Colle

Philip Mazzei, a Tuscan merchant and horticulturist, arrived in Virginia in 1773 and was persuaded by Thomas Jefferson to settle here. Jefferson gave him 193 acres of land, and Mazzei named his property Colle (meaning “hill”). He built a house ca. 1774 and organized a company to produce wine, oil, and silk. Mazzei wrote tracts supporting American independence, and, during the Revolution, served in a militia unit and was Virginia's agent to the Grand Duke of Tuscany. He rented Colle to Hessian prisoner of war Gen. Friedrich Riedesel in 1779. The present French Colonial Revival house, designed by architect William Delano, was completed in 1940 for Stanley Woodward, a prominent diplomat.