Blenheim’s low, stretched-out Gothic Revival dwelling house, built ca. 1846, was the seat of Andrew Stevenson, who served as Speaker of the House of Representatives, ambassador to Great Britain, and rector of the University of Virginia. With its numerous outbuildings, including a colonnaded “book house” or library, and what was perhaps a chapel, Blenheim is a striking if somewhat naive expression of Romantic Revivalism in central Virginia. The book house is one of the state’s few detached plantation libraries. The southern Albemarle County property was originally part of a 9,350-acre land grant of 1730 to John Carter, Secretary of the Colony and son of Robert (“King”) Carter. John Carter’s son, Edward Carter, built a large, H-shaped house here before 1799. Carter’s home has disappeared, but its site, just to the north of the present house, is potentially of archaeological significance.