The Retreat

One and a half miles north is The Retreat, home to three distinguished generations of the Parker family. Thomas Parker, a general in the War of 1812, constructed this imposing Federal-style house in 1799. Richard Parker, his nephew, was a U.S. senator, justice of the state Supreme Court of Appeals, and jury member at the trial of Aaron Burr. His son, Richard Elliot Parker, served in the U.S. House of Representatives and presided as a federal judge at the trial of John Brown. During the Civil War, the Battle of Cool Spring was fought near The Retreat on 18 July 1864.