National Register of Historic Places

Blenheim

Blenheim, Albemarle County, Virginia
Listed
May 16, 1976
Type
Building
Period
Industrial
Ref No.
76002089

About this property

Blenheim is a historic home and farm complex located at Blenheim, Albemarle County, Virginia. The once very large surrounding plantation was established by John Carter. Late in the 18th century, his son Edward Carter became the county's largest landowner, and in addition to public duties including service in the Virginia General Assembly built a mansion on this plantation where he and his family resided mostly in summers (and which he leased to the Virginia government during the American Revolutionary War to house captured British officers pending prisoner exchanges), but which was destroyed by fire and sold by auction circa 1840. The current historic main house and outbuildings were built by politician and diplomat Andrew Stevenson in 1846. It is a 1+1⁄2-story, six-bay, gable-roofed frame building with Gothic Revival and Greek Revival style details. It has an ell at the rear of the west end. The front facade features a pair of one-story tetrastyle porches with pairs of Doric order piers. A notable outbuilding is the square "Athenaeum", a one-story, one-room, frame Greek Revival building with a pyramidal hipped roof and portico supported on Doric piers. Also on the property are a frame kitchen/laundry, a "chapel" or schoolhouse, and two smoke houses. Also on the property are two dwellings, one of which is supposed to have been built to accommodate Justice Roger B. Taney on his visits to Blenheim. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. Blenheim Vineyards was established in 2000 on part of the property once owned by Edward Carter (of Blenheim), who sold a parcel to Thomas Jefferson which was in turn sold to Filippo Mazzei, who established one of the first Virginia wineries early in the 19th century. Sites with a similar names but in other Virginia counties include Blenheim (Spring Mills, Virginia), a historic home in Campbell County, Virginia Historic Blenheim, a 19th-century Greek Revival farm house in Fairfax County, Virginia Blenheim (Ballsville, Virginia), a historic home in Powhatan County, Virginia Blenheim (Wakefield Corner, Virginia), a historic home in Westmoreland County, Virginia

Location

Blenheim, Albemarle County, Virginia
37.93101, -78.48983

Categories

HISTORIC - NON-ABORIGINALPOLITICS/GOVERNMENTARCHITECTURE
National Register nomination ›
Sources

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Native Heritage
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Settlement
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Nearby Historic Sites

Redlands
Industrial
2.1 mi
Morven
Industrial
2.5 mi
Southern Albemarle Rural Historic District
Listed
3.1 mi
Bellair
Industrial
3.4 mi
Highland
Industrial
3.9 mi

Nearby Battles

Dahlgren's Raid: Albemarle County (1864)
1864Civil War
4.5 mi

Questions about this property

When was Blenheim listed on the National Register?

Blenheim was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 16, 1976.

What type of historic resource is Blenheim?

Blenheim is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for Blenheim?

The period of significance for Blenheim is recorded as the industrial era.

Can I research the history near Blenheim?

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