|
West Cote is a historic home located near Howardsville, Albemarle County, Virginia. The house was built about 1830, and is a two-story, five-bay, brick dwelling. The front facade features a two-story, Tuscan order portico with paired full-height columns and no pediment.. Also on the property are a contributing office / guest house, smokehouse, well, corn crib, and stable.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: West Cote ) and (Accompanying photo )〕 Set dramatically on a sweeping hillside overlooking the confluence of the James and Rockfish rivers, West Cote, in Albemarle County, Virginia features a two-story, brick, classical revival plantation dwelling built ca. 1830. A well-preserved example of a high-style house of the Early Republican era, it is associated in its design and execution with a group of houses in central Virginia that were constructed by builders who were either involved in or influenced by the construction of the University of Virginia to Thomas Jefferson's designs. Surviving outbuildings include a guesthouse, smokehouse, corncrib and a stable. The unusually wide and deep ante-bellum well is also noteworthy. ==Historical Background== What is now West Cote was once a part of large tracts of land assembled in the 1730s and 1740s by Allen Howard. Howard was one of a group of large landholders who were the contemporaries of Peter Jefferson, father of Thomas Jefferson. These men led and promoted the settlement of what eventually became Albemarle and its adjacent counties. Howard and his descendants lived near the confluence of the James and Rockfish rivers. The present house at West Cote was built about 1830 by one of those descendants, William Howard Carter (probably a grandson or great-grandson of Allen Howard). Carter inherited the property in 1826. In 1837 he petitioned to erect a ferry across the James River near West Cote. The architectural and construction details indicate that he built West Cote between these dates. It was an era of house building and a number of large brick mansions rose both on the hills and in the valleys of Albemarle. This came at a time when the building of the University of Virginia was just being completed. This large state project brought to the area a group of skilled workmen, some of whom trained others. Many of both groups remained in the general area and became builders of houses, churches, and courthouses and made changes to older buildings. It is likely that someone who worked on the University buildings or was trained by University workmen built West Cote. Its fine brickwork, impressive portico (Jeffersonian in detail, but not in massing), and geometric front-door transom all are reminiscent of the retired president's idiosyncratic style. By 1840 William Howard Carter was in financial straits. In that year he sold West Cote to Jonathan Crank, a neighbor. Two years later Crank sold the property to William D. Boaz who owned it for 12 years. Boaz sold West Cote in 1856 beginning a succession of six sales until 1893 when Andrew Blair, a "prizefighter" from Richmond, bought it. The Blair family used West Cote mainly as a retreat and called it "Summer Hill". They owned it until 1948, the longest family ownership in the history of the property. The next owners were the Covingtons. Susan Byrd, purchased the house in 1997 and sold it in 2008 to the present owners. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.〔 File:West Cote Sign.JPG|West Cote Sign File:West Cote.JPG|West Cote File:Rockfish River, Virginia.JPG|Rockfish River, Virginia File:West Cote Cemetery.jpg|West Cote Cemetery 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「West Cote」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|