Red Hill - Brookneal

Patrick Henry's Red Hill is located on Red Hill Road in Brookneal, Virginia.  The plantation originally encompassed nearly 3,000 acres of land overlooking the Staunton River Valley.  The main house was constructed some time in the 1770's by Richard Marot Booker.  It was here that famed statesman Patrick Henry retired in 1794, after seving five terms as governor of Virginia.  Due to failing health he refused numerous posts during his later years, including Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and Secretary of State.  He instead devoted time to his private law practice.  In the five years he lived at Red Hill, the last two of his seventeen children were born.  On June 6, 1799 the 63 year old statesman died in the main house from an intestinal blockage. He is buried in the family cemetery at Red Hill, along with his second wife Dorothea Dandridge Henry, who died in 1831, and his son, John Henry, who inherited the land after Henry's death.  In 1919 the main house was destroyed by fire.  It was rebuilt, on the original foundation, in 1957.  Standing next to the reconstructed Henry home is the Osage Orange tree which has stood on this spot for over three hundred years.  The tree is the largest of its species in North America, at over 60 feet tall.  The Red Hill property also includes Henry's law office, which was an overseers house when originally constructed in the 1770's.  It later served as the home of Lucy Henry Harrison, Patrick Henry's great granddaughter, who lived here after the main house was destroyed.  Also on the property is the slave cabin, reconstructed in 1961, which was the home of Harrison and Milly, coachman and cook for the Henry family.  Red Hill was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, and the Virginia Landmarks Register in 1983.   

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