Berry Hill Plantation, a National Historic Landmark located in Halifax County, will be opened for a Christmas Tour on Dec. 18 & 19 by the Halifax Woman's Club. Lavish plans are being made for the tour. There will be Christmas music, poetry written by the mansion's elderly caretaker, the late Richard Cecil Rogers, will be read and Berry Hill's history will be relived as ladies dressed in period costumes welcome each guest at the door.
Historic Berry Hill Plantation is the pride of Halifax County. Located southwest of the Town of South Boston on River Road and east of the City of Danville, it appears as a perfect jewel glimmering in the lush landscape.
Berry Hill was originally a part of a 105,000 acre tract granted by the English Crown in 1728 to William Byrd, II. Byrd headed a commission that established the boundary between Virginia and North Carolina. The Berry Hill land grant was made for his service in that venture.
William Byrd sold the property in 1742 to a fellow planter.
A few years later, in 1751, the plantation was bought by Benjamin Harrison, a later signer of the Declaration of Independence and fourth governor of an independent Virginia.
He was also an ancestor of two American : Presidents: William Henry Harrison and Benjamin Harrison.
Harrison sold Berry Hill Plantation to the Honorable Issac Coles in 1770. Coles would later become a member of the First Continental Congress and a friend of George Washington. Issac "Halifax" Coles inherited the property from his uncle and built a brick house on the present site of the Greek Revival house. He resided there from 1804 until his death in 1814, after which it was bequeathed to his nephew, Colonel Edward Carrington. Carrington was a close friend of the Marquis de Lafayette with whom he served on Washington's, staff, along with Alexander Hamilton and John Marshall. He lavishly entertained Lafayette at his home for two days in 1824.
James Coles Bruce purchased the property from his cousin in 1841. He and his wife, Eliza, demolished the brick house and began construction of the Greek Revival mansion in 1842.
They hired John E. Johnson as architect and Joshia Dabbs and Dabney Cosby to construct it. The structure was completed within two years, standing as an elegant Doric Temple glorifying its surroundings for many years to come.
Within two weeks of the end of the Civil,War, James Coles Bruce died. He bequeathed Berry Hill to his son, Alexander Bruce, who lived there until 1906. Alexander married Mary Anderson, daughter of Francis T. Anderson, a Justice of Virginia's highest court and Rector of Washington College when General Robert E. Lee became president there following the Civil War. Their son, Malcolm, was the last direct descendant of James Coles Bruce to own Berry Hill.
Several years after the death of Malcolm Bruce in the late 1940s, Berry Hill was sold by his estate - ending over 100 years of Bruce family ownership.
The tour hours are from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Saturday and 1 - 5 p.m. Sunday.
Tickets are $10 and include light refreshments, and may be purchased at the door.
The Halifax Woman's Club invites you to come and enjoy an "Old Fashioned Christmas at Berry Hill."
If you have any questions, please contact Mrs. Carol Owen 476-7321, Mrs. Kay Lewis 572-1641 or Mrs. Flora Osborne 575-5059.