Much of Jerdone Castle’s original 1,100 acres is submerged under Lake Anna. The house was begun about 1742 by Francis Jerdone, a Scottish immigrant. Jerdone’s descendant, Sarah Jerdone Coleman, and her husband, Gen. Clayton Coleman, built the main Italianate section with its characteristic cupola in 1853. Frank T. Glasgow, the father of author Ellen Glasgow, purchased the house in 1879, and the family used it as a summer residence until 1887. Ellen Glasgow’s writings contain frequent references to her summers at Jerdone Castle, and in her autobiography, The Woman Within, she recalled realizing during her time there that writing would be her future.