Edgemont

Edgemont, a historic house located in Albemarle County, Virginia, was built around 1796 and has long been believed to have been designed by Thomas Jefferson.

James Powell Cocke, the owner of Edgemont at the time that it was built, acquired the land from Robert Nelson sometime between 1770 and 1782. The house is a combination of French and Palladian architectural styles.^[1] Although there is no definitive evidence to prove that Jefferson designed the building, his letters and drawings,^[2] as well as similarities to other Jefferson architectural designs, have led many architectural historians to the conclusion that the design is probably Jefferson’s.^[3] Recent discoveries at the Virginia Historical Society, however, suggest that it may in fact have been the design of one of Jefferson's architectural workmen, Thomas R. Blackburn.^[4]

In 1936, the house was 'discovered' by architect Milton Grigg in a state of disrepair. Grigg restored the property in 1938 for its owner, Dr. Graham Clark, and again in 1946, after the house was purchased by William Snead.^[5] In addition to historic restorations, Grigg designed two new porticoes to match the existing south and east porticoes that were part of the original construction.^[6] Grigg also restored the terraced gardens based on historic and archaeological evidence.^[7]

Footnotes

1. ↑ Calder Loth, ed. The Virginia Landmarks Register, 4th ed. (Charlottesville: The University Press of Virginia, 1999), 12.
2. ↑ See drawings N7, N8, N9, and N10 in the Thomas Jefferson Papers Electronic Archive at the Massachusetts Historical Society.
3. ↑ K. Edward Lay, The Architecture of Jefferson Country: Charlottesville and Albemarle County, Virginia (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2000), 90, 138-139.
4. ↑ Green, Bryan Clark, In Jefferson's Shadow: The Architecture of Thomas R. Blackburn (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2006), 26-8.
5. ↑ Ibid., 139.
6. ↑ Ibid.
7. ↑ The Virginia Department of Historic Resources.

Further Sources

• Friedman, Daniel. "House for Sale." Albemarle Monthly 2, no. 4 (1979):53-6.
• Kramer, Jennifer. "Historic Architecture: Edgemont." Architectural Digest 53(1996): 70-?
• Page, Marian. "Edgemont." In Historic Houses Restored and Preserved. New York: Whitney Library of Design, 1976, 99-104.
• Search for more sources on Edgemont in the Thomas Jefferson Portal