Chelsea is a historic home located near

West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known Metonymy, metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a f ...

King William County, Virginia King William County is a county located in the U.S. state of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 17,810. Its county seat is King William. King William County is located in the Middle Peninsula and is included in the Greater ...

. It was built in 1709, and consists of a two-story, brick main block with a hipped roof and -story, gambrel roofed rear ell. In 1764,

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...

attended the wedding of an old friend, John Walker, at Chelsea; sources commonly say (and Jefferson eventually, in 1805, seemed to acknowledge) that he later repeatedly made improper advances to his friend's wife, all of which she rejected.see, for example, Jon Meacham, "Thomas Jefferson: the Art of Power", Random House, 2012 In 1781, shortly before the

Battle of Yorktown The Siege of Yorktown, also known as the Battle of Yorktown, the surrender at Yorktown, or the German battle (from the presence of Germans in all three armies), beginning on September 28, 1781, and ending on October 19, 1781, at Yorktown, Virgi ...

, Lafayette's army camped at Chelsea, and the

Marquis de Lafayette Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette (6 September 1757 – 20 May 1834), known in the United States as Lafayette (, ), was a French aristocrat, freemason and military officer who fought in the American Revoluti ...

used the house as his headquarters. an
''Accompanying photo''
/ref> It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1969.

References

External links

Chelsea, Mattaponi River, West Point, King William County, VA
at the

Historic American Buildings Survey Heritage Documentation Programs (HDP) is a division of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) responsible for administering the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), and Historic American Landscapes ...

(HABS) Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia Houses completed in 1709 Houses in King William County, Virginia National Register of Historic Places in King William County, Virginia Historic American Buildings Survey in Virginia 1709 establishments in Virginia {{KingWilliamCountyVA-NRHP-stub