Virginia's Henrico County has bought a James River parcel rich with history. Now it will decide how to tell the story of the Civil War, enslaved people and colonial days

Varina plantation home, cannonballs in wall and Benjamin Butler (Henrico Co. and Library of Congress)

Bald eagles, ducks and geese routinely take flight near a weathered two-story brick home that sits on a sloping hill southeast of Richmond. The dwelling has a circle driveway on one side and a view of the James River on the other. Fields that have been tilled for generations lie just to the north and west.

For all its bucolic setting, Varina Farms, or Varina on the James, has another facet: history as deep and rich as the soil. The former plantation is considered the birthplace of Henrico County, which curves around Richmond and is home to 340,000 residents.

In the early 1600s, English settler John Rolfe, husband of indigenous Princess Pocahontas, discovered the soil and climate at the site were suited for growing mild tobacco, with the name Varina linked to a form of Spanish tobacco.

The Civil War came to Varina Farms about 250 years later, and the property was a scene of combat, prisoner exchanges and the headquarters of Union Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler. Confederate cannonballs struck the 1853 Classic Revival home, and there are signs of those today.

At one point, Butler built a pontoon bridge to carry his men and supplies across the river to attack Richmond in 1864.

Property fronts the James River, 10 miles south of Richmond (Henrico County map)

With land preservation and public use in mind, Henrico County leaders recently purchased the property from the Stoneman family, which had been its guardian since the early 1900s. The total for two purchases, which includes the battle-scarred 1853 Classic Revival home, came to about $18.5 million. Interstate 295 slices through the farm.

“By acquiring this beautiful, vast and irreplaceable property, Henrico County is making a once-in-a-lifetime move to ensure that our history as a county, a commonwealth and a nation are preserved and that our precious, scenic riverfront will remain protected and accessible for generations to come,” said Board of Supervisors Chairman Tyrone E. Nelson.

County has ideas for site, but wants input from citizens

County officials will now begin the process of determining future use for the farm, known as Aiken’s Landing during the Civil War.

The possibilities are as broad as the view of the river, says Julian Charity, division director for history, heritage and natural resources in the county park system.

The home has not been occupied for at least a decade (Henrico County photo)

“We have a number of ideas, but we’re also interested in what the public would like to see out there,” Charity told the Picket in an email.

The possibilities include:

-- Archaeology across the site, including colonial days;

-- Restoration of the house and interpretation of each lower-floor room for different aspects of the plantation’s history;

-- A new Civil War museum, riverboat historic tours and archaeological excavations of the original Varina site;

-- A commemorative site for the enslaved persons who worked the fields and house for about 250 years. The family of Albert Aiken owned about 60 enslaved people on the eve of the Civil War, according to Charity. Officials have begun compiling a listing of known names;

-- A Native American interpretive site

-- Wetlands restoration with the James River Association, pollinator gardens and agriculture classes for county schools.

View of home from "land" side, just past farmland (Henrico County photo).

County officials said any opening of the property is at least a year away. There are no facilities available to the public at this time and there are no restrooms.

Marc Wagner, senior architectural historian for the state Department of Historic Resources, said the agency has advised the county on possible archaeology and how to interpret the dwelling. “We are hoping the county will invite us back out.”

A lot more of Varina's history lies below the surface

The Department of Historic Resources champions preservation statewide and has an online database of sites. It is familiar with Varina Farms and is standing by to assist Henrico County, said Mike Clem, the department’s eastern regional archaeologist.

According to Charity, archaeology surveys done in the 1970s and 1996 were all surface observations and collection.

(Marc Wagner, Va. Department of Historic Resources)

“One of the first things we would like to do is archaeology,” Charity said. “We are intending to pinpoint the locations of the early buildings (courthouse, glebe, parish, ordinary, etc.), Butler’s wharves, enslaved cabin sites, and anything listed in the vast histories.” This goes back to the early colonial period.

He says the site has been picked over during the years, so many historic items are no longer available.

“As archaeology is performed, we fully expect to recover hundreds of artifacts pertaining to the Civil War,” Charity said.

Plantation was a busy crossroads, troops site

Not long into the Civil War, Richmond became a prime objective for the Union army, and dozens of battles and skirmishes took place in Henrico and nearby counties.

Varina on the James served as an eastern depot for the August 1862 exchange of about 6,000 prisoners, according to a history in the state’s archives. A brick barn – about 400 yards from  the home – briefly held Union prisoners during the war. The barn was near a wharf used for the exchanges. (Some histories say the plantation was home to the first cotton mill in the South.)

Federal bridge crosses James River at Varina Landing (Library of Congress)

The farm was also used as a major crossing point for Union troops, according to the county.

In November 1863, the controversial Butler received command of the Department of Virginia and North Carolina, and the following May was in the field again, this time at the head of the new Army of the James.

His army spent months southeast of  heavily defended Richmond, unsuccessful in making significant gains, though he notched a victory at New Market Heights, northwest of Varina, in September 1864. Fourteen members of the U.S. Colored Troops were awarded the Medal of Honor for their valor.

Butler used Varina for his headquarters during part of 1864. According to one history, the general rode one day to inspect his camps.

“As he passed some ditches which he thought were filled with his own men, the Rebels fired upon him. They had reclaimed the land. Butler outran the Rebels and made it safely to the fort where he met Grant.”

Home was struck by Rebel cannonballs

The history says Butler built a log cabin for his headquarters near the home and used it until war’s end, having failed in his assault on Petersburg and being driven back by Confederate troops.

“The dwelling still shows the damage by cannon balls, fired by the Confederate batteries, from the Chesterfield side near Dutch Gap,” according to a 1937 report on the plantation. (Photo of damaged area, Henrico County)

The brick west wall of the home today is pocked with small craters made by the artillery rounds.

Wagner said: “You can tell the cannon balls are cemented into the damaged brick.  On site we wondered if that was done for effect by later owners.  Would the cannon fire have hit the wall and lodged in or just bounced out -- possibly both happened?”

Charity says officials believe the round shots in the wall replaced original cannonballs removed in the 1960s.

“We do not believe that the cannonballs are modern, but we believe that they are replacements. More than likely, leftover cannonballs found on the property from Butler’s time there,” he said.

The Union pontoon bridge was later removed, but different references mention remnants still on or in the James River, according to Charity.

None of the other buildings of the time, other than the 1853 home and its kitchen outbuilding, along with remnants of the barn, are still standing, said Charity.

Cannonballs in the west wall (Marc Wagner (Va. Dept. of Historic Resources)

Home was modernized, but still has original elements

For fans of antebellum homes, the Aiken home just about has it all.

The interior has a variety of decorative elements, according to a 1976 nomination form for the home’s placement on the National Register of Historic Places.

The form says of the dwelling:

“The dwelling house is a two-story, common-bond brick structure connected by a long hyphen to a kitchen at the east and was built in 1853. It is five bays long with six-over-six sash and white wooden sills and lintels, except on the ground story of the river front where all of the window openings have French doors set into them. A one-story, decastyle Ionic porch, rebuilt after a 1941 tornado, stretches the length of the river front and is returned halfway along the west end. A one-story tetrastyle Ionic portico shelters the land front. “

Civil War photo shows flat roof, renovations included taller chimneys (Va. Dept. of Historic Resources)

The home is showing its age, though county officials say the Stonemans did a good job maintaining it and the property. No one has lived in the house for at least 10 years, and the electrical has not been updated since the 1970s.

“We have some work to do, but I’ve definitely seen structures in far worse condition,” said Charity.

Wagner with the state DHR said the house was updated in the early 20^th century so the interior reflects a lot of that period. “The roof blew off the house during a tornado at one point so the whole roof area was rebuilt.”

He said the house appears to have undergone a substantial remodeling a little more than a 100 years ago.

One of the rooms at the old Varina home (Marc Wagner, Va. Dept. of Historic Resources)

“This was the period when farms got upgraded all over Virginia. Farming became more prosperous operations with the growth of cities, RR (railroads) and improved scientific farming methods -- and the owners would often upgrade these old plantations with modern bathrooms and kitchens.”

Parts of Varina’s main house interior date back to the 1850s, especially the room plan and central hall circulation. All of the brickwork, and some of the exterior trim is from the 1850s. The porches have been rebuilt over time in the same 1850s Greek Revival style, Wagner said.

“The kitchen interior is all modern,” he told the Picket. “It likely housed 5-10 enslaved persons (a guess) and had a large cooking space. It is rare to find the covered connected kitchen to house structure, original to the design -- the only one left in Henrico that is pre-1860. You can see in later years that a new entrance was added to the kitchen and the small upstairs window. The new entrance on the kitchen signals a difference use of the kitchen building, as just residential space.”

(Marc Wagner, Virginia Dept. of HIstoric Resources)

Charity said the county plans to move forward on preservation talks and work soon.

“We’ve gone through the general assessment phase where we’ve identified priorities (electrical, windows, plumbing, etc.), now we are in the contractor estimation phase. We have a number of contractors under contract (due to the other historic properties we manage), and are getting more information on exactly how to proceed.” (Aerial view of Varina, below, Henrico County)

Henrico County owns other Civil War-related properties, including portions of Malvern Hill, New Market Heights, Deep Bottom and Savage’s Station battlefields.

It is working with a consortium of groups and governments to build a bike/walking trail through the New Market Heights property to a Civil War site and one to Four Mile Creek, from the Revolutionary War.

The New Market Heights site has been master planned for a large passive park site, but it has not yet come to fruition.