History Preserved in Brick and Timber
The area surrounding West Point features several plantations with well-preserved buildings dating from the 18th century.
1. Chelsea
This is now called Historic Chelsea. Situated on the shores of the Mattaponi River in King William County, Chelsea Plantation is owned by Christie Richardson Miller and ErikRichardson. In 2012, Mr. William Richardson (their father) worked with the Williamsburg Land Conservancy to protect his homestead in perpetuity.
Chelsea Plantation was built in 1709 by Colonel Augustine Moore, a socially and politically well-connected gentleman and a highly successful tobacco entrepreneur in the Tidewater area.
Captain John Smith passed by the site of Chelsea on his way to Chief Powhatan at Werewocomoco when he was taken captive.
During the Revolutionary War, General Lafayette encamped there during the campaign of 1781, just before the Battle of Yorktown where he defeated Cornwallis.
Robert E. Lee’s grandmother was both born and married there.
Thomas Jefferson attended the wedding of his best friend Dr. John Walker at Chelsea.
The Knights of the Golden Horseshoe was formed at Chelsea by Governor Spotswood.
George Washington stopped at Chelsea on his Burgess Route on his way from Fredericksburg to Williamsburg.
2. Chericoke
It is located near Falls in King William County.
It was built by Carter Braxton in 1767 for his second wife. It is several miles NW of the Braxton estate of Elsing Green.
Carter Braxton lived at Chericoke from 1767 to 1776 when much of the house was destroyed by fire. He is buried in the adjoining family cemetery. After the fire, the Braxton family moved to Delaware Town (West Point) at what is now 7th and Main Street.
It was rebuilt in 1828 by Braxton’s grandson Dr. Corbin Braxton.
3. Elsing Green
A National Historic Landmark and wildlife refuge, rests upon nearly 3,000 acres (1,200 ha) along the Pamunkey River in King William County, Virginia.
The 18th-century plantation, now owned by the Lafferty family, has been in continuous operation for more than 300 years. In addition to the plantation house, dependency buildings and cultivated land, Elsing Green includes 2,454 acres (993 ha) of surrounding farmland, forest and marsh land. Elsing Green is also on the Virginia Landmarks Register and in the National Register of Historic Places.
Its history dates back nearly three centuries with ties to the West family of Lord Delaware. The original structure, a brick Jacobean lodge now serving as the east dependency of the manor house, was built before 1690 by Colonel John West. It is said that Lord Delaware used the building as his hunting lodge, escaping to the King William woods by way of the Pamunkey River.
The plantation was passed down through the West family after the death of Colonel John West in 1692. It eventually became associated with the Dandridge family of George Washington’s wife, Martha Custis. It is said that Martha Custis Washington actually rode her horse through the house.
The Dandridge family built the Queen Anne manor house and kitchen house between 1715 and 1720. Carter Braxton, a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, bought the plantation in 1753. He lived here with his first wife until her death during childbirth.
The plantation, through several inheritances and purchases, was eventually sold in the 1930s to Beverly D. Causey, whose family took it upon themselves to restore the then degraded property and structures.
Nearly two decades later, the family of the current owners purchased Elsing Green. In 1950, Edgar R. Lafferty, Jr., and his wife, Margaret, continued the restoration and expanded the plantation by adding previously purchased land adjacent to Elsing Green.
4. Windsor Shades
Also known as Ruffin’s Ferry and Waterville—is situated on the Pamunkey River about 10 miles upriver from West Point in King William County, Virginia. Archeological native artifacts found on the property surrounding the house suggest it was the site of the Kupkipcok, a Pamunkey village noted on John Smith’s 1609 map.[3][4]
The land title is not clear, owing to the destruction of King William County records, but the house is assumed to have been built around 1750.[5] The building is a story-and-a-half, 5 baygabled roofed, frame structure covered with beaded weatherboards and set on a low, stone and English-bond brick basement. The house has striking massive Flemish – bond brick chimney stacks at either end. In the basement is a large tavern room with reportedly one of the largest interior cooking hearths in Tidewater, Virginia.[6] The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.[7] In 1999 two wings were added on either side of the main block with little alteration of the original structure.
In 1754 Captain Thomas Dansie established a ferry at the site and operated a tavern in the house.[8] The ferry was in operation until 1927 when a bridge was built in West Point. During the years the house was operated as a tavern with a ferry crossing it was frequented by many notable travelers such as George Washington, who patronized it from the 1750s on his Burgess Route to Williamsburg.[9] In August 1781, the Marquis de Lafayette crossed the Pamunkey by ferry with 4,500 troops. He spent two weeks in King William County, moving between Windsor Shades and Chelsea Plantation.[10] On September 13, 1781 Washington and Rochambeau crossed the Pamunkey at Ruffin’s Ferry headed to the battle of Yorktown.[11]
The current owner (Carl Fischer) purchased the property in 1998 and in 2009 donated a historic easement on Windsor Shades and the 14 acres the house sits on to the Virginia Department of Historic Resources.
5. Romancoke
It is Located about four miles west of West Point on the Pamunkey River.
Romancoke plantation was built in the mid 1600’s by William Claiborne
George Washington Parke Custis, father of Mary Anna Randolph Custis Lee (wife of Gen. Robert E. Lee) owned Romancoke Plantation, as well as Arlington and White House Plantations.
His will appointed Gen. Lee as executor, and directed him to manumit approximately 200 slaves within five years of his death (which happened in 1857). The American Civil War and Emancipation Proclamation intervened, but Gen. Lee fulfilled the clause by December, 1862.[2]
Lee’s second son, Rooney Lee, managed both White House plantation and nearby Romancoke after resigning his U.S. Army commission.[3] His youngest son, Robert E. Lee, Jr., inherited Romancoke and after the war took up residence.
Some other historic homes and plantations in King William include Burlington, Airville, Horn Quarter, Mt. Columbia, Roseville Plantation, Seven Springs, Wyoming, Sweet Hall, and Zoar