Ellerslie is an historic home located at
Colonial Heights, Virginia. It is a large -story, hip-roofed,
Italian Villa
A Roman villa was typically a farmhouse or country house built in the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, sometimes reaching extravagant proportions.
Typology and distribution
Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD) distinguished two kinds of villas ...
style dwelling with a two-story rear service wing connected by an
arcade. It features a three-story tower with a hipped roof and a full-width front porch.
In 1839, Scottish born
Petersburg
Petersburg, or Petersburgh, may refer to:
Places Australia
*Petersburg, former name of Peterborough, South Australia
Canada
* Petersburg, Ontario
Russia
*Saint Petersburg, sometimes referred to as Petersburg
United States
*Peterborg, U.S. Virg ...
tobacco
Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...
magnate David Dunlop and his wife, Anna Mercer Minge, a niece of
U.S. President
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...
William Henry Harrison
William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773April 4, 1841) was an American military officer and politician who served as the ninth president of the United States. Harrison died just 31 days after his inauguration in 1841, and had the shortest pres ...
, acquired the 200 acre Ellerslie tract along Swift Creek near Petersburg, along the new rail line of the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad Company in Chesterfield County. Dunlop planted tobacco there, eventually more than doubled his land holdings, and constructed Ellerslie, a large plantation house that boasted a
mosaic
A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...
floor and an inner dome with
frescoes. On 22 June 1856 Ellerslie was destroyed by fire.
Dunlop engaged the Irish architect Robert Young to design a villa-style mansion to replace the first house. Young, a native of
Belfast
Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...
designed Ellerslie in 1856 as a
country house
An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...
for the wealthy industrialist whose primary residence was in Petersburg. The house featured a flat roof with turrets and a towers and a
castellated parapet. The home was elegantly furnished and set amid romantically landscaped grounds.
In 1864, during the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
, Ellerslie stood in the middle of the
Confederate
Confederacy or confederate may refer to:
States or communities
* Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities
* Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...
line of defense along Swift Creek. On May 9–10, Confederate Gens.
Johnson Hagood Johnson Hagood may refer to:
*Johnson Hagood (governor) (1828–1898), American Civil War soldier and Governor of South Carolina, 1880–1882
* Johnson Hagood (1873–1948), American World War I general
See also
*Johnson Hagood Stadium
Johnson ...
and
Bushrod Johnson
Bushrod Rust Johnson (October 7, 1817 – September 12, 1880) was a Confederate general in the American Civil War and an officer in the United States Army. As a university professor he had been active in the state militias of Kentucky and Tenness ...
, with 4,200 men, contested the advance towards Petersburg of a much larger Federal force, composed of elements of General
Benjamin Butler's
Army of the James
The Army of the James was a Union Army that was composed of units from the Department of Virginia and North Carolina and served along the James River (Virginia), James River during the final operations of the American Civil War in Virginia.
Histor ...
. During the fighting on May 9, a Confederate battery near the house dueled with Federal gunners across the creek at Arrowfield Farm. In addition to being hit by small arms fire, a
cannonball
A round shot (also called solid shot or simply ball) is a solid spherical projectile without explosive charge, launched from a gun. Its diameter is slightly less than the bore of the barrel from which it is shot. A round shot fired from a lar ...
struck the house and remained embedded in the wall until the house was remodeled in 1910.
At noon on May 9, the 63rd Tennessee Infantry occupied hastily dug rifle pits around the mansion as part of the Confederate reserve. When Union skirmishers advanced to a fence line about 600 yards from Ellerslie, two Tennessee companies pushed them back. During the night, the Confederates drove a Federal gun from the bank of Swift Creek. The Federals retreated to their camps at
Point of Rocks
Point or points may refer to:
Places
* Point, Lewis, a peninsula in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland
* Point, Texas, a city in Rains County, Texas, United States
* Point, the NE tip and a ferry terminal of Lismore, Inner Hebrides, Scotland
* Points ...
the next morning. Federal operations then shifted toward Richmond and culminated in the
Battle of Drewry's Bluff
The Battle of Drewry's Bluff, also known as the Battle of Fort Darling, or Fort Drewry, took place on May 15, 1862, in Chesterfield County, Virginia, as part of the Peninsula Campaign of the American Civil War. Four Union Navy warships, inclu ...
on May 16. Dunlop continued to reside at Ellerslie during the conflict and died, following a stroke, on May 25, 1864, leaving an estate including his tobacco factory, land and slaves valued at more than $652,000 (equal to over $10 million in 2019). He was buried in
Blandford Cemetery
Blandford Cemetery is a historic cemetery located in Petersburg, Virginia. The oldest stone, marking the grave of Richard Yarbrough, reads 1702. It is located adjacent to the People's Memorial Cemetery, a historic African-American cemetery.
Alt ...
, in Petersburg. Dunlop's fine townhouse in Petersburg was severely damaged during the
Siege of Petersburg that began shortly after his death.
Confederate General
P.G.T. Beauregard
Pierre Gustave Toutant-Beauregard (May 28, 1818 - February 20, 1893) was a Confederate general officer of Louisiana Creole descent who started the American Civil War by leading the attack on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861. Today, he is commonly ...
established his headquarters at Ellerslie and kept them there intermittently through June. On September 2, Hagood's South Carolina brigade established a rest camp at Ellerslie and remained here until September 28. On the night of April 2, 1865, with the fall of Petersburg imminent, fires illuminated Ellerslie and explosions rocked the house as commissary supplies and munitions were burned at Dunlop's Station nearby on the
Richmond & Petersburg Railroad to prevent them from falling into the hands of Federal forces as
Jefferson Davis
Jefferson F. Davis (June 3, 1808December 6, 1889) was an American politician who served as the president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865. He represented Mississippi in the United States Senate and the House of Representatives as a ...
, his Cabinet, and the Confederate defenders abandoned Richmond and fled south. Several civilians were killed in the resulting conflagration.
[ an]
''Accompanying photo''
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In 1910 Dunlop's grandson, David Dunlop III, engaged the Richmond architectural firm of Carneal and Johnston to extensively remodel the Ellerslie mansion, in a fanciful version of the Bungaloid style that was then popular, retaining the house's basic structure and tower but replacing the original flat roof and castellated parapet with a hipped roof and dormers. The interior of the house was completely remodeled; none of the original woodwork or interior decoration was retained. The Bungaloid feeling of the exterior was carried into the stair hall. It features a finely crafted exposed joist ceiling, with tongue-and-grooved work between the joists. The rich, dark-wood stair was given square-tapered newells and a balustrade containing mogul-type arches. The reception rooms were restyled with a combination of Louis XVI
Louis XVI (''Louis-Auguste''; ; 23 August 175421 January 1793) was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as ''Citizen Louis Capet'' during the four months just before he was ...
and Georgian
Georgian may refer to:
Common meanings
* Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country)
** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group
** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians
**Georgian scripts, three scrip ...
motifs.
Although David Dunlop, III, sold the tobacco business to the recently established British-American Tobacco Company
British American Tobacco plc (BAT) is a British multinational company that manufactures and sells cigarettes, tobacco and other nicotine products. The company, established in 1902, is headquartered in London, England. As of 2019, it is the large ...
in 1911, the estate remained in the Dunlop family through the mid 20th century and was a dairy farm. Its large dairy barn was a local landmark for decades. The portion of Chesterfield County where Ellerslie stands became the City of Colonial Heights in 1948. The Ellerslie barn was demolished in the early 1990s and the surrounding farmland has since been developed as a shopping center.
Ellerslie 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
{{National Register of Historic Places in Virginia
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia
Houses completed in 1857
Italianate architecture in Virginia
Houses in Colonial Heights, Virginia
National Register of Historic Places in Colonial Heights, Virginia
1857 establishments in Virginia
Gilded Age mansions