Agecroft Hall

After visiting the Three Lakes Nature Center, I decided to change focus a bit. I crossed town and headed to Agecroft Hall. Agecroft is in my favorite Richmond neighborhood that I could never afford. If I ever decided to stay in Richmond, get married and have 2.5 kids, Windsor Farms is where I would want to live.

Agecroft Hall is a Tudor estate that was originally located in Lancashire, England. The house was built in the late 15th century, and after many years of use fell into disrepair. When it became apparent that the house was going to sink into the ground due to nearby coal mining, it was auctioned off. A Richmond tobacco company owner named Thomas Williams Jr. bought the house and had it crated up and shipped to Richmond. After two years of restoration, the house became their home. He bought the house for $19,000 at auction in 1925, but the restoration and rebuilding cost him over $250,000. An enormous project considering the impending depression, but Williams seemed to be quite well off.

One year after completing his dream home, Mr. Williams passed away. His wife, who was 29 years his junior, remarried and stayed at Agecroft. Many years later, after Agecroft became too much for her to manage alone (her second husband had passed away by this point), it was turned into a museum in the period of the late 15th / early 16th century. The home itself is beautiful, but the gardens are spectacular. Throughout the property there are 15 gardens. A sunken garden, an Elizabethan knot garden, an herb garden and a scent garden among many others. I spent most of my time wandering from garden to garden, soaking in the scenery and the scents.

To add to my early statement about the 2.5 kids and all, if I decided to move to Richmond permanently (and happened to have about $100 million in the bank), I would want to live at Agecroft Hall. The gardens and the view of the river make it the perfect place to live, even without the house.