Chesterville Plantation Site is a historic

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...

located on the grounds of NASA Langley Research Center in

Hampton, Virginia Hampton () is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 137,148. It is the List ...

. The main house was built about 1771, and was a two-story brick house set on a high basement, with a three-bay gable end front, and

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...

ed brick walls. The site includes the remains of the house, the ruins of a building with a ballast stone foundation, the foundation of a brick kiln, a cemetery, and scattered evidence of 17th century occupation. In 1755 George Wythe (1726-1806) inherited the property believed to have been his birthplace, and built the Chesterville Plantation house about 1771. It was his primary place of residence until 1775 and he continued to operate a

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

there until 1792. The mansion was destroyed by fire in 1911. 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 1973.

References

Plantation houses in Virginia Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia National Register of Historic Places in Hampton, Virginia Burned houses in the United States Langley Research Center {{HamptonVA-NRHP-stub