Rippon Lodge is one of the oldest houses remaining in

Prince William County Prince William County is located on the Potomac River in the U.S. state of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population sits at 482,204, making it Virginia's second-most populous county. Its county seat is the independent city of Manassas ...

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 ...

, 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 ...

since 1971. Built around 1747 by Richard Blackburn (1705-1757) as the main residence and headquarters of his plantation, it lies on high ground overlooking

Neabsco Creek Neabsco Creek is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed August 15, 2011 tributary of the lower tidal segment of the Potomac River in eastern Prince William County, Virginia. T ...

at the south end of what is now the unincorporated town of

Woodbridge Woodbridge may refer to: Places Australia *Woodbridge, Western Australia formerly called ''West Midland'' *Woodbridge, Tasmania Canada *Woodbridge, Ontario England *Woodbridge, Suffolk, the location of ** Woodbridge (UK Parliament constituency ...

at 15520 Blackburn Road. The house takes its name from Richard Blackburn's birthplace, the small city of

Ripon Ripon () is a cathedral city in the Borough of Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England. The city is located at the confluence of two tributaries of the River Ure, the Laver and Skell. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the city ...

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by National parks of the United Kingdom, national parks, including most of ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

History

The

plantation house A plantation house is the main house of a plantation, often a substantial farmhouse, which often serves as a symbol for the plantation as a whole. Plantation houses in the Southern United States and in other areas are known as quite grand and e ...

is located along a remnant of the original Kings Highway (now known as the "

Washington–Rochambeau Revolutionary Route The Washington–Rochambeau Revolutionary Route is a series of roads used in 1781 by the Continental Army under the command of George Washington and the Expédition Particulière under the command of Jean-Baptiste de Rochambeau during their 14- ...

" ). This vital roadway connected the 13 original colonies, stretching from

Newport, Rhode Island Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, ...

Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint o ...

. It played a vital role in the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

, in part because colonial troops marched on this section before defeating the British at Yorktown. Originally a

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 ...

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 ...

, at its greatest extent under Richard Blackburn (ca. 1706-1757) who had emigrated with his brother from Ripon in Yorkshire, England in 1720, it managed land holdings which stretched from Neabsco Creek westward to near what is now

I-95 Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from US Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Florida, to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between Maine and the Canadia ...

and amounted to about 21,000 acres (85 km²). The property featured its own port on Neabsco Creek and is close to the town of

Dumfries Dumfries ( ; sco, Dumfries; from gd, Dùn Phris ) is a market town and former royal burgh within the Dumfries and Galloway council area of Scotland. It is located near the mouth of the River Nith into the Solway Firth about by road from the ...

, once the county seat until the Quantico River silted up early in the 19th century. In 1796,

Benjamin Henry Latrobe Benjamin Henry Boneval Latrobe (May 1, 1764 – September 3, 1820) was an Anglo-American neoclassical architect who emigrated to the United States. He was one of the first formally trained, professional architects in the new United States, draw ...

painted the plantation house. Richard Blackburn farmed and built this and other houses using enslaved labor. At his death, the house passed to his son, Col.

Thomas Blackburn Thomas, Tom or Tommy Blackburn may refer to: *Anthony Blackburn (born 1945), British vice-admiral and Equerry to the Royal Household, commonly known as Tom Blackburn *Thomas Blackburn (entomologist) (1844–1912), Australian entomologist *Thomas Bl ...

who represented Prince William County several times in the

House of Burgesses The House of Burgesses was the elected representative element of the Virginia General Assembly, the legislative body of the Colony of Virginia. With the creation of the House of Burgesses in 1642, the General Assembly, which had been established ...

, then in most of the Virginia Revolutionary Conventions, before becoming an aide-de-camp to General George Washington, until wounded at the Battle of Germantown. His son

Richard Scott Blackburn Richard Scott Blackburn (circa 1764 – November 1803) was a Virginia planter and politician who became an officer in the U.S. Army. Early and family life The eldest son of Col. Thomas Blackburn and his wife Christian Scott was born to the pa ...

would also represent Prince William County, in the

Virginia House of Delegates The Virginia House of Delegates is one of the two parts of the Virginia General Assembly, the other being the Senate of Virginia. It has 100 members elected for terms of two years; unlike most states, these elections take place during odd-numbe ...

. Thomas Blackburn corresponded with

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 ...

and also did business with

Bushrod Washington Bushrod Washington (June 5, 1762 – November 26, 1829) was an American attorney and politician who served as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1798 to 1829. On the Supreme Court, he was a staunch ally of Ch ...

who inherited his uncle's Mount Vernon plantation as well as married one of Thomas Blackburn's daughters. Rippon Lodge remained in Blackburn family hands until around 1820, when it was sold to the Atkinson family, who also farmed using enslaved labor until after the American Civil War, and whose members lived there for about another century. In 1923 the property was sold again. The buyers were former Ohio Attorney General Wade H. Ellis and his wife Dessie, who had moved to Washington, D.C. after Wade Ellis accepted a position as assistant to the U.S. Attorney General. The Ellises both renovated and preserved the property. Sometime after buying Rippon Lodge, Ellis discovered Richard Blackburn was his ancestor, but it remains unclear at what point during his tenure this became known and how much it influenced the preservation efforts. After Wade Ellis died, Mrs. Ellis sold the house to another Blackburn family member, Admiral Richard Blackburn Black, an Arctic explorer and compatriot of

Admiral Byrd Richard Evelyn Byrd Jr. (October 25, 1888 – March 11, 1957) was an American naval officer and explorer. He was a recipient of the Medal of Honor, the highest honor for valor given by the United States, and was a pioneering American aviator, p ...

. Admiral Black's daughter inherited the house in 1989 and sold it to Prince William County in 2000. The house and grounds are now maintained by the Prince William County Department of Parks and Recreation, and by a local friends organization.

Hours

Prince William County has restored the house and maintains the surrounding of property. Rippon Lodge is open to the public from May through October on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 11am to 4pm.

References

External links

Prince William County, Virginia - Rippon Lodge
- official site
The history of the Prince William County Waterfront
* ttp://www.pwconserve.org/issues/history/index.html Historic Preservation/Archeology in Prince William County: Rippon Lodgebr>Rippon Lodge (An article originally published in 1932)Rippon Lodge, State Route 638, Woodbridge, Prince William County, VA
9 photos and 9 measured drawings at

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 ...

{{National Register of Historic Places in Virginia Historic house museums in Virginia Museums in Prince William County, Virginia Plantation houses in Virginia Georgian architecture in Virginia Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia Houses in Prince William County, Virginia National Register of Historic Places in Prince William County, Virginia Historic American Buildings Survey in Virginia