Philip Mazzei, a Tuscan merchant and horticulturalist, arrived in Virginia in 1775 and, persuaded by Thomas Jefferson to settle here, received 193 acres of land from Jefferson and named the property Colle, meaning "hill." He built a house ca. 1774 and organized a company to produce wine, oil, and silk. Mazzei wrote tracts supporting American independence and, during the Revolution, served in a militia unit and was Virginia's agent to the Grand Duke of Tuscany. In 1779, he rented Colle to Hessian prisoner of war Gen. Freidrich Riedesel. The present French Colonial Revival house, designed by architect William Delano, was completed in 1940 for Stanley Woodward, a prominent diplomat.