Belle Grove Plantation - Middletown

Belle Grove Plantation is located on Belle Grove Road in Middletown, Virginia.  It began life as a 483 acre plot of land given to Iasac Hite, Jr. from his father, Isaac Hite, Sr., upon his marriage in 1783 to Nelly Conway Madison, brother of James Madison.  The couple moved into an existing two story structure on the property known as Old Hall, where they lived until 1797, when the current manor house was completed.  The house was named in honor of Nelly's grandparents, who lived on a plantation in Port Conway called Belle Grove, which had been the birthplace of James Madison.  Madison would spend his honeymoon with new bride Dolley Madison at Old Hall.  Nelly died in 1802, and Isaac remarried in 1803.  His new wife, Ann Tunstall Maury, helped raise his surviving two children, while giving birth to ten of her own.  Isaac died in 1836 and Ann in 1851. The plantation was run for many years by Isaac and Ann's son, Isaac Fontaine Hite, until it was sold out of the family in 1860.  On October 19, 1864, the Battle of Cedar Creek was fought on the plantation's doorstep.  Confederate troops under Jubal Early faced off against Federal troops under Philip Sheridan in a confrontation ultimately lost by the southern forces.  Sheridan made Belle Grove his headquarters during the campaign and the Federal troops remained until December.  The plantation passed through several hands after the war and into the next century before being bequeathed to the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1964.  Over the years all the structures on the property, except the manor house, were lost.either due to the war or from neglect.  The Old Hall stood until at least 1880, but it, too, was torn down.  Current archaeologial research has revealed the original location of the structure and it is now marked by a stone frame along the ground where it once stood.  In 1969 Belle Grove was added to the Virginia Landmarks Register.     

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