1886 Green Hill (Madison Dixon rebuild)

Home Site- Buckingham County, Virginia

Green Hill, built by John Cabell (1743-1815), was a mile above Elm Cottage in Buckingham County. The property is on Routes 605 and 606 in Buckingham County, now part of the James River State Park.

Architecture

The two-story house was built about 1762 of heart pine. It had “a cellar and dormer windows in the shingled attic; two sturdy chimneys stood at either end. Approached by steep flights of stairs, the roofs of high porches were supported by tall white pillars.”

Timeline of Green Hill Ownership

  • John Cabell. It is not known when the original Green Hill was destroyed but John Cabell was living at Elm Cottage at the time of his death.
  • Frederick (1768-1841) purchased Green Hill from his father’s (John) heirs. 
  • Frederick’s son, Louis (Lewis) Warrington Cabell (1814-1890) inherited the property.
  • In the 1880’s Louis Cabell sold the property to Madison P. Dixon who built an exact replica of John Cabell’s Green Hill on Green Hill’s original foundations around 1886. According to the Dixons, there was garden behind the house where John Cabell was buried. When they plowed the garden, bricks, from the graveyard, would surface.
  • The Dixons sold the property and the house was demolished in the 1980’s.

Site Photos

Green Hill Site. View of Forkfield across the James River from the Green Hill site (Photo circa 2009 courtesy Archer Mindardi).

Green Hill Site. View of Forkfield across the James River from the Green Hill site (Photo circa 2009 courtesy Archer Minardi).
Excavation of part of the old Green Hill home unearthed during the building of the the James River Park Visitor’s center

Additional Photos of Madison Perry Dixon rebuild of Green Hill

Photos circa 1886 courtesy Peggy Dixon
Green Hill, 1967. Photo courtesy Peggy Dixon