Submitted by FHMaster on Sun, 12/18/2016 - 11:34

Castle Hill (Virginia) is an historic, privately owned, 600-acre (243 ha) plantation located at the foot of the Southwest Mountains in Albemarle CountyVirginia, near Monticello and the city of Charlottesville, and is recognized by the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places. Castle Hill was the beloved home of Dr. Thomas Walker (1715–1794) and his wife, Mildred Thornton Meriwether (widow of Nicholas Meriwether III). Walker was a close friend and the physician of Peter Jefferson, and later the guardian of young Thomas Jefferson after his father's death.

Through his marriage to Mildred Meriwether in 1741, Thomas Walker acquired the land comprising approximately 15,000 acres (6,100 ha) which would become the site for Castle Hill. In its square hall, the youthful, music-loving Jefferson once played the violin, while the still younger Madison danced. Here in 1781, Walker's wife delayed the British Colonel Banastre Tarleton to give the patriot Jack Jouett time to warn Governor Thomas Jefferson and the Virginia legislators of Tarleton's plan to capture them.

In addition to frequent visits by Thomas Jefferson, Castle Hill has entertained other U. S. Presidents and historic figures including George WashingtonJames MadisonJames MonroePatrick HenryAndrew JacksonRobert E. LeeJames BuchananMartin Van BurenJohn TylerHenry Clay, and Daniel Webster.

The Walkers' youngest son, Francis Walker (1764–1806), married Jane Byrd Nelson, the daughter of Governor Thomas Nelson of Yorktown, and inherited Castle Hill. The estate was next inherited by Thomas & Mildred Walker's granddaughter, Judith Page Walker (1802–1882), who married U. S. Senator William Cabell Rives (1793–1868). William Cabell Rives studied law under Thomas Jefferson at Monticello, and was a friend of James Madison. At Castle Hill, Rives wrote a three-volume biography on Madison, entitled The Life and Times of James Madison (Little Brown & Co., Boston, 1859, 1866, 1868). A close friend of Dolley Madison, Judith Rives authored the novel Home and the World (D. Appleton and Company, New York, 1857), in which she wrote of life at Castle Hill as the fictitious “Avonmore.”

View of Castle Hill by the American photographer Frances Benjamin Johnston.

Entrance to Castle Hill

Colonel Alfred Landon Rives (1830–1903), son of William and Judith Rives, and chief of engineers to General Robert E. Lee during the American Civil War, inherited Castle Hill. After Rives died in 1903, and his widow, Sarah Catherine MacMurdo Rives, died in 1909, their daughter, Amélie Louise Rives Troubetzkoy (1863–1945), prominent romantic novelist, early feminist, and wife of artist, Russian Prince Pierre Troubetzkoy (1864–1936), inherited the property. At least three of Amélie's novels, Virginia of Virginia (Harper & Brothers, New York, 1888), The Quick or the Dead? (J. B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia, 1888), and Barbara Dering (J. B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia, 1893), are drawn from life at Castle Hill. Amélie and Castle Hill were both featured in a New York Times article published on April 15, 1906.

Castle Hill (1764) built by Thomas Walker.jpg

 

Location
Northeast of Cismont near the junction of VA 231 and VA 640, near Charlottesville, Virginia
State
Region
GeoCoord
38°5′22″N 78°18′13″W
Owners
Dr. Thomas Walker
Colonel Alfred Landon Rives
Founded
1764
Status
Active
NRHP Ref Number
72001379