Milepost 4154: About Labor on Labor Day

Yippee! We finally found a plantation that I can photograph! John thought maybe they’d all be closed because it’s a holiday, but we found a working plantation open!

We visited Shirley Plantation off hwy 5 in Virginia. I’ve forgotten just how many acres it is, but I know it’s several hundred along the James River. It was a long, long drive through a forest, then cotton and soybean fields and a vineyard to the house – on a dirt road….

Finally in sight of the plantation!

It is the oldest working plantation in Virginia, with the same owners since the 1600’s! The “Great House” was built in 1723 to replace a wooden one and is occupied by the 11th generation… They have graciously allowed tourists on the first floor of the house and in all the buildings on the property. There are 5 major buildings (Great House, Kitchen, Laundry, Ice House, and Store House) as well as a stable, corn crib, smokehouse, dovecote, and root cellar. Here are a couple of views of the Great House. No photos were allowed inside, but I can say it has a large entry and 3 rooms off it: dining, living room, and bedroom – the bedroom was alternately used as a library by some.

 

Oh, and for the history buffs, General Lee’s grandfather lived there, and General Lee spent some time there. Yes, they were Confederates, complete with slaves. Their “next door neighbor” (3 miles away) was a general in the Union army.

Here are pictures of the other plantation buildings:

  The Great House is on the Right and the kitchen is on the far left. The laundry is in the middle… What a walk to serve dinner! The very distant building is the store house, and opposite it, unseen, is the ice house.

 The corn crib, now a chicken coop, and the stable, now empty except for old equipment.

John is standing next to the fireplace in the kitchen building. I could not believe its size! But, it makes sense, since all the cooking for the plantation was done here and in an identical room on the other side of a hall. The cooks lived upstairs.

We spent the night in Williamsburg, Virginia.