Annefield (Saxe, Virginia)
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Annefield
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Annefield, September 2011
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| Location | 3200 Sunny Side Rd., Saxe, Virginia |
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| Coordinates | 36°55′42″N 78°37′22″W / 36.92833°N 78.62278°WCoordinates: 36°55′42″N 78°37′22″W / 36.92833°N 78.62278°W |
| Area | Southside |
| Built | 1858 |
| Architect | Jacob W. Holt (attributed) |
| Architectural style | Italianate |
| NRHP reference # | 09000920 |
| VLR # | 019-5208 |
| Significant dates | |
| Designated | November 12, 2009 |
| Designated VLR | September 17, 2008 |
Annefield is a historic plantation house located at Saxe, Charlotte County, Virginia. It was constructed in 1858, and is a well-preserved example of the Italianate style villas being constructed during the antebellum period in northern North Carolina and Southern Virginia by master builder Jacob W. Holt (1811–1880). Annefield is one of only two known plantation houses in Charlotte County attributed to Holt, a Virginia-born carpenter, builder, and contractor who moved to Warrenton, North Carolina, and established one of North Carolina’s largest antebellum building firms. Architectural historian Catherine W. Bishir notes: “Drawing upon popular architectural books, Holt developed a distinctive style that encompassed Greek Revival and Italianate features adapted to local preferences and the capabilities of his workshop. In addition to the more than twenty buildings documented as his work, stylistic evidence and family traditions also attribute as many as seventy more to Holt and his shop.”
Annefield is attributed to Holt’s shop because it shares many stylistic features with several documented buildings. On 17 September 2009 the property was placed on the Virginia Landmarks Register, and on 12 November 2009 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places because it is a locally significant example of a relatively rare form of high-style architecture that is the work of a master builder. In addition to the main house at Annefield, stylistic evidence suggests that Holt also designed and built the Kitchen/Quarter and the Smokehouse. Other secondary buildings and sites on the property contribute to Annefield’s importance as a relatively intact antebellum farm complex in Charlotte County, Virginia.
The property is located east of the village of Saxe in lower Charlotte County, and comprises approximately 190 acres between Horsepen Creek (to the north) and State Route 612 (Sunny Side Road) to the south. Open fields, woods, orchards and vineyards combine to form a bucolic landscape that has changed little in the past two hundred years. Other significant landscape features include two small ponds and an oak-lined drive approaching the main house from the south.
In 1760, Abraham Martin (1716–1771) patented 4,060 acres of land (including 989 acres already patented in 1746) on Horsepen Creek in what was then Lunenburg County. In 1770, Martin conveyed 899 acres of this land to William Jameson (1745–1785), a native of Glasgow, Scotland. Jameson settled the property with his wife Anne Read, the daughter of Clement Read and Mary Hill of Bushy Forest, the wealthiest and most powerful family in the region. Jameson’s alliance with a leading family in the county was an advantageous one, for he secured a number of important commissions in spite of his foreign birth, including County Justice (1772 and 1784), Vestryman of Cornwall Parish (1778), Escheator (1778), Militia Lieutenant (1778), and Militia Captain (1779).
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