Page family sold the mansion to Thomas Booth. He made changes, removing the parapet and two octagonal rooftop cupolas from the house. The lead roof was stripped off and sold, as were the mansion's carved marble mantles and much of its fine interior woodwork. The flat roof was replaced with a low hip roof with a single cupola surrounded by a widow's walk. The plantation passed through several more owners. In 1916 a fire broke out and destroyed Rosewell mansion. Today, the remains of the house is a largely undisturbed historic ruin. The site has been the subject of archaeological work. This has revealed many artifacts and shed light on some aspects of colonial life and architecture that were previously unclear. The property was listed in 1969 on the National Register of Historic Places. From the colonial period to the Civil War, Rosewell planters held enslaved Africans and African Americans to work as field hands and as house servants: valets and personal maids, cooks and housemaids. Such large plantations were essentially self-sufficient, so numerous slaves also performed skilled trades such as carriage driver and caring for horses and carriages, blacksmithing, woodworking, and butchering at the plantation. They raised all the vegetables and produce for the owners and often some for themselves. Page family of Virginia John Page (1743–1808) became a politician, being elected and serving as Governor of Virginia. A grandson of Mann Page (I) and son of Mann Page II, he had grown up at Rosewell. He attended the College of William and Mary (class of 1763) in nearby Williamsburg, where he was a classmate of Thomas Jefferson, also of the planter class. He fought during the American Revolutionary War, attaining the rank of colonel. In addition to serving as governor, he served multiple terms in the U.S. Congress and the Virginia General Assembly. Other notable members of Virginia's Page family include Colonel John Page of Jamestown and Middle Plantation and father of Mann Page I; Governor Page's brother Mann Page III; Thomas Nelson Page, U.S. Ambassador to Italy; William Nelson Page, known for building the Virginia Railway; Thomas Jefferson Page, officer in United States Navy and Captain in the Confederate States Navy; and Confederate General Richard Lucian Page. Description Rosewell Mansion and part of its history were described by author James Joseph McDonald in "Life In Old Virginia" (Norfolk, Va.: The Old Virginia Publishing Co., 1907) thus: The