Virginia: Architecture of the Old South

Virginia was the oldest, most populous and richest colony in the South, with early architecture of unsurpassed elegance and variety. Thomas Jefferson, who was an amateur architect as well as statesman, laid the foundations for the profession of architecture in young America, by encouraging the English-born Benjamin Latrobe and Robert Mills, who later claimed to be the first native-born professionally trained architect in America. Both Latrobe and Mills created important buildings in Virginia. The state suffered a relative decline in population, prosperity and cultural vigor as people abandoned the old, exhausted and overcrowded lands of the upper and coastal South and flooded to the fertile Southwest. Nevertheless, Virginia encouraged the work of excellent architects and builders, among them the renowned New York-based A.J. Davis, who created a considerable number of Italian villas and Gothic "castles." Since the rescue of Washington's Mount Vernon in 1858, Virginia has led the nation in the preservation of its historic buildings. The restoration of Virginia's colonial capital, Williamsburg, became a tastemaking shrine to the preservation of early American culture. Virginians of today are again leaders in the reinterpretation and renewed restoration of the state's most important buildings.