Chatham Manor- Fredericksburg, VA

Perched above the Rappahannock River in Fredericksburg sits the stately 1771 Chatham Manor. Built for farmer and statesman William Fitzhugh, the Georgian mansion was the center of a massive 1280 acre estate, sustained at first by slavery, then later by wealthy benefactors who used it as a country escape.

Named for William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, whose ideals Fitzhugh admired, the estate was well known for its hospitality. George Washington was a frequent guest at Chatham, as was Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe. The compound even included a race track, where area planters competed for prize money.

The estate was also the site of at least one slave rebellion (1805), and the subject of a 1857 Virginia Supreme Court decision which denied the estate’s enslaved manumission, as dictated by then owner Hannah Jones Coalter’s will. In 1862, the subsequent owner (a Confederate named Lacy) was forced off the property by Union troops, who used the mansion as the area’s Army headquarters and Union hospital.

For 13 months, the Union Army occupied the property, during which time it was visited by President Lincoln, making Chatham one of only three houses visited by both Washington and Lincoln. Unfortunately, the war took a heavy toll on both the Union troops, and the house. Paneling was removed from the walls for firewood, its many windows broken, and the lawn used as a graveyard.

The property was then sold several times over the following years before being restored in the 1920s by General Daniel Bradford Devore, who added the walled garden and summerhouse. In 1931, the property was sold to John Lee Pratt, a General Motors executive who entertained Washington’s elite at the property, including Dwight Eisenhower and George Marshall. Upon Pratt’s death in 1975, he left the manor house and 30 acres to the National Park Service, who use much of the mansion as administrative offices.