Today on our architectural dive into Seventeenth Century New Kent we look at Foster's Castle from the Historic American Buildings Survey Inventory (see bottom)
Foster's Castle is located in the sparsely populated north·west section of New Kent County. The building stands amid cultivated fields whose limits, now as in the seventeenth century, are formed by the Pamunkey River to the north, marshland to the east and west, and irregular terrain to the south. Although the building has sustained considerable alteration, most of the exterior fabric has survived, and the original appearance of the house is obvious.
The T-shaped brick building, constructed as one or one-and-a-half stories with two-story central projection at the front, is similar to neighboring Criss Cross. The main body of the house was raised to a full two stories with a low pitched roof in 1873, and window openings were altered. The original brickwork, that had been whitewashed prior to the alteration, contrasts with the dark red brickwork-used to fill in window openings and raise the walls. The old steep roof line can be seen on the interior of the end walls, where the nineteenth century masonry is not as thick as the original work.
The earlier roof is said to have had four dormer windows; these may have been rare seventeenth-century examples or they may have been later additions. Except for three small first-floor end windows, whose arched openings arc original, but whose frames and sash appear to date from the early nineteenth century, all window openings have been altered. Both front and back walls were pierced by two large openings that had to be partially. filled in before the 1873 windows could be added. Each of the four openings (one now·· destroyed or obscured by a mid-twentieth century addition to the back) must have held a series of perhaps three vertical windows, probably casement with leaded panes. The filling in at the sill and lintel levels of all visible window openings may represent evidence of an architectural treatment similar to that seen in the window surrounds on the second floor of Bacons-Castle in Surry County. The main entrance to the house is, as it was originally, through the two-story projection. The two side windows on the first floor of the projection and the three windows on the second level have been slightly relocated, but they are in the same general position, and are of approximate size of the originals. An interesting detail, now surviving only in outline, was the round window in the gable of the porch chamber.
The treatment of the string course is a notable exterior feature of the house, and there are period parallels in England and Virginia. Although partially covered by a modern porch, it can be seen that the two course thick stringer wraps around the two-story projection between first and second floors, breaking upward at a right angle above the doorway to emphasize that centralized feature. The same motif was used on the west wall of Carter's Creek in Gloucester County, and one is also seen on Criss Cross' projection, while a more elaborate version embellishes the entrance to Bacon's Castle. Unlike Criss Cross, the brick gable of the projection survives here, and its base is marked by another two-course thick stringer. Also unlike Criss Cross, Foster's Castle's end chimneys are interior, and the unbroken end walls are marked by a stringer between the first floor and garret levels. The chimney stacks are rebuilt, at least above ridge level.
The brickwork exhibits an unusual selection of bonds. The bond of the front (south) wall and two-story projection above the watertable is with glazed headers, all corner headers and some closers being glazed.
This Flemish bond is the most carefully finished brickwork on the house, although all the masonry is relatively crude. The back and end walls are laid in Flemish cross bond alternating rows of stretchers and stretcher/ headers. Below the watertable, a mixture of bonds occurs: English on the west wall, predominantly Flemish cross bond on the east wall and part of the porch projection, and an unusual bond on the north and parts of the south wall comprised of alternating rows of stretchers, with the non-stretcher rows alternating between headers and stretcher/headers.
The interior was altered prior to the raising of the roof. One now enters from the enclosed porch chamber into a central stair hall, although the original plan may have resembled Criss Cross, where entrance from the porch is directly into the larger of two first floor rooms. The stair in the central hall appears to date from the beginning of the nineteenth century, although it retains some earlier forms. The stair consists of a short run, landing with quarter-turn, and the main run to the second floor.
The rather heavily-molded hand rail is supported by square balusters and posts. The cabinetry of the stair is a pleasing example of circa 1800 work, with vertical raised panels and sawn brackets. First floor mantels, in the east and west rooms exhibit pilasters and reeding typical of about the same period, but brackets supporting shelves above place their date at circa 1830-40. Doors vary in style and date, being contemporary with both the stair and mantels.
The basement, which is excavated only under the hall and east room, is reached by an exterior door in the cast wall. The opening may be original, although the door is not.
Colonel Joseph Foster is believed to have built the Castle between 1685 and 1690 although the loss of New Kent County records in the War Between the States makes definite attribution difficult. Foster was a first generation English emigrant, coming from Newport, Southampton. He represented New Kent County as a burgess in 1688, 1696, and 1700-1702, and was a county sheriff, justice, and lieutenant-colonel of the militia. He was appointed vestryman of Saint Peters Parish in 1690 and Church Warden in 1692 and he acted as supervisor of the construction of the present Saint Peters in 1701-1703. Foster died about 1715, leaving issue.
Later owners of the house were Mrs. Maria Brumley and William Payne Waring. The 1863 Gilmer Confederate-map of New Kent labels Foster's Castle as "Brumley,”(see below) and shows four buildings there, one next to the existing, house and two just to the south-east, across the present farm road. The property was purchased by Dr. J. C. Gregory in 1872 and he altered the house in the next year. The Gregory family still owns and occupies the house.
Foster's Castle shares with nearby Criss Cross, the Mathew Jones House in Newport News, and Bacon's Castle in Surry County the distinction of being one of Virginia's four surviving Tudor-Stuart style structures with porch projections. Such houses, distinguished by two-story single bay entrance projections in the center of the facade appear to represent a major seventeenth and very early-eighteenth century Virginia building form. Foster's Castle, with its interesting masonry architectural features is a rare survival of this distinctive and once-widespread form.
E.A.C.
-Historic American Buildings Survey Inventory, 1958 Federal Library of Congress
"The Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) is the nation's first federal preservation program, begun in 1933. As such, it established methodologies that are now standard practice within the field such as the surveying and listing of historic sites and the creation of documentation for public benefit. It was founded through a unique private-public partnership with the National Park Service (NPS), Library of Congress (LC), and the American Institute of Architects (AIA) to record America's architectural heritage. Creation of the program was motivated primarily by the perceived need to mitigate the negative effects of rapidly vanishing architectural resources upon our built environment, history, and culture."
(see above)
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