Buckland, Virginia

HISTORY (con't)

Richard Bland Lee and his descendants lived at Buckland until 1935. Mrs. R. B. Lee's first cousin, painter John Singer Sargent, visited Buckland Hall on several occasions during the late 19th century and painted a rare watercolor of the house, as well as three large oil landscapes of the farm. In 1935 the farm was sold to Mitchell Harrison, who hired architect Irwin Fleming to restore the main house.

The farm was later sold to Thomas Mellon Evans, a noted Wall Street financier, philanthropist and horse breeder. Mr. Evans spent the next four decades developing a state-of-the-art Kentucky style thoroughbred farm at Buckland.

The most important distinction to understand about Buckland, setting it apart from similar towns of that period, is that it did not experience the continued success that railroads, steam power, and Civil War Reconstruction brought to other towns. William Graham, Architectural Curator of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation has stated that "...the survival of traditional building landscape at Buckland is much better than what we have at Williamsburg". This unique situation has left Buckland with most of the earliest structures constructed from native material harvested and quarried from the site. These buildings stand in situ, surrounded by an original cultural landscape that has not been fragmented over time.

Dr. William Kelso, Director of Archeology, Jamestown Preservation Virginia, has prepared this written statement about Buckland: "Buckland has the unique potential to teach generations to come much about American values, especially the role of free enterprise, in the development and growth of the United States during its founding years between the American Revolution and the Civil War era."  >> Threat

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