Mount Airy, Richmond County, Virginia
|
Mount Airy
|
|
Mount Airy in 1971
|
|
| Location | West of Warsaw on U.S. 360, Richmond County, Virginia |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 37°58′20″N 76°47′29″W / 37.97222°N 76.79139°WCoordinates: 37°58′20″N 76°47′29″W / 37.97222°N 76.79139°W |
| Area | 450 acres (180 ha) |
| Built | 1758–62 |
| Architect | John Ariss |
| Architectural style | Neo-Palladian |
| NRHP Reference # | 66000845 |
| VLR # | 079-0013 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | October 15, 1966 |
| Designated NHL | October 9, 1960 |
| Designated VLR | September 9, 1969 |
Mount Airy, near Warsaw in Richmond County, Virginia, built in 1764, is a mid-Georgian plantation house, the first built in the manner of a neo-Palladian villa. It was constructed for Colonel John Tayloe II, perhaps the richest Virginia planter of his generation. Mount Airy is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a National Historic Landmark and on the Virginia Landmarks Register. Colonel John Tayloe II's son-in-law, Francis Lightfoot Lee—a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and his wife Rebecca Tayloe, are buried on the estate. Francis Lightfoot Lee was one member of the only pair of brothers to sign the Declaration, with Richard Henry Lee being the other. Mount Airy was first and foremost a stud horse farm and department head for 10-12 separate slave plantations, and is still privately owned today by the Tayloe family.
Mount Airy is composed of a massive two-story central block above a high basement, 69 feet (21 m) long and 47 feet (14 m) deep, two curving one-story passageways, and two 36-foot (11 m)-square two-story end dependencies set forward. The five-part unit, 128 feet (39 m) long, encloses three sides of a semi-circular forecourt. This court is raised by a low terrace above the entrance drive and is reached by cut and molded stone steps, flanked by elaborate carved stone vases on pedestals. Set on a ridge, the house commands a wide view of the Rappahannock River Valley. The 3-foot-thick (0.91 m) walls of the central unit are made of dark-brown sandstone, carefully hewn and laid in courses of random height, with architectural trim in light-colored limestone. It is possible that the exterior may originally have been stuccoed though no trace remains. The north or entrance façade is approached from the forecourt by a flight of steps leading to a recessed loggia, whose square columns, faced with four Roman Doric pilasters, define three rectilinear openings. The projecting central pavilion is of rusticated limestone, with three windows in the second story and a crowning pediment. The south or garden facade is almost identical in composition except that the three entrances in the pavilion are spanned by round arches with heavily marked voussoirs and keystones, and the upper windows are unframed. The other windows are framed by stone architraves and sills, and the limestone belt course and rusticated angle quoins are very prominent. The existing broad hip roof, pierced by four interior chimneys located near the ridge, is a replacement of the original roof, possibly a hip-on-hip that was destroyed by fire in 1844.
...
Wikipedia