Fairfield Plantation (Gloucester County, Virginia)

Fairfield Plantation
Overview, planted in corn
Fairfield Plantation (Gloucester County, Virginia) is located in Virginia
Fairfield Plantation (Gloucester County, Virginia)
Nearest cityWhite Marsh, Virginia
Coordinates37°20′29″N 76°33′14″W / 37.34139°N 76.55389°W / 37.34139; -76.55389
Area220 acres (89 ha)
Built1692 (1692)
Built byLewis Burwell (1621–1653)
NRHP reference No.73002019[1]
Significant dates
Added to NRHPJuly 16, 1973
Designated VLRFebruary 20, 1973
External image
image icon Map of Fairfield within Colonial Virginia

Fairfield plantation was a historic tobacco plantation from 17th century Colony of Virginia, owned by the Burwell family of Virginia from 1642 to 1787. The house was destroyed in 1897 due to fire. It is now an archaeological site that also includes slave quarters, a large formal garden, and the Burwell family cemetery.[2][3] Archaeological research has been led by the Fairfield Foundation archaeologists David Brown And Thane Harpole.[4][5]

Built in 1694,[4] the brick manor at Fairfield was described as what was once "the most sophisticated sophisticated classical house built in British North America to that date" by Cary Carson, retired Colonial Williamsburg research chief.[4][6] It was built to emulate the houses of the gentry in London.[4]

The house had Flemish-bond brick walls and a 62-foot veranda on the front of the structure that overlooked the large formal garden. It had extra-large rectangular sash windows, and the first known use of a hipped roof with dormers in the colony. At the time the house was built, most of the other buildings were built on posts sunk in the earth.[4] Fairfield Plantation became a National Register of Historic Places listing on July 16, 1973. It is also a Virginia Historic Landmark as of February 20, 1973.[6]

  1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. ^ "Fairfield Plantation, Gloucester County". Virginia Department of Historic Resources. Retrieved 2021-10-14.
  3. ^ "Fairfield Plantation". Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery (DAACS). 11 March 2013. Retrieved 2021-10-15.
  4. ^ a b c d e Erickson, Mark St John (14 July 2018). "Saving the lost landscape of a long-overlooked part of early Virginia". dailypress.com. Retrieved 2021-10-15.
  5. ^ "Fairfield Plantation (Gloucester County)". Colonial Virginia Portraits. Retrieved 2021-10-14.
  6. ^ a b "Fairfield Foundation". Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. Retrieved 2021-10-15.