A premier monument of the American Greek Revival, Berry Hill’s imposing mansion was erected in 1842-44 for James Coles Bruce, one of Virginia’s most affluent antebellum planters. Its architect, John E. Johnson, also designed the Gothic Revival mansion Staunton Hill for Bruce’s half-brother Charles Bruce. Berry Hill’s contractor was Josiah Dabbs. The house stands in a broad, semi-circular landscaped park in Halifax County, and is flanked by porticoed dependencies forming a dramatic architectural ensemble. The façade is dominated by a heroic octastyle portico in the Doric order of the Parthenon. No less impressive is the lofty interior with its grand divided stair, ornamental ceilings medallions, and imported marble mantels. A colonnaded service wing projects from the rear of Berry Hill. The remarkably preserved Berry Hill plantation retains significant outbuildings, both sites and ruins of numerous slave quarters, and one of the state’s largest cemeteries for enslaved African Americans.