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Address: 15 West Bank Street
City: Petersburg
State: VA
Zip: 23803
Phone: 804-733-2402
Website: http://www.petersburg-va.org/tourism/chill.asp
The town of Petersburg was founded in 1702 as a tobacco port on the Appomattox River. By the beginning of the 19th century, it was a flourishing port, shipping flour and tobacco to New York and other cities. The Appomattox River drops 120 feet in the five miles above Petersburg, so there was plenty of water power, and in addition to the grain mills, a prosperous textile industry sprung up, adding to the success of the shipping industry. It was in this period of great prosperity that Centre Hill was built crowning a nine-acre hilltop looking down on the Appomattox River. Robert Bolling IV, a member of a distinguished family whose history goes back to Jamestown, built the imposing Federal style house in 1823. On the east side of the house, there were outbuildings and a large, elaborate, terraced vegetable and flower garden. In the 1840s, Centre Hill received a grand makeover, enlarging and remodeling it in the latest Greek Revival fashion. At that time, the east wing was added and a service tunnel built on the north side down to Henry Street. Over the years, the grounds have shrunk to include only the area immediately around the house. The Garden Club of Virginia provided plantings of historically appropriate trees and shrubs surrounding the mansion and underwrote major repairs to the wrought iron fence surrounding the property.
Year: 1980
Landscape Architect: Rudy J. Favretti
Immediate grounds and approach
Year: 2008
Landscape Architect: William D. Rieley
Planting modifications
