On a bluff above the Matta River in Caroline County, Edge Hill is the setting of two historic buildings: a brick plantation house and an antebellum academy building. The house, originally a three-bay, side-passage Federal house, was built for Rice Schooler in 1820-21. The western half was added ca. 1840. The interior of the older section has highly individualized Federal woodwork. The wood-frame, three-story academy building was erected in 1857 by Schooler’s son Samuel Schooler, a scholar, writer, and military officer. Known as Edge Hill Academy, the school was founded to meet the growing demand of Virginians seeking preparation for higher education. It closed in the late 1860s but the building, now used as a barn, nevertheless is a rare example of mid-19th-century rural school architecture. Also remaining on the Edge Hill property are the sites of cabins occupied by the academy students.