Mirador is a historic home located near Greenwood, Albemarle County, Virginia, United States. It was built in 1842 for James M. Bowen (1793–1880), and is a two-story, brick structure on a raised basement in the Federal style. It has a deck-on-

hip roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downward to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope, with variants including Tented roof, tented roofs and others. Thus, a hipped roof has no gables or other ve ...

capped by a Chinese Chippendale

railing Railing or railings may refer to: * Railings (horse), a racehorse * Guard rail, a structure blocking an area from access ** Cable railings, a type of guard rail * Handrail, a structure designed to provide support on or near a staircase * Grab bar, ...

. The front facade features a

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 cu ...

with paired

Tuscan order The Tuscan order (Latin ''Ordo Tuscanicus'' or ''Ordo Tuscanus'', with the meaning of Etruscan order) is one of the two classical orders developed by the Romans, the other being the composite order. It is influenced by the Doric order, but wit ...

column A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member ...

s. The house was renovated in the 1920s by noted New York architect

William Adams Delano William Adams Delano (January 21, 1874 – January 12, 1960) was an American architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection wi ...

(1874–1960), who transformed the house into a

Georgian Revival Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1714 and 1830. It is named after the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover, George I, George II, Ge ...

mansion. an
Accompanying four photos
/ref> Mirador was the childhood home of Nancy Langhorne Astor, who was born in

Danville, Virginia Danville is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Virginia, Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. The city is located in the Southside (Virginia), Southside Virginia region and on the fall line of the Dan River ( ...

. Her father Chiswell Langhorne's finances were decimated by the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

, but he later made a fortune in the

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 ...

business and railroads and was able to purchase Mirador. Nancy Langhorne, later Lady Astor, lived at the home from 1892 to 1897, and her sister Irene, later the wife of artist

Charles Dana Gibson Charles Dana Gibson (September 14, 1867 – December 23, 1944) was an American illustrator who created the Gibson Girl, an iconic representation of the beautiful and independent American woman at the turn of the 20th century. He published his ...

and a model for the

Gibson Girl The Gibson Girl was the personification of the feminine ideal of physical attractiveness as portrayed by the pen-and-ink illustrations of artist Charles Dana Gibson during a 20-year period that spanned the late 19th and early 20th centuries ...

, also spent part of her youth at the estate. It was listed on the

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 1983.

Grounds

Mirador is surrounded by extensive landscaped grounds that include a sunken lawn and a walk bordered by serpentine brick walls. Near the main house is an

antebellum period The ''Antebellum'' South era (from ) was a period in the history of the Southern United States that extended from the conclusion of the War of 1812 to the start of the American Civil War in 1861. This era was marked by the prevalent practi ...

brick kitchen-like dependency and an antebellum period frame

smokehouse A smokehouse (North American) or smokery (British) is a building where meat or fish is curing (food preservation), cured with Smoking (cooking), smoke. The finished product might be stored in the building, sometimes for a year or more.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 ...

stable dating to about 1910. Beyond the house are the farm buildings built in the 1920s including a

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 ...

dairy barn complex arranged around a

cobblestone Cobblestone is a natural building material based on Cobble (geology), cobble-sized stones, and is used for Road surface, pavement roads, streets, and buildings. Sett (paving), Setts, also called ''Belgian blocks'', are often referred to as " ...

courtyard A courtyard or court is a circumscribed area, often surrounded by a building or complex, that is open to the sky. Courtyards are common elements in both Western and Eastern building patterns and have been used by both ancient and contemporary a ...

, a brick farm manager's house, a concrete block tenant house, two lakes, and the Sam Black Tavern, a log building built ca.1769 and moved to the property from the neighboring Seven Oaks Farm.

Outbuildings

Sam Black's Tavern

The cabin was built by

Samuel Black Samuel Black (May 3, 1780 – February 8, 1841) was a Scottish fur trader and explorer, a clerk in the New North Nest Company (XYC) and Wintering Partner in the North West Company (NWC), and later clerk, chief trader, and chief factor in the Hu ...

. The cabin originally sat adjacent to U.S. Route 250 at the front of the Seven Oaks property, the building's original site. In 1978, the tavern was moved away from the road further into the Seven Oaks property. The tavern was dismantled and moved again to Mirador Farm in 2001. The single story and

garret A garret is a habitable attic, a living space at the top of a house or larger residential building, traditionally small with sloping ceilings. In the days before elevators this was the least prestigious position in a building, at the very to ...

, v-notched log building has the basic form and appearance it had attained by 1930. Most of the wall logs are original, and other construction materials are older materials reused from other contexts. The building features a wood-shingled

gable roof A gable roof is a roof consisting of two sections whose upper horizontal edges meet to form its ridge. The most common roof shape in cold or temperate climates, it is constructed of rafters, roof trusses or purlins. The pitch of a gable roof c ...

, a

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

foundation and interior chimney, a front porch on skinned cedar log posts, and six-over-six windows. The interior is divided into two rooms by a log partition and the stone chimney, which includes two fireplaces and a bread warmer. Other interior features include exposed log walls, batten doors on strap hinges,

hewn In woodworking, hewing is the process of converting a trunk (botany), log from its rounded natural form into lumber (timber) with more or less flat surfaces using primarily an axe. It is an ancient method, and before the advent the sawmills, ...

ceiling joists, and pegged floor boards. There were several notable visitors who went to the tavern.

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 ...

stopped at Black's Tavern eleven recorded times between 1768 and 1772, according to his memorandum books. This was while he was practicing law in Albemarle County and surrounding areas and traveling frequently to Staunton, located over the Blue Ridge. Often Jefferson stopped at Black's for meals or to feed his horse. In August 1768, he noted that the visit included entertainment, his term for an overnight stay. Another famous visitor was

George Rogers Clark George Rogers Clark (November 19, 1752 – February 13, 1818) was an American military officer and surveyor from Virginia who became the highest-ranking Patriot (American Revolution), Patriot military officer on the American frontier, nort ...

, who stayed overnight in 1777.

Meriwether Lewis Meriwether Lewis (August 18, 1774 – October 11, 1809) was an American explorer, soldier, politician, and public administrator, best known for his role as the leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as the Corps of Discovery, with ...

also stopped at the cabin at least once.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Virginia Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia Federal architecture in Virginia Houses completed in 1842 Houses in Albemarle County, Virginia National Register of Historic Places in Albemarle County, Virginia Brick buildings and structures in Virginia

Grounds

Outbuildings

Sam Black's Tavern

See also

References