Address Restricted, White Marsh, Virginia. County/parish: Gloucester.
Added to the National Register of Historic Places July 16, 1973. NRIS 73002019.
1 contributing site.Also known as:
Fairfield plantation was a historic tobacco plantation from 17th century Colony of Virginia, owned by the Burwell family of Virginia from 1642 to 1787. The house was destroyed in 1897 due to fire. It is now an archaeological site that also includes slave quarters, a large formal garden, and the Burwell family cemetery. Archaeological research has been led by the Fairfield Foundation archaeologists David Brown And Thane Harpole.
Built in 1694, the brick manor at Fairfield was described as what was once "the most sophisticated sophisticated classical house built in British North America to that date" by Cary Carson, retired Colonial Williamsburg research chief. It was built to emulate the houses of the gentry in London.
The house had Flemish-bond brick walls and a 62-foot veranda on the front of the structure that overlooked the large formal garden. It had extra-large rectangular sash windows, and the first known use of a hipped roof with dormers in the colony. At the time the house was built, most of the other buildings were built on posts sunk in the earth. Fairfield Plantation became a National Register of Historic Places listing on July 16, 1973. It is also a Virginia Historic Landmark as of February 20, 1973.
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