privately owned working farm which is not currently open to the public.

Henrico County, Virginia

Henrico County, Virginia

Henrico County, officially the County of Henrico, is located in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 334,389 making it the fifth-most populous county in Virginia. Henrico County is included in the Greater Richmond Region. There is no incorporated community within Henrico County; therefore, there is no incorporated county seat either. Laurel, an unincorporated CDP, serves this function.

American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union and the Confederacy, the latter formed by states that had seceded. The central cause of the war was the dispute over whether slavery would be permitted to expand into the western territories, leading to more slave states, or be prevented from doing so, which was widely believed would place slavery on a course of ultimate extinction.

Sidney Lanier

Sidney Lanier

Sidney Clopton Lanier was an American musician, poet and author. He served in the Confederate States Army as a private, worked on a blockade-running ship for which he was imprisoned, taught, worked at a hotel where he gave musical performances, was a church organist, and worked as a lawyer. As a poet he sometimes used dialects. Many of his poems are written in heightened, but often archaic, American English. He became a flautist and sold poems to publications. He eventually became a professor of literature at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and is known for his adaptation of musical meter to poetry. Many schools, other structures and two lakes are named for him, and he became hailed in the South as the "poet of the Confederacy". A 1972 US postage stamp honored him as an "American poet".

Confederate States of America

Confederate States of America

The Confederate States of America (CSA), commonly referred to as the Confederate States or the Confederacy, was an unrecognized breakaway herrenvolk republic in the Southern United States that existed from February 8, 1861, to May 9, 1865. The Confederacy comprised U.S. states that declared secession and warred against the United States during the American Civil War: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina.

Preservation and current operations

An external building part of the site
An external building part of the site

Bacon's Castle was acquired by Preservation Virginia (formerly known as the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities) in the 1970s and restored. Preservation activities continue while guests visit the Site. Bacon's Castle now operates as a house museum and historic site with 40-acres of outbuildings and dependencies including barns, slave and tenant quarters, smokehouses, and a rare example of a 17th-century English formal garden. Visitors may self-tour the grounds, outbuildings and gardens throughout the year. Between March and November guests may tour the Castle and purchase merchandise in its gift shop on Fridays and Saturdays between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. and Sundays between 12 and 4 p.m. Group tours are available with advance reservations.

In 2015 the Virginia Outdoors Foundation received a $257,996 grant from the Virginia Land Conservation Foundation to help the group purchase a conservation easement on 1,260 acres of privately owned farmland surrounding Bacon's Castle. The easement ensures the land will be permanently protected from residential and commercial development.[9]

Architecture

Bacon's Castle is a rare example of American Jacobean architecture and the only surviving "high-style" house from the 17th century.[10][11] It is one of only three surviving Jacobean great houses west of the Atlantic—the other two are in Barbados. They are Drax Hall Estate and the Great House at St. Nicholas Abbey Plantation. Notable architectural features include the triple-stacked chimneys, shaped Flemish gables, and carved compass roses decorating the cross beams in many of the public rooms. The house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1960.

Between the mid to late-nineteenth century, Bacon's Castle underwent several modifications. An original one story service wing was replaced by a taller Greek Revival wing. Around this time, the entrance was moved from the center of the main block to the hyphen between the original house and addition, and diamond-pane casement windows were exchanged for double-hung sash windows. Moving the door left a scar in the location of the original pedimented surround. All of these changes were maintained in the restoration.[12]

Discover more about Architecture related topics

Jacobean architecture

Jacobean architecture

The Jacobean style is the second phase of Renaissance architecture in England, following the Elizabethan style. It is named after King James VI and I, with whose reign it is associated. At the start of James' reign there was little stylistic break in architecture, as Elizabethan trends continued their development. However, his death in 1625 came as a decisive change towards more classical architecture, with Italian influence, was in progress, led by Inigo Jones; the style this began is sometimes called Stuart architecture, or English Baroque.

Great house

Great house

A great house is a large house or mansion with luxurious appointments and great retinues of indoor and outdoor staff. The term is used mainly historically, especially of properties at the turn of the 20th century, i.e., the late Victorian or Edwardian era in the United Kingdom and the Gilded Age in the United States.

Barbados

Barbados

Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of 432 km2 (167 sq mi) and has a population of about 287,000. Its capital and largest city is Bridgetown.

Drax Hall Estate

Drax Hall Estate

Drax Hall Estate is a sugarcane plantation situated in Saint George, Barbados, in the Caribbean.

Architecture

Architecture

Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings or other structures. The term comes from Latin architectura; from Ancient Greek ἀρχιτέκτων (arkhitéktōn) 'architect'; from ἀρχι- (arkhi-) 'chief', and τέκτων (téktōn) 'creator'. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural symbols and as works of art. Historical civilizations are often identified with their surviving architectural achievements.

Gable

Gable

A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesthetic concerns. The term gable wall or gable end more commonly refers to the entire wall, including the gable and the wall below it. Some types of roof do not have a gable. One common type of roof with gables, the gable roof, is named after its prominent gables.

Compass rose

Compass rose

A compass rose, sometimes called a wind rose, rose of the winds or compass star, is a figure on a compass, map, nautical chart, or monument used to display the orientation of the cardinal directions and their intermediate points. It is also the term for the graduated markings found on the traditional magnetic compass. Today, a form of compass rose is found on, or featured in, almost all navigation systems, including nautical charts, non-directional beacons (NDB), VHF omnidirectional range (VOR) systems, global-positioning systems (GPS), and similar equipment.

Beam (structure)

Beam (structure)

A beam is a structural element that primarily resists loads applied laterally to the beam's axis. Its mode of deflection is primarily by bending. The loads applied to the beam result in reaction forces at the beam's support points. The total effect of all the forces acting on the beam is to produce shear forces and bending moments within the beams, that in turn induce internal stresses, strains and deflections of the beam. Beams are characterized by their manner of support, profile, equilibrium conditions, length, and their material.

National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic value". A property listed in the National Register, or located within a National Register Historic District, may qualify for tax incentives derived from the total value of expenses incurred in preserving the property.

National Historic Landmark

National Historic Landmark

A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500, or roughly three percent, of over 90,000 places listed on the country's National Register of Historic Places are recognized as National Historic Landmarks.

Hyphen (architecture)

Hyphen (architecture)

In architecture, a hyphen is a connecting link between two larger building elements. It is typically found in Palladian architecture, where the hyphens form connections between a large corps de logis and terminating pavilions.

Casement window

Casement window

A casement window is a window that is attached to its frame by one or more hinges at the side. They are used singly or in pairs within a common frame, in which case they are hinged on the outside. Casement windows are often held open using a casement stay. Windows hinged at the top are referred to as awning windows, and ones hinged at the bottom are called hoppers.

Source: "Bacon's Castle", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2023, March 18th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacon's_Castle.

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Notes
  1. ^ "Virginia Landmarks Register". Virginia Department of Historic Resources. Archived from the original on 2013-09-21. Retrieved 5 June 2013.
  2. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 15, 2006.
  3. ^ "Bacon's Castle". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Archived from the original on 2008-05-03. Retrieved 2008-06-23.
  4. ^ Preserving Virginia 1889-1989: Centennial Pictorial. Virginia: The Art Band. 1989. p. 12.
  5. ^ a b c d National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form, Bacon's Castle, p. 2.
  6. ^ Starke, Aubrey Harrison (1964) [1933]. Sidney Lanier: A Biographical and Critical Study. pp. 48–52.
  7. ^ "Daily Press: Hampton Roads News, Virginia News & Videos".
  8. ^ a b "Bacon's Castle - the Letters of Virginia Hankins and Sidney Lanier » Preservation Virginia". Archived from the original on 2016-03-16. Retrieved 2016-03-06.
  9. ^ "Surry, Sussex projects receive grants".
  10. ^ "Bacon's Castle". Preservation Virginia. Archived from the original on 2010-07-17. Retrieved 25 July 2010.
  11. ^ McAlester, Virginia; Lee McAlester (1984). A Field Guide to American Houses. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. p. 110. ISBN 0-394-73969-8.
  12. ^ Howe, Jeffery (2002). The Houses We Live In: An Identification Guide to the History and Style of American Domestic Architecture. London: PRC Publishing. pp. 125–26. ISBN 1-85648-637-0.
References
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