Berkeley Plantation (Va.)

In 1691, Berkeley was purchased by Benjamin Harrison III, who established the first commercial shipyard on the James River. Tobacco was shipped from the plantation to England and 18 gun battleships were built there for the Revolutionary Navy.



It was Benjamin III’s son, Benjamin IV, who built the three story Georgian brick mansion at Berkeley, said to be the oldest three-story brick house in Virginia that can prove its date. A round date stone carved above a side door leaves no doubt about the date the house was completed. The initials for Benjamin and his wife, Anne Carter, daughter of the famed tobacco planter, Robert “King” Carter, are etched above a heart and the date 1726.