House Tour 2008
House B - Bowling Green
Bowling Green is now owned by Charles and Mary Preston who have decided to make their current life's work the return of that wonderful house to its former glory. They are allowing house tour guests to share in that transformation with the renovation still in its early stages. Like most homes in the Flint Hill area, Bowling Green was originally part of the vast landholdings of the Thornton family. Sometime in the late 1700's a modest log building appeared, and by 1808 a stone addition sheltered the household of Moses and Betsy Gibson and their growing family. In 1839, the farm saw great change when a young Eastham Jordan purchased the property and proceeded to enlarge the house for Louisa, his bride to be. The 1840 "addition" would dwarf the earlier structures; it was constructed of brick fired on the property, and was done in the period's fashionable Greek Revival style.
What is apparent for all to see in this brick three over three home are the high ceilings, wide-planked floors, mantled fireplaces, curved staircases, and intricate wood trim of that era. In the formal living room, the trompe-l'oeil ceiling and wall painting has been attributed to either a Frenchman or an Italian (two equally good stories), and dates from the turn of the century. The Prestons are furnishing the house with period antiques and reproductions, and the carved and inlaid woods of the butler's desk, bookcases, sideboards, and sofas speak to the seriousness of the era. Bowling Green's place in Rappahannock history is not confined to its beginnings, or to its many owners, Kidwell, Clatterbuck, Jordan, Gibson, whose names figure greatly in county life, but is attached to another century as well, and another significant event in Rappahannock's history. When the Shenandoah National Park was set up in the 1930's, families were moved to Resettlement Road, and the government purchased Bowling Green to serve as the engineering headquarters for the Park.
Originally there was a log structure on the property, but that is now gone. The next home was a stone house, still part of the structure, but not yet renovated. A graveyard contains many unmarked graves, but the headstone of Moses Gibson is now a part of the floor of the front portico.
