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Address: 215 South Wilton Road, Box 8225
City: Richmond
State: VA
Zip: 23226
Phone: 804-282-5936
Website: http://www.wiltonhousemuseum.org
In early colonial days the Randolph family built several homes along the James, and one of the finest was Wilton. It was built by William Randolph III and his wife Ann Carter Harrison in 1753, who had bought the 2,000 acre tract of land in 1747. Wilton is an example of exceptionally pure Georgian design. Built during the end of Virginia's Queen Anne period, its perfect proportions and exquisite details make it a distinguished monument of residential architecture. Wilton is now a transplanted house surrounded by a recreated garden. It was dismantled and moved in 1933 by the National Society of Colonial Dames in the Commonwealth of Virginia in order to save it from destruction by the industrial expansion of Richmond. The Colonial Dames asked the Garden Club of Virginia to create an appropriate landscape setting for the new location of Wilton. Archaeological excavations were made of the original site to delineate the form and dimensions of the area immediately around the house. Every effort was made to establish the original garden as well as the former sense of surrounding spaciousness lost in the move from the original site. Terraces descending from the mansion created an expansive vista, compensating for the diminished acreage of the new location. In order to separate the house from the close proximity of the road, a high brick wall was built that also helps to retain the steep slope. Trees were cleared to a width of 75' across the property to open up a full view of the mansion. Large trees were planted well away from the house in the lawn to give the house shade and scale and, beyond the lawn, the remaining property has been maintained in native forest growth to screen the surrounding residential area.
http://www.vahistorical.org/gardenclub/wilton.htm
Year: 1936
Landscape Architect: Arthur Shurcliff
Grounds
Year: 1959
Landscape Architect: Alden S. Hopkins
Additional planting
Year: 1961
Landscape Architect: Alden S. Hopkins
Pair of iron gates
