203 - .ITKG >sfi Sd:d ! WUDd SOILYKIWO3 A201kJ3AN! ( Ai:5~$i~~T~~~Lt~ T,03 - t i S33'flC 31ZOISt!-l JO 22LS1532: *lVP:OiLY?.' Good Fair Deteriorated Ruins i U c] U U 0 Unexposed ~- I (Clzrrk Oiirj (Check One) i n uno~tered [? Moved PI. orisimo~site ,GSFFG~REIENTAND OI:!GINAL (if knownj PHYSICAL APPEARASCE Thc Xllerslie house is an Italian Villa style dwelling erected I-'circa 1857, and ertenrively remodeled in 1910. Its original appearance is knorm from two contemporary representations. The earlier is a water color by a local artist, George Simpson. The second is a small unsigned pencil drawing made during the Civil I.7ar. The illustrations show a two-story stoccoed house with a three-bay facade. Sheltering the front entrance is a porte-cochere supported on two columns. On the north side is a three-story tower with flat roof, bracketed cornice, and paneled parapet. The roof of the main body of the house is similarly treated except that the parapet is not paneled. Panels are employed on the sides of the chimneys, however. The south xall features a central, three-part bay, and a two-story service wing is attached to the rear or east wall by an arcade. The windows on both the first and second floors are long and narrow and have no particular 1 embellishents. The Simpson drawing shows six-over-nine sash on the first floor and six-over-six sash on the second. Separating the two floors is a w I nar:mv, unornamented belt course. The original room arrangement and appearance of the trim is unlcno~m. m The house probably had the same number and type of rooms as shown in the m drawings for the first two proposed designs. In these, the architect, Robert - Young, provided a hall, library, morning room, drawing room, dining room, stair hall, store room and water closet on the first floor. The second floor Z hs divided into four bedrooms, dressing rooms, water closet, bathroom and w service areas. The tower room was designated as a "Ladies Sitting Room." --I The house bras set deep in a landscaped park. Beyond the park were farmlands. W As remodeled in 1910, the flat roof, cornicc, and parapet were removed c and rsplaced by a spreading hipped roof with deep eaves and exposed rafter D ends. Wide, three-part hipped roof dormers were placed on the roof's east and west slopes. Both the tower and the three-part. bay were raised an extra I !story and given hipped roofs. The porte-cochere was replaced by a veranda - / ?hat extends across the entire first floor of the facade. A new porte-cochere iwas built in front of the porch's center bay. The small pane sash was re- z lmoved and replaced with sashes of single sheets of glass. The service wing v, was retained but wes attached to the house and given a hipped roof. Its I.I interior was col-.verted into s. handsome game room. insidz, the house was compl.etely retrhmed; none of the original wood- ]workI or interior decoration was retained. The Bungaloid feeling of the exterior was carried into the stair hall. It features a finely crafted exposed joist ceiling, with tr~;rgue-and-grooved work between the joists. The /rich,I dark-wood stair rias given square-tapered newells and a balustrade /containing ?.5ogul-typc arches. The reception roorns were restyled with a / combination of Louis XVL and Georgian motifs. The paneling and ryoodwork in the drawing room and writing roo;n are dignified examples of their period. Presently, the interior is enhanced by an exceptionally fine collection of antiqdes. The landscaped park is largely intact and contains many of its original trees. The grounds are accented by a series of early-twentieth-century out- buildings and farm structures built for David Dunlop 11. Of particular interest is a large, log manager's house dcsigned by Carneal and Johnston, 1 archi'cects of the remodeling. I i . .- - . ~ CCL i --- -- - -- - I s2Z: -iC DATE!II (If Applicable endi<nuivn) ?-- -- I ;?ins DF S~G>IIFICANCE ICheckOne orMoraos rippmpriete) 1 Aboiiginml n Educstian U Politic~l U Urbon Planning :I :I Prehir,oric Engineering n ~~li~i~~/~hi. Olhcr (specify) I Historic (J Irbdusfry E] ioruphy i 3 ae.ioitu1= 0 I""."?i." C~)science ;x nrchir-cture i3 Landscop= El SC"I~,",~ i il Art Archi,acture Soc,aI/Human- ;I Commrrce 0 Lit..at,,re iforion -J Cammunicotion~ @ Military n Thamter ry C~"~~."O~~O,, n Music [J Tcsnsp~~t~tion - ~~T*:E\',CNT OF 51GNIFICANCE i Ellerslie is a handsomely preserved ante-bellum estate containing an cnasual Italian Villa style mansion and a rare surviving exainple of a mid- n.i-eteenth century private landscaped park. The estate was formed by David Lbnlop (1803-186&), a native of Ayr, Scotland, who settled in Petersbuzg, .. "1.rglnia in 1828, and quickly became one of the most successful tobacco ':ro:g=rs and dealers of his day. The Chesterfield County tract on which he established his cogintry seat originally served as one of his tobacco EV~ILthough hnlop acquired the Ellerslie land in 1839 he did not get lzrcuad to building his house until the 1850's. For his architect Dunlop 1 chose Robert Young of the Belfast, Ireland, firm of Young and HacKenzie. /'itis fact that knlop remained a British subject until his death makes it i?iz.;sijle that he should have thought only a fellow subject could provide , . rrk vith suitable designs for his country house. The design vent through icbree versions, and the sets of drawings for the first two versions, produce3 !in 1836, sur~iveat Ellerslie today. The drawings for the third and fi.nal iversionI do not; as was the custom, they probably were handed over to the Ih3ildi.r. and discarded when they no longer were useful. 1 The appearance of the house as originally completed around 1857 is i:<ilol;r?8. through two contemporary representations. The most detailed is a '::zrer color by a local artist, George Sirpson, painted soon after completion, ~ZCsb.3:7s a sonerghat austere Villa style house with stuccoed walls, flat roof, iand the inevitable tower. More American than British in scale and concept, it recalls the plainer Villa style house of Alexander Jackson Davis. The ,:.-,-~e: :,.,-. - was set deep in an extensive romantic landscaped park containing :or;.,z?ental trees, lalcelets, pa'ihs, vistas, and garden ornaments. I. Ellerslie served as the headquarters of General Pierre G. T. de iearegard during the War Between the States. In 1864 the grounds were msed iai a rest camp for Confederate troops following action a1or.g the Veldon Road, /sccti: of Petersburg. An officer in the encsmp~nent, Johnson Haygood, in his :~.'fi-uirsI--__ of _the _!<zr _of -.-> Succession (Columbia, S.C., 1910) provides a detailed Idescription of the house and grounds as they appeared then. In his account iZ03r.son noted, "\.kenever a prospect opened, or the shade was densest, or the Iz>:!~xur of the water fell gentlest upon the ear, a sununer house or a rustic /seat invited repose; and fro% the various parts of the grounds the mansion I-..., ei. to be seen sometimes a glimpse, sometimes a view more or less full, but $l-:~ys picturesque. It r.7as a structure in the Italian Villa style and stood upon a gentle eminence near the creek, with the grass growing up to its wall 3rd the gravelled ca-rriag drive approaching in a graceful sveep." Ellerslie was sold out of the Dunlop family in the 1870's and passed LEi..rou::h a series of owners until 1907 ?:hen it was b~~hrbxDavid ~unlop's -- .- - .~- I Forr, 10.3000 - UNITED STATES DEPkRTHENT OF THE INTERIOR STATE (J>lr (969) NATIONAL PARK SERVICE Virginia NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES INVENTORY - NOMIHATIOH FORM colonial Heiohts (city) - FOR NPS USE ONLY (Continuation Sheet) ENTRY NUMBER DATE (Ntimhar all entrine) 1 8. grandson and namesake. The house had fallen into a bad state of repair in the intervening years, and David IXinlop I1 undertook an extensive renovation and remocieling. The Richmond firm of Carneal and Johnston was engaged in 1910 to carry out the project, and they gave the house a more fashionable appearance by restyling it in the then-popular "Bun~aloid"mode. me basic plan was kept but a rpreading hipped roof with iride dormers, deep eaves, and exposed rafter ends was substituted for the original low roof and parapet. The Asiatic fneling was carried into the interior in the stair hall but the reception rooms were redesigned in a more sedate combination of Louis XVI and Georgian ssyles. While the house thus took on an Edwardian character, the basic out- liqc of the handsome park waa retained, thus preserving the ante-bellum flevor of the estate. The ~gholesurvives as an interesting example of the tastes of a leading mercantile fami1.y. The house is one of the feri Virginia buildings that can be docu~entedas having been designed by a foreign architect, and its architectur;il interest is supplmnented by its historically significant Civil liar associations, CCL GPO 921.724 I CAJ~?LTl3LI3SRAPfllCAL REFERENCES -- -- Mrioirs o! the WardSlcc~ssion~o1unbia.S.C., 1910, p. 3021 Loth, Calder, "Ellerslie, a Scotsman's Villa in Virginia," htiques , June, 1973, PP.-. 1157-1160. I Wyact, Edward A., IV, Plantation Houses Around Petersburg, 1955, p.22. Vi~gininIiistoric Landmarks Commission archives. ~- N E 37" 16' 27' 77" 24 14" 04") 77077. / jEs,i 1 :yo79 165; 2474 75.