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Elsing Green Plantation, a National Historic Landmark and wildlife refuge, rests upon nearly along the Pamunkey River in King William County, Virginia, a rural county on the western end of the state’s middle peninsula, approximately northeast of the City of Richmond. The 18th-century plantation, now owned by the Lafferty family, has been in continuous operation for more than 300 years. In addition to the manor house, dependency buildings and cultivated land, Elsing Green includes of surrounding farmland, forest and marsh land. Elsing Green is also on the Virginia Landmarks Register and in the National Register of Historic Places. Its history dates back nearly three centuries with ties to the West family of Lord Delaware. The original structure, a brick Jacobean lodge now serving as the east dependency of the manor house, was built before 1690 by Colonel John West. It is said that Lord Delaware used the building as his hunting lodge, escaping to the King William woods by way of the Pamunkey River. Now serving as a wildlife refuge, no hunting is allowed on the property or surrounding wetlands. == History == Although fire during the American Civil War destroyed many of the records detailing the history of Elsing Green, the Lafferty Foundation holds to what it believes as an accurate account of the plantation’s history. The plantation was passed down through the West family after the death of Colonel John West in 1692. It eventually became associated with the Dandridge family of George Washington’s wife, Martha Custis. It is said that Martha Custis Washington actually rode her horse through the house. The Dandridges built the Queen Anne manor house and kitchen house between 1715 and 1720. Carter Braxton, a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, bought the plantation in 1753. The plantation, through several inheritances and purchases, was eventually sold in the 1930s to Beverly D. Causey, whose family took it upon themselves to restore the then degraded property and structures. Nearly two decades later, the family of the current owners, purchased Elsing Green. In 1950, Edgar R. Lafferty, Jr., and his wife, Margaret, continued the restoration and expanded the plantation by adding previously purchased land adjacent to Elsing Green. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Elsing Green」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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