Rosewell Plantation - The Grandest Home of the Colonial Period

In July of the year 2007 my family and I visited the ruins that was one of the greats and grandest plantations of the American colonies that is on the bank of the York River in Gloucester County, Virginia. The name of the plantation is Rosewell Plantation. The plantation is now just a shell that a tragic fire left in 1916 but you can still imagine the grandeur of the home. From the time is was built in 1725 by Mann Page I the home was the site for the grandest parties and dances held in the Great Hall of the colonial period.

Upon entering the plantation there is a guest center that you visit first. Here you will see a film about the plantation and also have the opportunity to visit the archeological finds that have been discovered plus pay to visit the remains of the plantation. We were taken to the archeological room where all the items that they have discovered so far are laid out.

There was one very interesting find that we all couldn't believe. They had discovered in the vaulted cellar eggshells. Now what is fascinating is that when the fire occurred the house fell in and the vaulted cellar had been covered for years. Up until recently they had just discovered the cellar and these eggshells were perfectly fine.

There was all kinds of thing that the archeologist have found including a man's class ring from the 50's when him and his friend had played around the ruins as teens. They were able to locate the man and give his ring back after all these years.

Upon leaving the guest center we travel down a dirt road to the plantation. As you come around the corner you are struck with WOW! You see massive brick fireplaces and what looks like where the front door would have been.

Standing in front of the once front door, this is where you would inter into the Great Hall with a wide impressively carved staircase leading upward to your left. As we walked to our right there was the entrance to the vaulted cellar, which was below the Hall. The arched brick wall was what supported the weight of the marble tiles in the Hall.

As we started our walk around the home looking up we could see bricks that are projecting out in lines. These marked the lines between the three stories. Then we walked around the back of the home and we could see one remaining interior wall, which formed one of the walls of the Great Hall.

Moving on to the other side of the home we could see where a massive frame of windows would have been. There would have been one on the other side of the home. This is where light would of shown on the great staircase, which connected the main living areas on the first and second floors.

As we walked around this massive ruin of a home, if you used your imagination you could see the grand scale of a working plantation. People going here and there, workers working in the kitchen, which was located to the left of the front door. It was reported that slaves slept in the kitchen and that in 1741, 11 slaves died in a kitchen fire.

Just to the left of the where the kitchen would have been is the family cemetery, where several of generations of Page family members are buried.

At the back of the house there is a path that will lead you to where the brick ice house once stood. The icehouse once rose several feet higher, and a cone-shaped roof covered it. Several nearby springs were dammed up in winter to form a pond, so that ice could be cut, packed in straw, and stored into the icehouse until needed.

Beyond the icehouse flows Carter Creek that winds around the opposite side of the home, where it then flows into the York River. Visitors in the 18th century came by boat on the York River and Carter Creek to a landing some distance up the creek, and then followed a carriage drive up to the front door.

Rosewell Plantation had 17 fireplaces: 3 in the basement, 4 large ones on each of the three upper floors, and 2 small ones in "closets" (small rooms opening off the downstairs bedchambers). The 1916 fire began in the southwest chimney. The heat was so intense that it damaged the stonework at the top of the chimneys.

The Rosewell Plantation was a working 3000-acre plantation with slaves. Mann Page began building in 1725 and was completed in 1737. Mann Page I never lived to see this massive mansion completed. The Rosewell Plantation was handed down several generations. Governor John Page was a friend and college classmate Thomas Jefferson and it is said that Thomas Jefferson wrote the first draft of the U.S. Declaration of Independence in one of its rooms.

The home was given to the Gloucester Historical Society in 1979. Archeological digs are taking place as we speak. There is no intention of rebuilding the grand Page home; it is being preserved for your imagination.

As you look at the pictures you will notice some of the items I have listed above. In the third picture you can see the bricks that are projecting out in lines and the remaining interior wall. In picture number five you can get a feel for the massive size of the mansion; my family members look small compared to the size of the chimneys.