For additional information, read the Nomination Form PDF
VLR Listing Date 09/17/1974
NRHP Listing Date 07/16/1976
NPS property number 76002122
Atop a bluff overlooking the James River opposite Jamestown Island, Pleasant Point illustrates the formality found in many of Virginia’s lesser colonial seats. The complex consists of a compact story-and-a-half, brick-ended manor house flanked by the perpendicularly set laundry and reconstructed kitchen. A smokehouse and dairy on the river side define a symmetrical forecourt. A series of five terraces leads down to the James. The buildings and terracing form a unified piece, probably accomplished ca. 1735-45 during the ownership of Benjamin Edwards, sheriff of Surry County. Pleasant Point was included in a 1624 grant to George Sandys, treasurer of the Virginia Company, who upon his return to England ca. 1628 gained famed as a poet and translator of classical literature. Archaeological investigation may reveal the sites of Sandys’ paled fort and other building known to have existed here.
Abbreviations:
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark
Updated April 4, 2018
