Violet Bank

About this property

Violet Bank is a historic plantation house and museum in Colonial Heights, Virginia. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. The development of the estate began in 1777, when Thomas Shore purchased 144 acres atop "Archers Hill" from the heirs of John Martin. The first house was completed in 1778. Violet Bank originally fit an almost canonized two-over-two centre hall plan typical of late colonial Tidewater Virginia. This house served as General Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette's Headquarters at the beginning of the 1781 summer campaign in the South, which eventually ended in Cornwallis' capitulation at the Siege of Yorktown. There were two American Revolutionary War actions fought on the hillside. The first was in March 1781 under Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben and his Virginia Militia; the second in April 1781, under Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette. Both of these were actions against British Major General William Phillips, who mentioned the property in a dispatch: "We assaulted the enemy's work across the river and attempted to gain the high ground adjacent to Thomas Shore's house, but were repulsed with heavy losses." The British casualties were approx. 200. Phillips' objectives were to capture the crucial river crossing on the Appomattox, and gain control over the Turnpike. Not only was Petersburg the only major thoroughfare through Southside Central Virginia that would facilitate troop movement, it was also the primary access road for Chesterfield Courthouse, a primary supply depot and one of three training grounds for the Continental Line in Virginia. Phillips became ill, and subsequently died, buried in an unmarked grave, lest the rebels desecrate his resting place. He is the second highest ranking British officer buried outside Great Britain. Cornwallis then acceded to command. Lacking sufficient strength to overwhelm Lafayette on the Heights, Cornwallis decided to abandon Virginia and campaign farther south. Violet Bank would once again play host to Lafayette in 1824, when he visited the country for the last time as an official guest of the United States. During the interim between General Lafayette's two visits, Violet Bank's appearance was completely altered. It was described in the Mutual Assurance of Society of Virginia papers of 1796 as a "two-story clapboard structure w/addition in which there was a cellar floored in stone w/kitchen". Violet Bank originally bore a strong resemblance to the still extant Weston Manor in Hopewell, Virginia. Benjamin Latrobe intended on lodging at Violet Bank, "but he (Thomas Shore) is at present building, and occupies his offices only, which, in Virginia, follows a plantation house as a litter of pigs to their mother."

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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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