granted to Ancient Planter Thomas Harris, family seat of the Harris branch of the First Families of Virginia, at the request of Sir Thomas Dale for Harris's service in the early years of the colony. The original house built by Harris in 1633 is one of the oldest in Virginia; and the subject of an ongoing archaeology study. The plantation grew to over 5000 acres in size. Varina Farms Wilton - Built circa 1753 for William Randolph III, Wilton was once the centerpiece of a tobacco plantation in Henrico, and home to the Randolph family for more than a century. They entertained George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and the Marquis de Lafayette. Due to the industrialization of the surrounding area, in 1933 Virginia Society of The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America purchased Wilton and moved it to its current site on a bluff overlooking the James in Richmond, a few miles west of its original location. Chatsworth - Chatsworth Plantation was part of the extensive Randolph family property acquired by William Randolph I (1650–1711). A home was built there in 1751 by Peter Randolph (1717–1767). Tree Hill-Begun in the late-eighteenth century just east of Richmond as a frame two-story, sidehall-plan farmhouse, Tree Hill grew with the Selden and Roane family fortunes until by the mid-nineteenth century the original house had evolved into a double-pile, center-hall plan Creek Revival plantation seat. As it stands today, the house is an impressive two-story plantation house with early one-story wings and a modern two-story tetrastyle portico. The house commands a magnificent view of the James River bottom lands and the Richmond city skyline. Plantations south side of James River Most of the extant plantations south of the James River are accessed by State Route 10, which runs between Suffolk and Richmond via Smithfield, Surry, and Hopewell. The south side plantations, from east to west, include: Bacon's Castle also variously known as "Allen's Brick House" or the "Arthur Allen House" is located in Surry County, Virginia, USA, and is Virginia's oldest documented brick dwelling.[4] Built in 1665, it is noted as an extremely rare example of Jacobean architecture in the New World. The house became known as "Bacon's Castle" because it was occupied as a fort or "castle" by the followers of Nathaniel Bacon during Bacon's Rebellion in 1676. However, contrary to popular folklore, Bacon never lived at Bacon's Castle, nor is he