When a house as special as the Westover Plantation is in the family, you do what you can to hold on to it.
Such is the case with Andrea Erda, who lives in her own childhood home with her husband Rob and three children. The couple keeps the place running, which on any given day can involve everything from giving tours, making repairs, coordinating restoration work and holding special events, not to mention the farming of corn, soybeans and wheat.
While the land Westover is on has been documented as far back as 1616, the house was built in 1737 by William Byrd II. William, a planter and lawyer, came from a very prominent family and was credited with founding the city of Richmond. He served as a member of the Governor’s Council for 37 years.
After the Byrd family left in 1814, the home changed hands several times before Erda’s great-grandfather, Richard Crane, made it home in 1921. It’s stayed in the family ever since.
The architecture of the house, a Georgian, is particularly notable.
“This is the premier example of Georgian architecture in the country,” Erda said. “It is studied by architects around the world.” The wrought-iron gates and the ‘Westover Doorway’ in particular are iconic elements of the home.
Erda loved growing up on the property as a child.
“It’s quite idyllic as you can image,” said Erda. “We got to ride horses. I was a tomboy. We were just outside all the time with very few rules or limitations.”
Erda, her husband and children moved into the home, which is a National Historic Landmark and on the Register of Historic Places of Virginia, about five years ago to take over running the property from her parents.
“It needed the next generation to step in,” she said. “It is a multi-generational commitment.”
Even though the family lives in the home, the property is open for tours inside the house by appointment and self-guided tours around the grounds and gardens daily. Visitors can leisurely peruse the gardens and tour the outbuildings, including an old kitchen and a necessary building containing five holes and a fireplace – a sure sign of the original builder’s wealth.
In April, Westover is open for Garden Week and in September they participate in the Autumn Pilgrimage of Westover Church.
In addition to special events like weddings, corporate outings and Christmas parties, the property is also the site of a filming.
“It is great fun,” Erda said. “It is so exciting. It is also hugely destructive.” The plantation has been a set location in every season of AMC’s “Turn,” plus HBO’s “John Adams” and movies like “The Field of Lost Shoes.”
Even though the site is so rich in history, Erda says caring for the property is a big commitment.
“I think a lot of people don’t realize these plantation homes on the James are still privately held,” Erda said. “It takes an extraordinary commitment, not only financially but socially. But it’s a commitment that all of us willingly and happily make, because these are extraordinary places.”
Erda appreciates that she can offer the same kind of childhood to her kids that she had growing up.
“My children are let out of the car when we get home and they come inside when the bell rings for dinner,” Erda said. “That is a gift that I could never replicate giving my children. I think it’s a blessing that we’re able to do that and for them to have the life that I had as a child here.”
To learn more about the home, click here.
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