Virginia

Lower Brandon Plantation, Prince George County, Virginia (37.257566, -76.993369)

(a) North Outer Wing Cellar Felling Date: Winter 1773/4

(b) South Outer Wing Roof Felling Date: Winter 1764/5

(c) North Outer Wing Roof Felling Dates: Spring 1774, Winter 1773/4

(d) Main House Central Roof Felling Date: Undated

(a) Joists (5/7) 1773 (C), 1771. (b) Rafters (1/2) 1764 (C); Hip rafter (0/1); Joists (5/5) 1764 (C). (c) Joists (4/5) 1773 (¼C), 1771; Rafter (1/1) 1773 (C); Ex-situ timbers from roof (1/3) 1773 (¼C). Site Master 1636-1773 BPVAx1 (t =11.96 gss1; 11.89 PJBS3; 11.75 WVVAP).

Lower Brandon Plantation is a complex domestic structure composed of seven attached brick sections. The main house is made of three of the sections: a two-story center block covered with a pyramidal roof, flanked by tall one-story inner wings with a half-hipped roof over each wing. The inner wings are in turn flanked by low one-story hyphens that connect the main house to two-story outer wings covered by hipped roofs. A cellar extends underneath the full plan of the building.

Dendrochronological analysis has revealed that the timbers used to construct the roof of the south outer wing were felled in the winter of 1764/5 while the timbers used to construct the cellar and roof of the north outer wing were felled in the winter of 1773/4 and the spring of 1774. Dendrochronological analysis was unable to provide a date for the timbers used to construct the roof of the center part of the main house.

Worthington, M J and Seiter, J I 2016 "The Tree-Ring Dating of Lower Brandon Plantation, Prince George County, Virginia" unpublished Oxford Tree-Ring Laboratory archive report 2016/03.

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