Berkeley Home
Horn that may have played the first Taps
First trial of balloon observation of a battlefield
Back yard of home where Union troupes camped
Going into the plantation home and buildings, we learned it had a long list of history that made it unique among other plantation homes. Benjamin Harrison, the son of the builder and its second owner, was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and governor of Virginia three times. The third son born at Berkeley, William Patrick Harrison was a famous Indian fighter known as “Tippecanoe”. When he ran for president, his slogan was “Tippecanoe and Tyler too”. He became our 9th president and years later his grandson Benjamin Harrison became our 23rd president. This plantation was the location of the first Thanksgiving celebration in America on December 4, 1619 when settlers from England came ashore at Berkeley.
The Berkeley home dating back to 1726 was built Benjamin for his wife Anne. It is believed to be the oldest three-story brick house in Virginia. It was built in the Georgian style meaning one side of the house was the mirror image of the other. During a renovation another owner, tired of having to walk through other rooms to go upstairs, moved a doorway to allow access from the front hall.
Of course this family was going to have guests in their home, so the front door had to be very open and impressive. Because guests would also arrive by boat on the James River a quarter mile behind the house, they could not be expected to enter by a back door, so this house has two equal front doors. This created a large hallway that was used for dancing and ventilation in the summer. The musicians sat upstairs and played near an opening between the first and second floor so they were out of sight but their music could be heard throughout the house. In all, Berkeley can boast to having entertained President Washington and the succeeding nine presidents. Not diminishing the number, remember two presidents lived there.
In the course of history, in 1621 through 1622, the first Bourbon whisky distilled in America was at this plantation. In 1862, Gen. George McClellan’s 140,000-man Union army camped on the plantation grounds. Something we are all familiar with, Taps was composed and first performed used here in 1862 to awaken the Union army. While the army was camped there they experimented with balloons as a method to raise a man above a battlefield to get a better view and guide the troupes on the ground. At one point they constructed ships on the property.
Like so many other Southern homes, the boys found other places to live, possibly as early as age 12; however, the girls remained at home. At Berkeley, the Harrison’s built a house next to theirs to be both a home for the boys and a guest house for the many visitors they received. They had the kitchen in another building due to the heat associated with a stove that was continuously burning. At Berkeley, they built an underground passage from the house to the kitchen so food would not get cold in the winter, nor would insects be as likely to be able to get on the food as it was being brought to the house. Slaves carrying the food were required to whistle while carrying the food because they could not sample or eat the food and whistle at the same time. This was a common practice in the South.
