Rosewell Mansion was the home for more than a century of the influential Page family, leaders in Virginia government and society from the mid-1600s into America’s Federal period. Begun about 1725 by Mann Page I, the house was probably designed with an unidentified architect and built by European craftsmen, indentured servants, and African slaves under Mann Page’s direction. Constructed of locally produced brick with important structural and ornamental features of imported white marble, the mansion was noted for its near-perfect symmetry. Its main block rose three floors above an English basement and was topped by a lead roof with two glass-sided belvederes above the east and west walls. Flanked by two service buildings, it had a footprint slightly wider than the Governor’s Palace in Williamsburg and is often said to have been the largest private dwelling in Britain’s American colonies. Visitors climbed white marble steps to a double-leaf front door opening into a great hall, where in the mid-1700s guests gathered for feasts, musical programs, and discussions of important affairs of state. The mahogany-paneled hall covered a third of the first floor and had imported black and white marble tiles laid in diamond patterns. Opposite the front door stood a grand staircase with hand-carved trim rising to the second floor, and a two-story round-headed window in the east wall lit the hall and stairway. A large fireplace warmed the hall in winter, while cross ventilation through a corridor to the south door cooled it in summer. On the right were two large rooms with closets, possibly bedchambers, and a short corridor leading to a service stairway from the basement to the west belvedere. A smaller room in the southeast corner, perhaps originally a parlor, opened from the south corridor.

Photo: Fairfield Foundation

Photo: Brandon D Cross

Gloucester Courthouse, Virginia · USA