Shirley Plantation

Interesting Old House

We have been driving past signs for Shirley Plantation for several years but never made time to visit. On a recent mild autumn day we finally satisfied my curiosity about the site. It was a pleasant ride along VA Route 5 followed by a few miles through flat open farm fields before eventually arriving at the tree-lined entrance to the historic house.

English colonists arrived at Jamestown in 1607. Six years later, in 1613, King James made a royal land grant along the James River to Sir Thomas West. Sir Thomas named the location "The West and Sherley Hundred" after himself and his wife, Lady Cessalye Sherley. By 1616 the land was producing tobacco. In 1638 Edward Hill I purchased the tobacco farm and added many acres to it. Over the years the plantation name changed to "Shirley". During the years 1723 to 1738 decendants of Edward Hill I eventually built the house pictured below now attractively placed beside the James River. 

The house, continuously occupied by eight generations of the Carter/Hill family, has seen a lot of American history and hosted several famous historical personalities including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. During our tour of the first floor we saw many authentic antiques and stood before the parlor fireplace where Anne Hill Carter married Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee on June 18, 1793. Anne and Henry were the parents of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. The house served as a hospital for wounded Union soldiers during the Civil War. The following panorama shows a wider view of the house and surroundings. (Click on the image for a larger view.)

We walked around the house to see the rear.

The view from the back porch looks over a modest lawn towards the James River. (Click on the image for a larger panorama.)

This river view was much nicer in the past before unattractive industrial plants were built within sight on the opposite side of the James River in Hopewell. The smoke stacks are blocked behind a tree in the previous panorama.

On the right side of the back yard panorama above you can see the bottom portion of an enormous willow oak tree more than 350 years old. This means the tree has been there at least since 1668!

Life was different in the 1700's. There were no refrigerators. Instead, an ice house was located on the grounds shown in the next picture.

Ice was cut from fresh water ponds in winter, then compacted and stored in a deep pit under the ice house. Ice melted very slowly in the pit and lasted into the warmer months. The ice pit was lined with bricks and topped with a brick dome shown in the next two pictures.

Consider preparation of a chicken dinner in 2018. We walk a few feet to a freezer in the kitchen, open the door, and take out already butchered meat. In the 1700's if doves were to be served for dinner, servants walked about 100 yards outside to the dovecote and plucked a few doves from roosts within. The next two pictures show the dovecote and roosts arranged within the dovecote. There are 108 total roosts inside!

The kitchen was a completely separate building on the front lawn of the main house as shown below.

Servants and cooks lived on the top floor. Cooking was done on the bottom floor.

The laundry was located across the front yard from the kitchen in a building identical to the kitchen. In my modern home the refrigerator, kitchen, and laundry room are all located inside less than 10 feet apart. Residents of the Shirley house depended on multiple servants traveling outside between the ice house, kitchen, laundry, and dovecote to carry out domestic tasks. It's strange to imagine dinner prepared and cooked about 40 yards away from the main house, then carried by servants across the lawn, through the front door, and into the dining room to be served.

We spent a very enjoyable afternoon exploring this attractive historic estate.