Birth of a Virginia Plantation House: The Design and Building of Bremo

The Center for Palladian Studies in America announces its newest publication, Birth of a Virginia Plantation House: The Design and Building of Bremo by Peter Hodson, edited by Calder Loth.

This limited edition volume is an essential reference for scholars and a fascinating addition to the library of any lover of American architecture, history, or culture.

Birth of a Virginia Plantation House: The Design and Building of Bremo examines the origins of one of America’s most beautiful and influential plantation houses, and also captures a unique moment in the evolution of American culture when the new nation began to advance its own increasingly independent ideas about architecture and design.

Peter Hodson untangles and corrects the record as to those responsible for creating the 1815–1820 plantation house on the banks of the James River in Virginia. Then he constructs a poignant narrative, drawn from General Cocke’s diary, correspondence, invoices and other documents, to show the complexity of such a construction project and the real-life impact it had on the patron, his family and the craftsmen involved. Finally, Calder Loth, editor of the volume, adds his own essay unlocking the patternbook origins of many of Bremo’s interior motifs. In the process, he shows the central role played by one of America’s pioneering architectural patternbooks.

Copies of the book can be purchased from the Center for Palladian Studies in America, Inc. Click here to download the order form (pdf).