Customer Reviews

Virginia Country: Inside the Private Historic Homes of the Old Dominion

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This book transported me back to my home state of Virginia (my Florida driver's license is only 14 months old) in an almost visceral way. I recommend it not only to Virginians but to anybody who wants to travel through a doorway into a more genteel place and time.

Filled with lavish full-color photographs and satisfying historical descriptions, this is the kind of coffee-table sized book that you want to curl up with and linger over.

The exteriors of the homes, photographed to reveal telling architectural detail, are also shown in their natural surroundings. You see the Virginia rivers that flow beyond the front lawns; the lavish beds of tiger lilies in full bloom; the grazing horses in pasture; the paper-white dogwoods blossoms at their peak in spring; the shade-dappled pea-gravel paths hemmed in by generations-old boxwoods that you can fairly smell. One estate in particular - Westover - reminded me of many childhood visits to family friends who lived in a very similar faux plantation house named Wilton on the banks of the James River in the Varina district of Henrico County.

The interiors of the houses are revealed in full clarity. Entire rooms are photographed, as well as details of construction and furnishing: chair rails, paneling, china settings, chandeliers, secret doorways, period furniture, fabrics and paintings on the wall. You feel as if you would like to sit in that bay window and savor the view to the outside; relax in that chair by that fire; explore that winding spiral staircase all the way to the top; play a hand of cards at that card table with the silk-inlaid top; drink brandy out of that crystal goblet; sleep in that four-poster bed under that bedspread; run your hand over that polished bannister railing.

The accompanying essays convey the history of each house, its architectural uniqueness, and the chain of ownership into the present day. Long enough to be informationally satisfying but brief enough to retain reader interest (no mean feat!), the prose serves to cre! ate a bridge into a past that has nonetheless been kept intriguingly alive by the stewardship of the current owners of these houses and grounds. The 27 homes profiled, built during the historical periods of English Colonial (1690-1720), Colonial (1720-90), Federal (1790-1830) and Antebellum (1830-60) are scattered through Virginia's Tidewater, Piedmont and Blue Ridge Mountain areas.

Breck Montague, owner of the English Colonial estate Toddsbury in Tidewater Virginia's Gloucester County, says that "When I turn down the lane on my way home, I turn my car radio off and roll down my window. I smell the humus of the forest, and I feel the peace and tranquility of the place." Indeed, that feeling of place and quietness permeates this entire 215-page book, and time spent with this sumptuous volume is practically guaranteed to lower your blood pressure.

Because Toddsbury and the other homes in Virginia Country are in private hands and not on public tour, this book will prove especially useful to historians, designers, architects, landscapers, and antique and art lovers. Virginia Country is well suited for either library or private collections.

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Articles by Betsy Wells Edwards have appeared in lifestyle, business and equestrain publications. She lives with her husband and son on a 19th century farm in Goochland County, Virginia. Taylor Dabney's work has appeared in numerous publications and exhibits. He has been a recipient of the Virginia Commission for the Arts Photography Fellowship and was named in 1987 to the top-five list of new photographers at Photography Magazine's annual awards convention.

I bought this book for my boss who designs houses. He and I were happily satisfied with the extrordinary details of the homes in this book. You will love the architecture, interiors, country settings, furnishing, and colors of these homes. All seem to have been meticulously cared for and lived in. You will be transported back in time as you turn the pages and wish you could visit and stay a while in these homes.

I don't think there are any floorplans, but the book is awesome for the pictures of each house inside & out.

Wonderfully photographed, just the right amount of text, good cross section of houses around the state.

Long on interiors, short on architecture, and long on anecdotal evidence, this book will be of moderate interest to academic and practicing architectural historians, but it is of profound interest for an enthusiastic dabbler like me! That said, the author speaks with some command of architectural history, so her text can not be dismissed as coffee table ornament. There's some substance here. It's a nice balance between academic arcane and popular folklore.

Architectural historians must remember this: Not all families wish for their property history to become public knowledge, and so there are likely to exist out there houses for which we understand very little of the true history. Toddsbury, in Gloucester County, is a perfect example. Upper Weyanoke is another. Both of those ancient houses are included in this book. The author, due to her social standing and respect within the community, has been able to bring us histories of these houses that you will NOT find in architectural catalogs.

This book is also different than the many other Virginia plantation surveys you've seen out there in that the houses in this book are private residences. Not museums, and not open to the public.

Rather than Mount Vernon, Monticello, Bacon's Castle and Shirley, we're treated to a neat survey of grand Virginia houses in their native (and somewhat secret) state. Many of these sites appear in no other book, and will be a pleasant discovery for the reader. Highly recommended, to complete your Virginia architecture collection. In fact, NECESSARY to complete your architectural history of Virginia houses.

Remember, there's a reason why this book demands high prices on the market. You won't find this material anywhere else.

Well put together historical representation of the plantations and the homes of the early settlers of the Virginia Colonies. It is so important to see and appreciate that which still exists of our heritage in the early Virginia settlements. Something we all should be very proud of is the way these beautiful homes have been restored and protected.