Battersea

Battersea was the home of Colonel John Banister, a member of the House of Burgesses, the Revolutionary conventions, and the Continental Congress, as well as a framer of the Articles of Confederation and the first mayor of Petersburg. The elegant but compact house begun in 1768, perhaps best displays the Anglo-Palladian influence on Virginia's colonial plantation homes. Noted travelers, including the Italian Count Castiglioni and the French Marquis de Chastellux visted Battersea: Chastellux observed, "Mr. Banister's handsome country-house is really worth seeing." The elaborate Chinese lattice stair, based on a published design by English architect William Halfpenny, is original and Virginia's finest example.