Photograph of a painting. America's first mansion. This is Green Spring plantation as painted about 1795 by the architect Benjamin Latrobe when invited by its owner, Philip Ludwell, to design a new home for him at the site, which is midway between Jamestown and Williamsburg. Green Spring was first built about 1645 by Virginia's Governor Sir William Berkeley and was described by his widow as "the only tolerable place for a Governor in all America". How much of the original Berkeley house survives in this 1795 structure is not known. Courtesy of the Jamestown Foundation.
