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Virginia: Valley, Piedmont, Southside & Southwest » Southside » Powhatan County » The Huguenot Trail » Keswick

Keswick

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c. 1800. Huguenot Tr. at Derby Ridge Way
  • (Virginia Department of Historic Resources)

A slightly smaller version of the earlier and more elaborate Tuckahoe (c. 1723) in Goochland County, Keswick was built on the opposite side of the James River. Like Tuckahoe, Keswick is H-shaped in plan and takes a prominent place among the James River plantation houses. Exterior-end brick chimneys frame the two-story three-bay weather-boarded residence with its gabled roofs. The entrance is sheltered by a one-story portico with a gable roof above an elliptical arch supported by paired Doric colonettes. The house was built for Major John Clarke, founder of the Bellona Arsenal (CS11), which stands on the Chesterfield County portion of his Keswick property. Keswick retains many of its outbuildings. The most unusual is the circular brick building with a conical roof and central chimney. It had long been thought to have served as slave housing, but more recently, it has been speculated that it was used for raising silkworms.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Anne Carter Lee
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Data

What's Nearby

Bellona Arsenal
Duval-Druin House
Mooreland
Whichello
Mooreland Landing

Citation

Anne Carter Lee, "Keswick", [Midlothian, Virginia], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/VA-02-PO12.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of Virginia vol 2

Buildings of Virginia: Valley, Piedmont, Southside, and Southwest, Anne Carter Lee and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2015, 282-283.

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