Spring Hill is a historic home located near Providence Forge, Virginia. It was built about 1765, and is a -story, five-bay, gable-roofed, timber-frame Federal style dwelling. It has a center-hall plan. An addition was built in 1947. Also on the property is a contributing
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. an ''Accompanying photo'' /ref>
The house was constructed by Richard Croshaw Graves prior to the American Revolution. During the American Revolution (1776–82), he commanded the New Kent and Charles County militias. Following the war, he returned to his plantation, which he named "Indian Fields," and built a new residence for his expanding family between 1782 and 1784. Graves passed away there in 1798. The property passed to his son, Colonel Richard Graves. The Graves family held ownership of Indian Fields until it was sold in 1863.
Local legend has it that Thomas Jefferson spent the eve of his wedding to Martha Wayles Skelton at Indian Fields with his friend Richard C. Graves. The young lawyer was traveling from Williamsburg, where he was attending court sessions, to Martha's family home, "The Forest," located in Charles City County. He began his journey on Christmas Eve, and arrived at "The Forest" shortly after Christmas Day, 1771. He would have spent Christmas en route with the Graves family. Jefferson applied for a marriage license on December 31, 1771, and the couple was married on New Year's Day, 1772.Thomas Jefferson: Statesman of Science, by Silvio A. Bedini (Macmillan Publishing Co.: New York, 1990), pg. 56.
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 ...