Sully
Historic
Site
3650
Historic Sully Way
Chantilly,
VA - (703) 437-1794
Sully
Historic Site, more
commonly known as Sully
Plantation is in Chantilly, Virginia. Sully,
the country home of Richard Bland and Elizabeth Collins Lee, was built
in 1794
on land inherited by his father, Henry Lee II.
He was Northern Virginia's first
Representative to Congress in
1789, as well as an uncle of Robert E. Lee. The house was
situated on what
was originally a 3,111 acre tract between Cub and Flatlick Runs, then
part of Loudoun
County, Virginia.
In
1789, Lee was elected to represent northern Virginia
in the first congress of the United States.
For the next five years he spent a
good deal of his time in New York
and Philadelphia,
where the
delegates convened. By the end of 1793, construction began on the manor
house
and associated buildings which eventually replaced the log house that
was
Richard Bland Lee's bachelor residence.
From
Philadelphia,
Lee ordered the necessary supplies
and forwarded building instructions to his agent in Virginia.
Nails, plaster of Paris, linseed
oil, window weights and ropes, even two marble hearths, were among the
cargoes
shipped by sloop to the port of Alexandria
and transported
by wagon the remaining twenty miles to Sully. "The colors I directed
were
slate for the Roof and Stone for the Body inside and out," Lee wrote.
"Urge the painter to lose no time in his work."
Two-and-a-half
stories high and three bays wide, Sully bears a resemblance to the
townhouses
of Philadelphia,
the city where Lee met and married Elizabeth Collins, the daughter of a
Quaker
merchant. Stephen Collins, visiting his daughter's Chantilly
home in September of 1794, wrote to assure his wife that Sully was "a
clever house, has an elegant hall 12 feet wide and two very pretty
rooms on the
first floor...
...There
are two large and one small Chamber in the second story, and one
handsome and
large chamber in the third or garret story and another good lodging
room
besides..." The Lee home was, by design, a fit residence for a man of
Lee's station and a comfortable dwelling place for his wife.
Sully
was built during the nation's Federal Period (1790-1820). Outside, the
clapboard siding conceals mortared brick set between the studs of the
frame.
Inside, the floor plan presents one half of a center hall
configuration, in
keeping with Lee's initial plans to build a second full wing at a later
date.
The land
including the
main house was acquired by the Federal Government in 1958 to make way
for
construction of Dulles Airport.
The current
park, at 62 acres is only a small fraction of the original 3,000-acre
(12 km²) tract.
Fees And
Directions:
Sully is
located in Chantilly,
Virginia
on Route 28, 3/4 mile north of U.S. Route 50 and four miles south of
the Dulles
Toll Road.
Admission to the grounds is free. There is a charge for guided tours of
the
house and outbuildings.
NEW ENTRANCE
OPEN
From
Route 28:
Take Air and Space Museum Parkway East Exit, at the first stop sign
turn right
and follow the paved road to parking lot.
Source
- Wikipedia
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