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Fairfield Plantation (Gloucester County, Virginia)

1642 establishments in the Thirteen ColoniesHistoric house museums in VirginiaHouses in Gloucester County, VirginiaHouses on the National Register of Historic Places in VirginiaNational Register of Historic Places in Gloucester County, Virginia
Plantation houses in VirginiaPlantations in VirginiaSlave cabins and quarters in the United States
Fairfield Site with cornfield
Fairfield Site with cornfield

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.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Fairfield Plantation (Gloucester County, Virginia) (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Fairfield Plantation (Gloucester County, Virginia)
Fairfield Lane,

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Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 37.341388888889 ° E -76.553888888889 °
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Address

Fairfield Lane

Fairfield Lane
23072
Virginia, United States
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Fairfield Site with cornfield
Fairfield Site with cornfield
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Abingdon Church
Abingdon Church

Abingdon Church is a historic Episcopal church located near White Marsh, Gloucester County, Virginia. It and its glebe house are among the oldest buildings in Virginia and were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.The parish was established shortly after the founding of Gloucester County in 1651, to serve the county's southern portion along the York River, and a church was built near the current site on land donated by Col. Augustine Warner Jr., who twice served as speaker of Virginia's House of Burgesses. His daughter Mildred would marry Laurence Washington of Westmoreland County to the north, and her grandson would become George Washington. The glebe (land to support the parish priest) is about four miles from the church, just inside the boundaries of neighboring Ware Parish, as rector Thomas Hughes noted in a letter to the Bishop of London in 1724. The rector of Abingdon parish taught at the Peasley School, administered by both parishes. Thus, the glebe house, built around 1700, is older than the current parish church and is one of the earliest examples of a hipped roof in the state, as well as being one of the most well-preserved after restoration circa 1954.Though many Gloucester County records burned in either 1820 or 1865, a contract to expand the Abingdon church was discussed in 1751, and the current one-story brick church was probably finished in 1754 or 1755. The church has a Latin cross plan with gable roof, pedimented gable ends and modillioned cornice. Col. Lewis Burwell donated a communion set made in London in 1702 to the parish, which remains in use today. The church interior features an elaborate reredos. Following the disestablishment of the Episcopal Church in Virginia in 1802, the building fell into disrepair, although Methodists worshipped at Abingdon Church 1818–1822, and an Episcopal congregation was re-formed in 1826 and repaired the church in 1841. Federal troops occupied the church and caused damage, so it was also repaired in 1868, 1897 and 1950.