Castlewood

This old estate is known as Castlewood and it is located in Chesterfield, VA. It was once owned by my Great-Great-Great Grandfather and he was buried on the back of the property.

When my family came out to visit we drove the two hours to Chesterfield to see the house. The house is now used as the Office for the Chesterfield Historical Society. We were able to take a small tour of the house which included the central part of the home and the south wing. Our tour guide gave us a brief history of the home and once she fully understood that we drove two hours just to see the house and nothing else in the area, she gave us a full tour, which she was unable to do. We then were able to see the north wing which was used as their office. We went upstairs and also to the basement. It was pretty neat. Most of the original wood work is still in tact and incredibly beautiful!

This is probably one of the most unique things I have seen. The original house, built in 1754 was just the central part of the house. Later they added the two parallel wings and breezeways. The north wing was originally a smaller building located on the back of the property. They moved it and connected it to the house in 1817. It has it's own corner stairwell leading up to the second floor above it. But the house looked off balance and so they built the south wing to mimic the north. However they were unable to build a stairway. Instead they built an exterior walkway between the second floor of the central part of the house and the second floor of the south wing. My father was told this was were my great aunts slept. The only access out of their bedrooms were to pass through their parents room, so they knew their daughters were always tucked in bed safe and sound each night. However our tour guide told a story of the boys sleeping in this room and they used a large tree by a window to escape through at night.

After leaving the house we went to the back of the property to locate the grave site. This was tricky because the acreages since been divided up, sold, and were now home to new housing developments. However with a map and some directions from my Great Grandfather who visited the place in the 90's we were able to locate the grave site fairly easily. The site is fenced in and is sitting in the middle of a retirement community. Jared hopped the fence and looked for signs of a marker. However, it is believed the markers were stolen years ago. There are a few oddly shaped bricks and thing that help identify that this was a grave site. The site is very overgrown and I wonder how it would look if it were cleaned up. We believe my Great-Great-Great Grandfather and Grandmother are buried here as well as other people who may have occupied and lived int eh house at some point.
RJ thought the experience was pretty neat and asked to have his picture taken by his Great-Great-Great-Great Grandfather's grave.