The earliest portion of the two-part Castle Hill house is a traditional colonial Virginia frame dwelling, built in 1764 by Dr. Thomas Walker, a colonial leader and explorer of the west. Here in 1781 Walker’s wife delayed the British colonel Banastre Tarleton to give the patriot Jack Jouett time to warn Thomas Jefferson and the Virginia legislators of Tarleton’s plan to capture them. The stately brick portion, an example of Jeffersonian classicism by master builder John M. Perry, was erected in 1823-24 for William Cabell Rives, minister to France, U.S. senator, and Confederate congressman. Columned conservatories were added in 1844 by William B. Phillips. Rives’s granddaughter Amelie, wife of the Russian painter Prince Pierre Troubetzkoy, was a novelist and playwright. She and her husband made Castle Hill their home in the early decades of the 20th century. Castle Hill, located in Albemarle County’s Southwest Mountains Rural Historic District, is additionally noted for its extensive gardens and landscaped grounds.
Many properties listed in the registers are private dwellings and are not open to the public, however many are visible from the public right-of-way. Please be respectful of owner privacy.
Abbreviations:
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark
Programs
DHR has secured permanent legal protection for over 700 historic places - including 15,000 acres of battlefield lands
DHR has erected 2,532 highway markers in every county and city across Virginia
DHR has registered more than 3,317 individual resources and 613 historic districts
DHR has engaged over 450 students in 3 highway marker contests
DHR has stimulated more than $4.2 billion dollars in private investments related to historic tax credit incentives, revitalizing communities of all sizes throughout Virginia