Belmont

Belmont is a two-story white frame house in Falmouth, Virginia, set on about 27 acres above the Rappahannock River. John Dixon of Williamsburg built it around 1761. Joseph Ficklin bought it in 1825, enlarged the central part and added a wing, and his family held it until 1916. In that year the painter Gari Melchers purchased the estate and added a studio wing, later building a large stone studio. He lived there until his death in 1932. Melchers is best known for the murals "Peace" and "War" in the Library of Congress, and he helped gain European recognition for American art. His widow gave the property to the Commonwealth of Virginia, and Mary Washington College operates it. The stone studio holds many of his paintings, and the house remains structurally as it was in his time apart from a small sunporch. Several outbuildings date from his years, while some across the road are in disrepair.