Sherwood Forest Plantation, Charles City, Virginia

If you are one that likes touring Presidents homes, you won't want to miss Sherwood Forest Plantation. It was the home of the 10th U.S. President John Tyler. John Tyler purchased the 1,600-acre plantation in 1842 and the Tyler family has been in continuous residence since.

The plantation was first recorded in a 1616 land grant, originally known as Smith's Hundred. Its history spans almost four centuries and details the evolution form a modest 17-century English house once owned by William Byrd and a part of the Minge family's "Creek Plantation," to a substantial 19-century Big House, complete with surrounding plantation yard and cultivated fields.

The house, circa 1720, is a classic example of Virginia Tidewater design: big house, little house, colonnade, and kitchen. This house was probably destroyed by the end of 1720. In 1720-30, a second house was built over the original basement. This resembled a three-story English Georgian townhouse and included detached plantation dependencies. By the 1780's the main house was balanced by the addition of a three-story wing, connecting the main house and dependency. Then in 1800-1830, a law office/overseer's office was constructed. Originally, this structure served as a separate house for the planter's sons and their servants. In addition a parlor and a nursery was constructed.

In 1842 Tyler purchased the home and its surrounding 1,600 acres. He bought the plantation from his cousin, Collier Minge. Minge named the plantation "Walnut Grove." John Tyler was in office when he bought the plantation and renamed it "Sherwood Forest" referring to his reputation as a political outlaw.

Sherwood Forest Plantation is the longest frame house in America. It expanse to its present length of over 300 feet, longer than a football field, in 1845 when Tyler added a 68-foot ballroom catering to the popular dance of his time, the Virginia Reel. He also connected the main house with the kitchen/laundry, creating five storage rooms and a "whistling walk," a long narrow hallway, to allow access from the big house to the kitchen. Tyler and his young wife, Julia Gardiner Tyler added Greek Revival style features, porches, lattice, columns, and pilasters on the porches, cornices, mantels and ornate carved medallions designed by New York architect Minard LeFever.

The grounds comprise of 25 acres of terraced gardens, serene woodlands, and lawn based on the mid 19th century landscape architectural designer Andrew Jackson Downing of New York. This includes the original outbuildings or dependencies. It is considered one of the most complete plantation yards left in America, dating from 1680.

John Tyler was the first vice president to ascend to the presidency upon the death of William Henry Harrison, the 9th President. John Tyler's 1841-1845 presidential terms was the climax of an active political and legal career. He was Governor of Virginia twice, a U.S. Senator, member of the U.S. House of Representatives, a Virginia state senator and member of the Virginia House of Delegates. He graduated from the College of William and Mary. He re-entered public service in 1861, as a member of the Confederate Congress of the Confederate States of America.

Sherwood Forest survived the Civil War in 1864 when Union soldiers damaged the house. The marks on the woodwork and doors are a testimony to its survival. The formal garden was used as an area for Civil War troops to camp; and still contains the birdbath placed in the garden by Julia Gardiner Tyler.

There are over eighty varieties of centuries old trees, 29 of which are not indigenous to the United States. This includes a gingko tree given to Tyler by Captain Matthew Perry when he returned from the Orient in the 1850's. This tree is the oldest gingko tree in the United States.

Also unique to the house is the legend of a ghost, known as the Gray Lady, who has been heard rocking in the Gray Room for more than 200 years. It is not known precisely how long this ghost has inhabited the house, nor is the exact reason why she is there. But it has been said that she was probably there long before President John Tyler moved in. Because the residents over the years have experienced her presence, and all in the same fashion.

The Gray Lady is assumed to have worked in the service of the family that owned the house when she lived there, because servants wore gray when cleaning at Sherwood Forest. It is thought she was probably a governess, who was in charge of a small child. They say she would take the child from a first floor bedroom and walk up through the hidden staircase to a second floor nursery. There, she would rock the child on her lap in a rocking chair. Unfortunately, the child was ill and died soon after. This could be the reason the Gray Lady still resides in the house. If you are lucky, you might hear the footsteps and the rocking chair.