Nathaniel Burwell (1750–1814) inherited a estate from his father Carter Burwell, including
Carter's Grove,
James City County, and about 5000 acres in what was then
Frederick County. He developed the land with the
Burwell-Morgan Mill and normally spent summers nearby (the
Blue Ridge Mountains' foothills being cooler and less subject to malaria than the
Hampton Roads area). After the American Revolutionary War and his first wife's death, Col. Burwell remarried and with the assistance of former General
Daniel Morgan began building the plantation house he called 'Carter Hall' during 1792–1800. Col. Nathaniel Burwell at his peak owned 8000 acres and enslaved more than 200 people in Frederick County; the next largest landowners enslaving 53, 43 and 28 people. Col. Burwell would die at Carter Hall in 1814, but his estate would not settle until his widow's death in 1843. Carter Hall would be inherited by one of his sons by his second wife, George Harrison Burwell (1799–1873). Col. Burwell invited his cousin, U.S.
Founding Father Edmund Randolph, who had been
Governor of Virginia,
United States Attorney General and later
Secretary of State under
George Washington, to pass his retirement at Carter Hall. Col. Burwell's son Nathaniel Burwell Jr. (1779–1849) helped to form Clarke County from the eastern part Frederick County and at nearly 2400 acres and 52 enslaved people was its largest landowners. He served as one its justices of the peace at various times, as well as its joint delegate in the Virginia General Assembly with neighboring Warren County (which the Castleman family dominated), but lived at
Saratoga (Boyce, Virginia), a plantation he bought from Gen. Morgan in 1809 after the retired soldier moved to
Winchester to live with his family. Carter Hall has a five-bay central block built of local limestone, originally with a central hall flanked by rooms extending the full depth of the house (single-pile plan). The flanking two-bay wings have pediment gable ends and the outermost, single-story wings are of a single bay, formerly with pediment ends. and established headquarters at Carter Hall during the fall of 1862. Jackson "declined George Burwell's invitation to stay in the house, camping instead with his men on the grounds. During his stay General Jackson permitted his surgeon, Dr.
Hunter McGuire, to perform a
cataract operation on George Burwell on the portico."
1930 remodel The house was remodeled in 1930 for its new owner Gerard Lambert "under the direction of the fashionable New York architect,
H.T. Lindeberg," and a four-level terraced garden designed by landscape architect Wade Muldoon was added in 1948. The
stucco was removed from the exterior to expose the stone. In the house the central hall and east room were combined into a single space and the original wainscoting was replaced with richly detailed neo-
Georgian details based on woodwork at
Shirley Plantation, Virginia. The dining room is the only room to retain significant portions of its original fittings.
Present day Acquired in 1978 it is currently a conference center owned by
Project Hope. The organization on November 27, 2018, placed the center with on the market for $12,000,000 (~$ in ). ==See also==