Belmead (Additional Documentation)

Belmead is a Gothic Revival villa in Powhatan County, Virginia, begun around 1845 for Philip St. George Cocke, a progressive agronomist and later Confederate brigadier general. Alexander Jackson Davis designed the two-story stuccoed brick house, which has a gable roof, stepped gable ends, clustered chimney stacks, and square towers with Tudor-arched openings and crenellations. Inside, tall double doors, coffered ceilings and marble mantels repeat the Tudor arch. Davis adapted a Northern style into a more open design suited to Southern living, and Belmead and Staunton Hill are the state's only major examples of it. After several changes of ownership, the estate was bought in the 1890s by Edward and Louise Morrell of Philadelphia, who conveyed it in 1897 to the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament. They founded a school for Indians and Black students there. The house still serves as the center of the school, with additions and superficial interior changes.