Ellerslie

One-half mile southeast of here stood Ellerslie, built ca. 1814 for James Jett, a planter and merchant. The house was reputed to be among the finest in the region. The labor of enslaved African Americans—numbering at least 50 on the eve of the Civil War—sustained the plantation. During the summer of 1862, forces under Union Maj. Gen. John Pope occupied Ellerslie. The property fell into disrepair by the early 20th century. In 1926, its English boxwoods, then believed to be a century old, were moved to the Bishop’s Garden at the Washington National Cathedral. Ellerslie was destroyed by fire in 1933.