Shady Grove

This late Federal country house was built for Paulina Cabell Henry on land inherited from her father, Dr. George Cabell, of Point of Honor (BD53). She was the wife of the profligate Spotswood Henry, son of Patrick Henry. Framed by tall trees and looking out over rolling countryside, the brick house raised on a high basement is double-pile with a central and a lateral passage. Its unusually chunky appearance is at odds with the one-and-a-half-story house's formal symmetry. The five-bay facade has three gabled dormers rising from its steep gabled roof and two chimneys at each gable end. The central entrance is sheltered by a small pedimented porch with four chamfered posts. For her parlor, Paulina Henry had copied a modified version of the parlor mantel of her father's house. The only remaining early outbuilding is a frame smokehouse behind the main house, but a small group of later farm buildings lies north of the house. Across the road is the Henry family cemetery.