At Westover Plantation in Charles City County, archaeologists of Virginia department of historic resources found the foundations of the first colonial church, built here around 1625-1640.
As a longtime resident of the former Westover Plantation — it was her childhood home, and she returned there a decade ago with her husband and children to manage the estate — Andrea Fisher Erda knows well the stories of the Byrd family and others who owned the place before her family acquired it in 1921.
Less clear is the history beneath her feet, but she hopes the results of an archaeological dig last week will begin to bring that into focus.
“These are extraordinary places with so much history attached to them, and the problem is that only one side of that history has been told,” Erda said of the James River plantations in general and Westover in particular.
Westover, in Charles City County, is her family’s private residence, but it also is open to the public for visits.
“Now, that is not an active whitewash, which some people accuse plantation owners of, but it’s what is in the public record. As a family home, I don’t have the staff, and I don’t have the resources, to comb the records for stories that probably weren’t even written down. It’s super-important to tell those stories, but it’s not as if they’re right there: Do I want to talk about the rich white man, or do I want to talk about the person who was enslaved? I’d love to talk about them both.”
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A team led by Michael Clem, an archaeologist with the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, went looking for 19th-century enslaved living quarters on the grounds of Westover last week and found 19th-century artifacts — machine-cut nails, a common ceramic, bottle glass and other materials — that could be evidence of such quarters. They also found small arrowheads, spear points and lots of pottery, indicating the presence of Native Americans many centuries or even millennia ago, Clem said.
“People have been living on that spot for thousands of years very likely,” he said, noting further analysis will be conducted on the materials that were found.
Perhaps 100 yards away, but within the same general area that is believed to have been a community hub in the 1600s, Clem’s friend Bob Chartrand of Chartrand Geoarchaeological Solutions used ground-penetrating radar to locate what is believed to be the foundation of old Westover Church, an early Colonial church that was constructed perhaps as early as the 1630s and was gone by the mid-1700s. They also believe the radar located piers for floor joists or roof supports for the church and a number of previously unknown graves. A small cemetery where members of the Byrd family are buried is nearby.
Records and maps also indicate a courthouse and ordinary for travelers visiting the courthouse were nearby — though evidence of neither was found last week — in what would have been “downtown Charles City” at the time, said Judy Ledbetter, a volunteer with the Richard M. Bowman Center for Local History in Charles City.
“It’s really exciting,” Ledbetter said of the discoveries at the sites of the church and enslaved quarters. The prospect of future excavations and investigations bode well for uncovering a lost history of the James River plantations that have neither the high profile of presidential homes, such as Monticello or Montpelier, or the support of deep-pocketed foundations to fund such research. The involvement of the Department of Historic Resources at Westover is “absolutely” a big deal, Ledbetter said.
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Erda first met Clem last summer after she had contacted the VDHR for advice about arrowheads that tenants were finding along the riverbank on the 1,000-acre Westover property. She learned it was fine to collect arrowheads found in the open but not to dig for them. Any arrowheads collected should remain on the property where they are found, she was told.
Erda mentioned her desire to find sites related to the enslaved population on the property.
“She realizes it’s an important aspect of the history there that has not been told, and she wants to remedy that and do whatever research is needed to honor those folks as best as possible,” Clem said. “I agreed to help and quickly found historic maps that provided clues that led us to the area we tested.”
It was well-known that the church, courthouse and ordinary were somewhere on the property, but he found a small map and other writings by William Byrd II that gave him a starting point to look for them. Clem performed some “shovel tests” in the area last year, and returned last week with Chartrand and volunteers from the Archaeological Society of Virginia during Historic Garden Week — Erda thought it would be interesting for visitors to see archaeological projects going on — and went to work.
Clem said he often gets calls from people who have interesting artifacts, but the items often were collected decades ago, and the people no longer have access to the property where they were found.
“It’s not all that common to have a property owner with so much in one place,” he said.
The area where Clem and his team were working is in an area now somewhat partitioned by boxwoods, near the river, about a quarter-mile from the magnificent main house at Westover.
There was thought the courthouse might have been in the area where the enslaved quarters were later built, but no artifacts from the 17th or 18th century — when the courthouse would have been on the site — were found. Now it’s believed the courthouse could be under an adjacent field currently being farmed.
Once it goes fallow later this year, Clem could return to have a look for the courthouse, the ordinary and more evidence of the enslaved population.
“We’ll absolutely come back ... it’ll be a long-term commitment,” he said. “I’m determined to tell the story of these folks whose story is every bit as important as that of the owners of the property.”
Westover’s grounds and gardens never closed during the pandemic, Erda said, because she thought it important for people to have a beautiful place to visit in such a difficult time.
“The setting is extraordinary; it’s been called the most beautiful house in America,” she said. “It’s just a restorative, peaceful place on the river.”
However, she quickly added: “But how can you say it’s ‘restorative’ if there’s so much tragic history behind it?”
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Though it didn’t close during the pandemic, Westover’s website went dark for six months in the wake of the murder of George Floyd in 2020, except for a statement from Erda and her family expressing their outrage and voicing their support for the Black community in the fight against violence and discrimination.
They also explained how they had tried to make Westover a welcoming place for visitors to engage with the place and its history, but that they recognized that “for many people, particularly African Americans and Native Americans, places such as Westover serve as reminders of a far grimmer and horrific past and that peace and respite are quite opposite to what they feel here.”
The statement went on to say they would be listening and learning and supporting “real change and equality.”
“History cannot be undone, but we hope that in its truthful telling, there are opportunities for reconciliation and healing for people of all skin colors,” the statement said.
Finding more of that history to tell is an important step along the way, Erda said.
“I want people of all colors to come out here and be able to take in the beauty and have that be restorative, and I want people of all colors to recognize the full history that was here,” she said. “It’s sort of the horror and the beauty, two sides of the coin. I don’t think one can erase the other, but at some point there has to be healing.”
31 photos from the Times-Dispatch archives
In April 1956, a new air raid siren was installed atop a small tower (behind street sign) at the corner of Laburnum Avenue and Brook Road in Richmond. It was one of three new sirens being installed to broaden the city's Civil Defense warning system. The other two were placed at John B. Cary School and at Engine Co. 20 on Forest Hill Avenue.
In August 1946, leaders of the three flights in the Gamble’s Hill Community Center Air Scouts received their banners at the first review of the corps held in Gamble’s Hill Park. This was the only troop of Air Scouts organized in Richmond at that time; they wore the regulation National Air Scout uniform. Pictured (from left) were pilot leader Eddie Williams, sponsor Verna Walker, pilot leader William Massie, sponsor Barbara Chandler, pilot leader Everett Webb and sponsor Virginia Blackburn. The community center was financed by Second Presbyterian Church.
This March 1952 image shows a wagon, believed to have been Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s during the Civil War, as it was retired to the Army’s Richmond Quartermaster Depot at Bellwood. The wagon was among numerous items being transferred from Cameron Station in Alexandria; it can still be seen at the Army Quartermaster Museum at Fort Lee.
In June 1939 at the state Capitol in Richmond, the first of a planned dozen Chevrolet bookmobiles of the Statewide Library Project was put into service. The project, which aimed to expand book availability in rural areas, was part of the Work Projects Administration, a New Deal employment program. At right, WPA official Ella Agnew turned over the key to C.W. Dickinson Jr. of the State Board of Education. With them were (from left) F.E. Gross of Chevrolet, Leslie Stevens of the Virginia State Library, project technical supervisor Mary Gaver and project administrative supervisor W.A. Moon Jr.
This June 1952 image shows one of “Dr. Duval’s pills,” part of a trio of 30-inch granite Turkish cannonballs, in its new location at John Marshall High School at Eighth and Marshall streets in Richmond. After standing for many years on a pedestal in front of Grays’ Armory at Seventh and Marshall, this one was destined to join its two mates at the city Works Department trash heap at the old fairgrounds, where those two had lain missing since World War II until being rediscovered in January 1952. This one was instead saved with a move out of the way of downtown traffic.
When this photo of Cloverleaf Mall was taken in March 1975, the shopping center was just three years old.
In May 1946, the future of the military draft was in question, and David Burruss, 19, of Norfolk, got lots of attention when he was thought to be the last man selected at the Richmond Armed Forces Induction Station. He was among about a dozen inductees who then headed off to Fort Meade in Maryland. (The wartime selective service act was extended, though.)
In December 1953, the new whirlaway, a merry-go-round type of gadget turned by the foot power of dozens of students, was popular at Dumbarton Elementary School in Henrico County. The attraction was part of a new set of playground equipment purchased with $750 donated by the Lakeside Lions Club. Watching the children (from left) were H.F. Taylor, Lions Club president; Joseph Rotella, school principal; and F.M. Armbrecht, chairman of the PTA recreation committee.
This April 1955 image shows men dipping for herring in Falling Creek in Chesterfield County. Herring would arrive in rivers in the spring to spawn, and dipping was a popular activity that allowed men to socialize while stocking up on fish that could be salted and eaten throughout the year.
In May 1948, flooding from heavy rains in the Windsor Shades area of New Kent County washed out a Chesapeake & Ohio Railway bed, leaving unsupported rails spanning a chasm. The flooded U.S. Route 60 is in the foreground. As much as 8 feet of water was reported on Route 60 in the area.
This August 1936 image shows the former headquarters of the Army’s 80th Division at Camp Lee near Petersburg. The building was constructed during World War I and later known as David House. In 1972, it was designated as a historical site; it is still standing today as the oldest building at Fort Lee and the only one left from WWI.
This October 1955 image shows Laurel Elementary School in Henrico County, which was a constant source of complaints. The building, dating to the early 1900s, was not being maintained to a high standard because the county planned to abandon it for a new school soon. Most of the broken windows seen were on the unused third and fourth floors. While Henrico hoped to have the new Maude Trevvett Elementary opened by September 1956, it did not open until January 1958.
In October 1961, a crane swung a wrecking ball against the portico of the old John Marshall High School in downtown Richmond as a nostalgic crowd watched. The building was being razed to make way for development of the new Civic Center; the new high school opened in North Side the previous year.
In June 1975, the band Ice Water performed in the Flintstone Follies Theater at Kings Dominion in Doswell. The theme park fully opened the previous month with 15 attractions; its Lion Country Safari area had opened in 1974. Today, the park offers more than 60 rides, shows and attractions as well as a water park.
In May 1975, Gov. Mills E. Godwin Jr. greeted a porpoise on the opening day of Kings Dominion in Doswell. The theme park opened with 15 attractions; its Lion Country Safari area had opened a year before. Today, the park offers more than 60 rides, shows and attractions as well as a water park.
This October 1955 image shows Laurel Elementary School in Henrico County, which was a constant source of complaints. The building, dating to the early 1900s, was not being maintained to a high standard because the county planned to abandon it for a new school soon. Most of the broken windows seen were on the unused third and fourth floors. While Henrico hoped to have the new Maude Trevvett Elementary opened by September 1956, it did not open until January 1958.
This April 1946 image shows members of the Girl Reserve Club at Maggie Walker High School in Richmond. Club activities included drama, knitting, glass painting, embroidery and sewing. From left were Laura Belle Manning, Marie Spurlock, Eloise Taylor and Gladys Claxton.
In February 1951, this window display, using Richmond Times-Dispatch and Richmond News-Leader pages for a background, was set up in a Grace Street window of Miller & Rhoads in connection with the approach of Easter and new spring finery. Addison Lewis was director of window displays at the department store for 52 years, a span in which the scenes became extremely popular.
The June 10, 1961, edition of The Richmond News Leader included a photo essay titled “Contrasts.” The photos depicted old and new around the city — such as a mule and a truck, which were both relied on for hauling duties.
In April 1947, about 20,000 pounds of paper was collected in a drive at Dumbarton Elementary School in Henrico County, with Edward O'Brien (from left), Leroy Foster and Thomas Riggan in charge. The paper was sold, with proceeds used to purchase library books and other materials for students. The previous year, paper-drive money purchased a mimeographing machine for teacher use.
This May 1959 image shows construction along Patterson Avenue between Libbie and Maple avenues in Richmond. This block had just reopened to traffic, but ongoing work continued to block passage to the east of the shopping center.
In August 1970, a student peered out of a Richmond Public Schools bus on a rainy morning as cross-town busing began in the city. Amid controversy, about 13,000 students in Richmond were bused to different schools under a federal court order to help achieve integration.
In March 1930, the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway’s new luxury train, the Sportsman, stopped at Main Street Station in Richmond on the last leg of an exhibition tour ahead of service beginning on a new route from Norfolk to Detroit and Cleveland. In its day on exhibit in Richmond, the train was visited by about 10,000 people, including Gov. John Pollard, Lt. Gov. James Price, Mayor J. Fulmer Bright and numerous other local and state dignitaries.
In August 1942, members of the canteen class, sponsored by the Richmond chapter of the American Red Cross, finished their course with a demonstration of mass feeding at the Sauer Co. Among those serving were (from left) Mrs. T.V. Adamson, Mrs. Thomas Cook, Mrs. Keeling Sisson and Mrs. Irving Matthews.
In March 1943, teenagers visited the newly reopened Main Street Station Dining Room in Richmond, which was closed for a month to allow for remodeling required by the city. During that period, the Red Cross stepped in to supply food to World War II servicemen passing through the terminal.
This August 1963 aerial image shows the area between the Hotel Richmond and Interstate 95. In the distance is the Centennial Dome, which was constructed as a visitor center for the 1961 Civil War Centennial. It then served for decades as the Jonah L. Larrick Student Center at the Medical College of Virginia.
In November 1949, Richmond’s electric streetcars, which began service in 1888, were retired from service. Here, a crowd waited to board cars as they took ceremonial final trips through the city, with car signs touting the city’s new bus service. The Virginia Transit Co. spent $2.2 million on 166 buses for the new system.
In November 1934, a reproduction of a mule-drawn trolley was the first vehicle to cross the newly restored Marshall Street Viaduct in Richmond. Horse- or mule-drawn trolleys were a preferred mode of transportation here starting in about 1860. They began to be replaced by electric trolleys in the late 1880s, and they were all retired by 1901.
This June 1950 image shows the former Westwood Circle in Richmond, a traffic circle at the intersection of North Boulevard, Hermitage Road and Westwood Avenue. In November 1961, a $150,000 project removed the circle, added islands and traffic signals, and diverted some traffic around the busy intersection. City safety official John Hanna called the intersection the “most complicated we have had to redesign and signalize in the past 14 years.”
In January 1988, Lt. Gov. L. Douglas Wilder (left) shared a laugh with tennis star and humanitarian Arthur Ashe at a birthday celebration for Wilder in Richmond. The gala raised money for Wilder’s upcoming race for governor; his victory made him the first African-American elected governor in the nation.
This January 1955 image shows businessmen using the Health Club at the downtown Richmond YMCA. The Health Club, which featured massages, ultraviolet and infrared lamps, and steam rooms, promoted its services as the busy businessman’s alternative to exercise. The local Y had been celebrating its 100th anniversary, having been formed in 1854 — just 10 years after the international association was established.
