The ruins of Barboursville, the home of James Barbour, are just to the south. The house was designed by Thomas Jefferson and completed about 1822. Barbour, who owned about 5,000 acres here, was governor of Virginia from 1812 to 1814, U.S. senator from 1815 to 1825, secretary of war from 1825 to 1828, and minister to Great Britain from 1828 to 1829. A proponent of scientific farming, he conducted experiments on his land and published the results in agricultural journals. More than 100 enslaved African Americans worked on his plantation. Barboursville burned in 1884. Barboursville Vineyards was established here in 1976.