Chelsea Plantation has hosted various historical figures including Revolutionary War General the Marquis de Lafayette, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson and that historic legacy will continue.
Culminating an effort of over a year, William W. Richardson III and the Williamsburg Land Conservancy signed papers Tuesday to place a permanent conservation easement on Richardson’s 568-acre property, Chelsea Plantation, located on the Mattaponi River.
“Ensuring that Chelsea Plantation would be preserved for the generations to come was paramount to me and my family,” said Richardson. “We take great pride in knowing that the protection of this land through a conservation easement will forever preserve an important piece of Virginia’s history.”
The conservation easement will protect the land from further development that could detract from its history. No buildings on the property may be demolished, only repaired as required. There is an allowance for a future café and gift shop for visitors. The house has periodically been open for tours and parts of the property can be rented.
The plantation consists of a main house and several outbuildings, five of which are currently used as living space. The buildings include an old slave schoolhouse, a smoke house, kitchen, milking parlor, seed building, a barn with two silos and a wash house. An extensive garden on the property is filled with 300-year-old English boxwoods, and there are numerous springs, streams and wetlands.
The grounds are being farmed and that use can continue under the easement.
“The Board of Directors and staff of the Conservancy are honored to have been selected to hold the easement on this historic gem,” said Caren Schumacher, executive director of the conservancy. “We commend Mr. Richardson and his family for their love of Chelsea Plantation and for their desire to conserve it in perpetuity.”
Richardson hopes people will be able to make donations to help repair and maintain the plantation; some parts of it are in disrepair. Maintaining the property and ensuring it remains the same for generations is paramount to Richardson.
Chelsea was originally built to be the seat of tobacco entrepreneur Augustine Moore in 1709. The house went on to be used as General Lafayette’s headquarters just before the Battle of Yorktown in the Revolutionary War. The house played host to a number of people, including artist Charles Bridges, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and Robert E. Lee.
The house remained in the Moore family until the 1870s. William Richardson, Jr., a descendant of the Moore family on his maternal side, restored it to family ownership when he acquired the plantation in 1959; his wife Ellen sold the property to their son William Richardson III in December 1973.
The house has black walnut paneled walls and is decorated with countless antiques collected by Richardson. A seal from the Royal Borough of Chelsea in London, now known as the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, is mounted to the balcony of a second-story window. The seal is a municipal coat of arms that cannot be reproduced at will; special permission was granted from the British government for Richardson to place the seal on his home and he was only allowed one seal.
New stairs made of stone quarried in Portland, England were recently installed; Richardson’s family had been waiting for these stairs since 1959. For tax reasons, the stone was imported by a Canadian company and then sent to Baltimore before being delivered to Chelsea.
Chelsea is on the National Register of Historic Places and the Virginia Landmarks Register.
According to a press release, the addition of Chelsea increases the conservancy’s protected land to 5,000 acres across the lower James and York River watersheds.
For tours, special arrangements and events or information on leasing, call 804-843-2386.
Photos by Gregory Connolly
