Carter Hall Plantation House, Millwood Virginia
Carter Hall's stately architecture, beautiful grounds, and historical associations epitomize the popular image of a Virginia plantation. The impressive mansion was erected between 1792 and 1800 for Nathaniel Burwell (1750-1814) on a 5808-acre tract inherited from his father, Carter Burwell. Nathaniel Burwell was born and raised on his family's plantation, Carter's Grove in James City County, and later became Lieutenant Colonel of the James City Militia. Like many Tidewater Virginia planters he was attracted to the fertile lands of the lower Shenandoah Valley, and decided to re-establish his seat on his Valley landholdings. His new house, built in what was then Frederick County, vied in grandeur with the colonial houses of Tidewater. Colonel Burwell was much involved with the commercial, social, and religious life of the surrounding area. He was in partnership with his neighbor, Daniel Morgan, the Revolutionary hero, in establishing the nearby town of Millwood and operating the Burwell-Morgan Mill there. He felt that the eastern part of Frederick Parish should have a cemetery and gave a lot near Carter Hall where the historic Old Chapel and cemetery are now located. During his later life he invited his financially depleted cousin, Edmund Randolph, former Virginia Governor and Secretary of State under Thomas Jefferson, to be a permanent guest at Carter Hall. Randolph died there in 1813 and was buried at Old Chapel.
Colonel Burwell left estates and a considerable fortune to all his heirs. Two sons were particularly anxious to own Carter Hall, and it fell by lot to George H. Burwell (1799-1873), in 1814. He added the large portico, which by tradition was designed by Dr. William Thornton, architect of the Capitol. During the War Between the States the plantation was raided by Northern troops and the house sacked. In the fall of 1862 General "Stonewall" Jackson established his headquarters at Carter Hall. He declined George Burwell's invitation to stay in the house, camping instead with his men on the grounds. During his stay General Jackson permitted his surgeon, Dr. William McGuire, to perform a cataract operation on George Burwell on the portico.
Carter Hall remained in the Burwell family until 1902 when it was sold to Eban Richards of St. Louis. In 1908 Richards sold the property to Townsend Burwell, son of George Burwell II. The Burwells kept Carter Hall until 1930 when it was sold to Gerard Lambert who commissioned H. T. Lindeberg to plan the extensive remodeling of the house.
Building Description
Few Virginia plantation houses are as complemented by their setting as Carter Hall. The impressive porticoed mansion is the focal point of one of the most spacious and beautiful parks in the Commonwealth. Its immaculately maintained broad rolling lawn is informally planted with handsome specimens of ornamental trees and shrubbery. Behind the house is a four-level terraced formal garden laid out in 1948 by Wade Muldoon, landscape architect. In all directions from the house are panoramic views of the surrounding countryside and mountains.
The late-Georgian style house is a massive two-story structure built of native limestone rubble with interior chimneys at the end of each section. The center section is a five-bay block covered by a low-hipped roof.
Flanking it are two-story, two-bay wings with pedimented gable ends. At the extreme ends of the house are one-story, two-bay wings also with pedimented gable_ends. All five sections employ a simple modillion cornice.
The entire center part is fronted by a deep, flat-roofed hexastyle Roman Ionic portico added after 1814 by George H. Burwell (1799-1873), son of the builder. At one time the whole house was stuccoed and the center portion was covered by a deck-on-hip roof with a rectangular lantern. The stucco was removed and the roof was altered during an extensive remodeling carried out under the direction of the fashionable New York architect, H. T. Lindeberg, in 1930. Pediments on the one-story wings also were removed during the remodeling.
Carter Hall's single-pile interior also was extensively remodeled in 1930. Before that date, the center section had two principal rooms with a central stair hall. The hall was ornamented with wainscoting and full-height Ionic pilasters supporting a full Ionic entablature. The second floor was reached by a handsome spiral stair which, according to Valley historian John W. Wayland, was an early but not original feature. In the remodeling Lindeberg combined the hall and east room into one Large space occupying two-thirds of the center section. The original woodwork was replaced by rich Georgian-style woodwork featuring paneling, doorways, cornices, and other details based in part on the woodwork at Shirley, Charles City County, Virginia. Dominating the northeast corner of the new space is a remarkable flying spiral stair recalling the Nathaniel Russell House stair in Charleston and the Montmorenci stair in the Winterthur Museum. The scrolled soffits follow the Shirley stair, however. The woodwork in the two east wings was also designed by Lindeberg, and is based on American Georgian prototypes.
The dining room contains the only significant amount of original trim in the house. Surrounding the generously proportioned room are fluted Ionic pilasters on pedestals supporting an entablature with pulvinated frieze and modillion cornice. The projecting chimney breast has pilasters framing a plain white marble mantel and crosseted overmantel. In the overmantel is a ship painting said to have arrived instead of one of a horse ordered for that location by Nathaniel Burwell. The two east wings contain service areas. The second floor preserves little original trim.
Flanking the main house, approximately fifty feet distant, are two, two-story pedimented gable roof dependencies. Like the main house, the dependencies had their stucco removed to expose the limestone walls. The east dependency formerly was the kitchen but is now used as a guest house. The west dependency is now a caretaker's house. Behind the main house is a cluster of three early wooden outbuildings, including the dairy and smokehouse. Several additional outbuildings, of varying dates, are scattered about the perimeter of the garden. The plantation's original stone gristmill is located on the southern edge of the property.
