Frascati is an early 19th-century

Federal-style Federal-style architecture is the name for the classicizing architecture built in the newly founded United States between 1780 and 1830, and particularly from 1785 to 1815, which was heavily based on the works of Andrea Palladio with several inn ...

plantation house near

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

Orange County Orange County most commonly refers to: *Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area Orange County may also refer to: U.S. counties *Orange County, Florida, containing Orlando *Orange County, Indiana *Orange County, New ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

. Frascati was the residence of Philip P. Barbour,

Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States An associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States is any member of the Supreme Court of the United States other than the chief justice of the United States. The number of associate justices is eight, as set by the Judiciary Act of 18 ...

and

statesman A statesman or stateswoman typically is a politician who has had a long and respected political career at the national or international level. Statesman or Statesmen may also refer to: Newspapers United States * ''The Statesman'' (Oregon), a n ...

History

Frascati was built between 1821 and 1823 for Philip P. Barbour,

and

. Barbour's father,

Thomas Barbour Thomas Barbour (August 19, 1884 – January 8, 1946) was an American herpetologist. From 1927 until 1946, he was director of the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ) founded in 1859 by Louis Agassiz at Harvard University in Cambridge, Ma ...

arrived in

as a young man from

Culpeper County Culpeper County is a county located along the borderlands of the northern and central region of the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 52,552. Its county seat and only incorporated community is Culp ...

. In 1806, Thomas Barbour and his wife, Mary, sold their home tract of to their son, Philip. Barbour entered into his "Articles of Agreement" with master builder John M. Perry on 7 November 1821. Barbour was familiar with Perry's capabilities through his work at the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...

and was attracted to Somerset, the home of his neighbor, Thomas Macon. Like Somerset, Frascati was influenced by the more conventional, central hall Federal house style. This conventional format contrasted with the tastes of Barbour's brother, Senator James Barbour of Barboursville. Barboursville was designed by

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 ...

in 1822 and displayed Jefferson's mixing of French and

Palladian Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective and ...

forms similar to that at Monticello. Frascati was Barbour's home until his death in 1841. Barbour's wife sold the estate in 1848 to Captain James Magruder, another local builder who had worked under Jefferson on the University of Virginia. Frascati was then long the home of Mrs. William H. Lyne, followed by Mr. A. D. Irving, a distant relation to

Washington Irving Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859) was an American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and " The Legen ...

. The residence is now owned by the Barrow family, who have preserved its farm setting. Frascati was added to the Virginia Landmarks Register on 16 September 1980 and 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 ...

on 28 June 1982.

Architecture

Frascati is one of the

Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

's best-documented 19th-century dwellings. The original building contract is preserved in the collections of the Virginia Historical Society and called for "exterior walls of the whole house to be faced with rubber stretchers well burned..." with the brickwork also "to be equal to any... at the

." It was designed by John M. Perry of nearby Albemarle County, Virginia. Perry was one of the master builders employed by

both at Monticello and the

. Frascati's Tuscan

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...

and classical detailing are Jeffersonian architectural characteristics. The 57' x 39' structure is executed in very even

Flemish-bond Brickwork is masonry produced by a bricklayer, using bricks and mortar. Typically, rows of bricks called '' courses'' are laid on top of one another to build up a structure such as a brick wall. Bricks may be differentiated from blocks by ...

brick with tooled penciled joints. Frascati's shallow

hipped roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus, ...

covers the two-story, double-pile residence. Frascati's main entrance has paneled double doors set within a frame containing a large semicircular

transom Transom may refer to: * Transom (architecture), a bar of wood or stone across the top of a door or window, or the window above such a bar * Transom (nautical), that part of the stern of a vessel where the two sides of its hull meet * Operation Tran ...

and complementing sidelights all encircled with elaborately patterned wooden tracery. The frame consists of symmetrical

architrave In classical architecture, an architrave (; from it, architrave "chief beam", also called an epistyle; from Greek ἐπίστυλον ''epistylon'' "door frame") is the lintel or beam that rests on the capitals of columns. The term can ...

s with paneled corner blocks. The main entrance is sheltered by a tetrastyle,

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedimen ...

ed Tuscan

on a brick

podium A podium (plural podiums or podia) is a platform used to raise something to a short distance above its surroundings. It derives from the Greek ''πόδι'' (foot). In architecture a building can rest on a large podium. Podiums can also be used ...

. Frascati's Tuscan portico has

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 columns, a full

entablature An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...

, and a pediment with a semicircular

lunette A lunette (French ''lunette'', "little moon") is a half-moon shaped architectural space, variously filled with sculpture, painted, glazed, filled with recessed masonry, or void. A lunette may also be segmental, and the arch may be an arc take ...

in the tympanum. Fenestration throughout Frascati consists of six-over-six sash windows set in wooden architraves and flanked by original

louver A louver (American English) or louvre (British English British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Lexico, Oxford Dictionaries, "English language, English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". Mor ...

ed shutters. Paired interior-end

chimney A chimney is an architectural ventilation structure made of masonry, clay or metal that isolates hot toxic exhaust gases or smoke produced by a boiler, stove, furnace, incinerator, or fireplace from human living areas. Chimneys are typic ...

s are located on Frascati's north and south elevations. A later semi-exterior chimney is found on the home's rear elevation. The roof is covered with standing-seam

sheet metal Sheet metal is metal formed into thin, flat pieces, usually by an industrial process. Sheet metal is one of the fundamental forms used in metalworking, and it can be cut and bent into a variety of shapes. Thicknesses can vary significantly; ex ...

. Frascati's central hall plan and interior are discussed at some length in the original specifications:

The house to have a passage through the middle of it ten feet wide in the clear; and to have a cross partition wall so as to divide the floors of each story into four rooms besides the passage; both the passage walls and cross walls to go from the foundation to the top to be of brick and of the same thickness in the several stories as in the outer walls; the whole house bapement story and all, to be well plaistered with a due preportion of plaister of Paris.... The drawing room and passage each to have a handsome cornice of plaister, and each a handsome center ornament of plaister in the ceiling; the general style of all the wood work to be like Thomas Macon's dwelling house... there are to be two staircases one private from the dining room and chamber, with a closet under it; the other an elegant ornamental one out of the passage....

The

parlor A parlour (or parlor) is a reception room or public space. In medieval Christian Europe, the "outer parlour" was the room where the monks or nuns conducted business with those outside the monastery and the "inner parlour" was used for necessar ...

exhibits plasterwork ceiling

medallion A medal or medallion is a small portable artistic object, a thin disc, normally of metal, carrying a design, usually on both sides. They typically have a commemorative purpose of some kind, and many are presented as awards. They may be int ...

s and

s, the latter copied from a design in Asher Benjamin's ''American Builder's Companion'' (1806). Surviving on the Frascati estate grounds are the original kitchen outbuilding and remnants of the extensive original gardens.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Virginia Barbour family residences Houses in Orange County, Virginia Houses completed in 1823 Federal architecture in Virginia Georgian architecture in Virginia Plantation houses in Virginia Palladian Revival architecture in Virginia Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia National Register of Historic Places in Orange County, Virginia