SWEET BRIAR - The historic 18th-century Amherst County home now sits in pieces in a dairy barn at Sweet Briar College. But plans are in the works to rebuild Tusculum and turn it into a center for community history and outreach.

The roughly 250-year-old structure has roots as the sister house to the 19th-century Sweet Briar home, both which were once owned by Elijah Fletcher, the father of Indiana Fletcher Williams, who founded the college.

"Not only are there archaeological continuities here, but also continuities in the history of the college," said Lynn Rainville, a Sweet Briar research professor who was recently named director of what will be the Tusculum Institute. "This is now bringing together what was once two plantations separated by about 10 miles, and now they will be right next door to each other."

The college plans to rebuild Tusculum behind the Sweet Briar house, on hills that slope down and face the lake and mountains, said President Betsy Muhlenfeld, who lives in the Sweet Briar home.

The original site of the Tusculum house was just off U.S. 29 north of Amherst near Clifford. The Williams family, distant relatives of Indiana Fletcher Williams, lived there for much of the 20th century.

In 2003, the college collaborated with the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities and the Virginia Department of Historic Resources to buy Tusculum, and in 2006 it was carefully deconstructed into labeled pieces.

After the Williams family sold the property, the home fell into disrepair, prompting some descendants of David Crawford II, who built the home, to begin a grass-roots Internet campaign in 2001 to save it from demolition.

Now, the college is raising funds so that it can rebuild and restore the roughly 5,000-square-foot home.

"There's a tremendous amount of wonderful history here," Rainville said.
Christa Desrets is a staff writer at The News & Advance in Lynchburg.