Virginia Department of Historic Resources Virginia Department of Historic Resources
For additional information, read the Nomination Form PDF
VLR Listing Date 01/05/1971
NRHP Listing Date 04/13/1972
DHR's Virginia Board of Historic Resources easement
NRHP Reference Number 72001389
The brick section of the two-part Ampthill house, in Cumberland County above the James River, was erected ca. 1835 for Randolph Harrison. The house was constructed in the one-story Classical Revival format favored by Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson sent Harrison drawings for a new house in 1815. The drawings likely provided inspiration for the porticoed section added twenty years later to an existing house. With its refined classical elements set off by red brick walls, the composition is a graceful statement of Jefferson’s architectural ideals. Back-to-back with this brick portion is a colonial-period structure, probably built by Harrison’s father, Carter Henry Harrison. The frame house was enlarged when the brick section was added. Its interior has early paneled woodwork with later mantels copied from designs in Asher Benjamin’s Practical House Carpenter (1830). Several early brick service structures survive on the Ampthill grounds.
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Abbreviations:
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark
Updated: August 10, 2022
