Mr. Bacon's Castle

By Beth Yarbrough

Bacon's Castle isn't a castle, and Mr. Bacon never even lived there. But easing over those two speed bumps, you are looking at the oldest brick dwelling in North America.

It was built in 1665 and briefly held the name "Allen's Brick House". That one made more sense, because it is a brick house, and a man named Arthur Allen and his family did live there.

Eleven years into things, however, the place was taken over by a bunch of rebellious colonists led by Nathaniel Bacon who moved in and used the house as their fort. That dust-up in 1676 was known as Bacon's Rebellion. It was not pretty, and it did not end well for anyone involved - on either side.

That being said, the house of Arthur Allen eventually became known as "Bacon's Castle".

The older portion (which is the largest section) is an example of Jacobean architecture. It is one of only three Jacobean high-style houses west of the Atlantic Ocean. The other two examples are in Barbados. Features of this style of architecture include triple-stacked chimneys and shaped Flemish gables.

The smaller portion of the house is Greek Revival, added sometime in the mid-1800's. During that addition, the front door was moved from the center of the old portion to the connector that joined the old house with the new. The old diamond-paned windows in the Jacobean portion were also swapped out for the windows shown here.

For many years, Bacon's Castle remained a private residence until Preservation Virginia arrived in 1970 and began a full restoration. During that process, they elected to keep evidence of the original modifications from the 1800's such as the scar left in the central portion of the old house where the original front door had been replaced by a window.

The house remains under the watchful eye of Preservation Virginia today and is open to the public for tours. As is often the case with me, I arrived just as the doors of the great house were closing for the day, but that didn't stop me from wandering the grounds and enjoying the light of a warm afternoon.