Clifton is a historic home located near
Shadwell
Shadwell is an area in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in East London, England. It also forms part of the city's East End of London, East End. Shadwell is on the north bank of the River Thames between Wapping (to the west) and Ratcliff and ...
,
Albemarle County, Virginia
Albemarle County is a United States county (United States), county located in the Piedmont region of Virginia, Piedmont region of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia. Its county seat is Charlottesville, Virginia, Charlottes ...
. It was built about 1800, and is a large, rambling two-story, five-bay, wood frame dwelling. The house has later 19th- and 20th-century
Colonial Revival
The Colonial Revival architectural style seeks to revive elements of American colonial architecture.
The beginnings of the Colonial Revival style are often attributed to the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, which reawakened Americans to the arch ...
-style additions and alterations. The front facade features a double level porch, added about 1930, and the interior has
Federal details. Also on the property are the contributing brick office (c. 1833–1845); the ruins of an early 19th-century
spring house
A spring house, or springhouse, is a small building, usually of a single room, constructed over a spring. While the original purpose of a springhouse was to keep the spring water clean by excluding fallen leaves, animals, etc., the enclosing str ...
; the shaft of a 19th-century stone-lined
ice house; an early 20th-century
chicken coop
Poultry farming is the form of animal husbandry which raises poultry, domesticated birds such as chickens, Domestic duck, ducks, turkey (domesticated), turkeys and domesticated goose, geese to produce chicken meat, meat or Egg as food, eggs for ...
and an altered 1920s brick garage.
Clifton was built by Congressman and Virginia Governor
Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr. (1768–1828), who was married to
Martha Jefferson
Martha Skelton Jefferson ( ''née'' Wayles; October 30, 1748 – September 6, 1782) was the wife of Thomas Jefferson from 1772 until her death. She served as First Lady of Virginia during Jefferson's term as governor from 1779 to 1781. She died ...
, the daughter of President
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson (, 1743July 4, 1826) was an American Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was the primary author of the United States Declaration of Indepe ...
.
It was part of the never-to-be port of North Milton, a sister port to the now extinct village of
Milton directly across the
Rivanna River
The Rivanna River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 tributary of the James River in central Virginia in the United States. The Rivanna's tributaries o ...
.
[ an]
Accompanying photo
/ref> With his partners, Randolph planned North Milton to support commercial and agricultural development, situated along the Milton Canal of the Rivanna River. The Clifton house first began as a warehouse and Randolph had a separate office building, which is still on the Clifton grounds. The house was expanded later and during the 19th century it had a one-story veranda, which has been replaced by the portico.National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
in 1989.
References
External links
Owner's website
Clifton
(photograph)
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia
Colonial Revival architecture in Virginia
Federal architecture in Virginia
Houses completed in 1800
Houses in Albemarle County, Virginia
National Register of Historic Places in Albemarle County, Virginia
{{AlbemarleCountyVA-NRHP-stub