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Jessamine
From Page B1
Jessamine Hill remained in the Fletcher family — and through his daughter’s marriage— with the Kinsey family for almost 100 years. Afterwards, it was acquired by a succession of owners, including Oscar Lindgren , a Swede, and Charles E. Marsh, a wealthy newspaperman from Texas who was instrumental in helping Lyndon B. Johnson’s rise to power from a Texas congressman, to senator, and finally, to president. As a senator, Johnson often visited the country estate of his friend in Rappahannock County. Marsh owned the home for several years in the early 1950s before he built a new mansion in Culpeper known as Longlea.
Frank McGee of NBC also owned the property in the 1970s.
Anderson bought the now75-acre property in 1998 and has devoted his considerable energy, talent, and resources into restoring (“not remodeling”) the historic house and its gardens, the many bams and other dependencies of the once huge estate. The farm at one time had several thousand acres that have been gradually sold off to others.
Restoration of
main house
In an engaging interview with Anderson, the new owner of Jessamine Hill reflected on how he came to buy the property and why.
“I was bom up in Harris Hollow in the house where James DeBergh fives and graduated from Rappahannock County High School. My family still has a farm near Little Washington,” Anderson said.
Continuing his story of leaving the country to go to the city and make a career as e young man, Anderson explained, “I have always wanted to return to Rappahannock and was looking for a way to relax and relieve the stress of working in the city by working on the farm. I saw that opportunity at Jessamine Hill and bought the farm three days after I saw it.” He still commutes from his work in Alexandria where he heads up the government affairs office of the well-known A.T. Kearney Management Consultants firm.
Relaxing in a rocking chair on the front porch of his home overlooking the beautifully maintained lawn and pastoral views of the Blue Ridge in the distance, Anderson spoke enthusiastically about his “labor of love” at the farm. He said that his goal really was to recreate “the look and feel of a working plantation of the period.”
The basics were in place for achieving his dream. He pointr ed out, for example, the solid
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