Charlottesville Farms

Keswick Farms

Keswick Virginia farms are extraordinary and highly sought-after. Nmaed for Keswick, England, this area of Albemarle County offers the finest Charlottesville farms in the area. Keswick is located minutes east of Charlottesville and is home to the most spectacular farmland in the state making Keswick farms the most expensive...senciond to only Middleburg's.

The hamlet of Keswick Virginia consists of a small but social post office and the exquisite Mobil 5 Star Keswick Hall (previously owned by Laura Ashley). It has it's own fox hunt and the Keswick Horse Show which is a nationally syndicated horse show.

The majority of Keswick farms were either designed or built by Thomas Jefferson. His family home, Shadwell was here as was Merriwether Lewis's Albemarle plantation, Cloverfields.

Most of the Keswick farms are large and relatively undeveloped and still retains its natural beauty, which is enhanced by a prominent view of the Southwest Mountains. The drive through Keswick "has often been cited as one of the most scenic in America," writes the New York Times.

Thomas Jefferson and James Madison frequently passed through this part of Virginia, along with other well-known Albemarle county citizens including James Monroe, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark.

The earliest Keswick farms were considered the "western frontier" during the first half of the 18th century. In an effort to expand the crown's influence and land holdings, the King of England granted large tracts of land to a few foremost colonists, including 6'7", surveyor Peter Jefferson, the father of Thomas Jefferson. In fact the oldest house in Albemarle County lies in the woods near a lovely mid-nineteenth century Albemarle plantation.

The Virginia Central railroad extended its line in 1849 and crossed an estate named Keswick Farm. A more recent depot was featured in the 1956 film Giant, starring Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor, but all depot operations ceased by 1967.

Keswick Farm is part of the original 1727 Nicholas Meriwether Crown Grant that comprised nearly 18,000 acres on the east side of the Southwest Mountains.

A few Keswick farms were the site of two important historical events, one during the Revolutionary War and the other during the Civil War. On June 4, 1781 Captain Jack Jouett rode 40 miles through the night from Cuckoo Tavern in Louisa County to Charlottesville to warn then Virginia Governor Thomas Jefferson and the Virginia Legislature of the approach of the British troops.

Jefferson and the legislators had left Richmond because of British General Benedict Arnold’s raids on neighboring Keswick farms. British Colonel Banastre Tarleton had been ordered to follow them. Eager to capture the Americans, Tarleton covered the last seventy miles in twenty-four hours. When twenty-seven year old Jack Jouett spotted the troops in Louisa County, he immediately left at 10 o’clock at night, choosing hilly terrain rather than the main highway for his route to Charlottesville.

Tarleton’s troops arrived at Castle Hill, the original tract of land to which Edgewood Estate belonged, just after dawn on June 4, 1781. Legend has it that Dr. Thomas Walker, the owner of Castle Hill, convinced Tarleton and his troops to stay for breakfast, thus delaying their march to Charlottesville. It is likely that Tarleton stayed longer than the half-hour he later claimed, because by the time the troops reached Monticello and Charlottesville, Jefferson and the legislature had escaped.

Almost one hundred years later, Keswick farms were visited by Confederate General James A. Longstreet who was ordered to move his troops from East Tennessee on April 7, 1864 to Charlottesville to prepare for the Battle of the Wilderness. Because the railroads could only transport 1500 men a day, the troops were slow to reach Albemarle County. The Confederates detrained at Charlottesville and were then marched to various camp sites.

In addition to infantry, artillery units were also present. Horse-drawn wagons carried personal baggage, provisions, ammunition and other equipment and supplies to the camp sites. Historians believe that just days before the movement toward the Wilderness, Longstreet’s men were reviewed by General Robert E. Lee.

Governor James Barbour, who resided in Orange County at the tip of the Southwest Mountains, wrote in 1835, “Let us, the inhabitants of the South-West Mountains, rejoice and be grateful that our benefits greatly preponderate over our ills. And so far as my testimony goes, resulting from actual observation of near one-third of the entire circumference of the earth, I feel no hesitation in declaring that I deem them the most desirable abode I have ever seen.” So if you are looking for pure pastoral heaven...look at Keswick farms next.

Keswick Farm

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