Chestnut Grove (plantation)
{{Short description|Plantation house in Virginia, United States}}
{{Coord|37|31|3.2|N|76|58|42.3|W|display=title}}
File:Chestnut Grove (plantation).jpg
Chestnut Grove was an 18th-century plantation house on the Pamunkey River near New Kent Court House in New Kent County, Virginia, United States.{{cite book |title=Martha Washington: First Lady of the United States |last=Haugen |first=Brenda |year= 2005 |publisher=Compass Point Books |isbn=0-7565-0983-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7sCG4rjdckkC }}{{cite web | url=http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/hiway_markers/marker.cfm?mid=3633 | title=Martha Washington's Birthplace | access-date=2008-03-05 | publisher=Virginia Department of Historic Resources | author=Virginia Department of Historic Resources}} Chestnut Grove is best known as the birthplace of Martha Washington,{{cite web | url=http://www.history.org/Almanack/people/bios/biomwash.cfm | title=Martha Dandridge Custis Washington | year=2009 | access-date=2008-03-05 | publisher=The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation | author=The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation | author-link=Colonial Williamsburg }}{{cite book |title=Martha Washington: First Lady of Liberty |last=Bryan |first=Helen |year= 2002 |publisher=John Wiley and Sons, Inc. |location=Hoboken, New Jersey |isbn=0-471-15892-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/marthawashington00brya_0 |url-access=registration }} wife of George Washington, and the first First Lady of the United States. Martha Washington was born in the east room of the mansion.
History
The two-story frame house consisting of six rooms was originally built around 1730. It was first inhabited by prominent Virginia planter John Dandridge and his wife Frances Jones. The couple raised their eight children, including Martha Washington, there. It was at Chestnut Grove that Martha married her first husband, Daniel Parke Custis, on 15 May 1750.
In 1768, Martha Washington's younger brother Bartholomew Dandridge sold Chestnut Grove and its accompanying {{convert|500|acre|km2}}. Colonel Richard Pye Cooke then purchased the mansion in 1840.{{cite web | url=http://webpages.charter.net/chamberlayne/history/part2.htm | title=The Third Generation and Beyond: The Late 18th to the Mid-19th Century | date=July 13, 2003 | access-date=2008-03-05 | publisher=The Chamberlaynes of Virginia | author=Philip J. Chamberlain, Ph.D. | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080820022457/http://webpages.charter.net/chamberlayne/history/part2.htm | archive-date=August 20, 2008 }} At that time, the Chestnut Grove estate contained {{convert|1175|acre|km2}}. Unlike neighboring plantation homes, Chestnut Grove continued to serve as a residence for 200 years in its original state until it burned down in November 1926.
Architecture
Chestnut Grove's architectural details survive due to old photographs and sketches. The mansion was a two-story frame structure with a hip roof and a chimney at either end. It also contained a basement which ran the length of the mansion. The interior of Chestnut Grove was plain and paneled in pine.
References
{{Reflist|2}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chestnut Grove (Plantation)}}
Category:Houses in New Kent County, Virginia
Category:Dandridge family (Virginia)