Greenwood Country Homes and Gardens Tour

Sponsors: The Albemarle Garden Club, The Charlottesville Garden Club and The Rivanna Garden Club

Tickets: $40; single-site, $15; ages 6-12, $20; single-site, $10

Info: (434) 977-1639; www.VAGardenweek.org

Walk in the footsteps of the Founding Fathers as you visit places where they went about their daily lives Monticello, the grounds at the University of Virginia, Michie Tavern and Ash Lawn-Highland. All properties are on the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places.

Tour highlights:

Built between 1920-22 in a Mediterranean style, Casa Maria, 280 Ortman Road, Greenwood (Ms. Cynthia Tremblay, owner), was completed by Gordon and Ella Williams Smith. A south wing was added in 1929.

Charles F. Gillette was commissioned to design the gardens in 1919 and used stone walls and boxwood allees, which remain today. The present owner added a round garden, birdbath garden, cutting garden and evergreen garden.

Bellevue, 1100 Kingsway Road, Afton (Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Gladden, owners), was part of a 1769 Crown Grant from King George III. The land was farmed for tobacco and corn by James Durette and a house on the property was destroyed by fire around 1840.

William Grayson bought the property from Durette's heirs. By 1859 he had built the central core of his mansion in a Greek Revival and early Italianate style.

Blue Ridge Farm, 1870 Ortman Road, Afton, lives up to its name with wonderful views. The main house was constructed in 1852 as a five-bay Georgian with a mansard roof. In the 1920s, additions were made to the house, while landscape designer Charles F. Gillette refined the gardens.

Stately white and pin oaks anchor garden areas planted with a mix of modern and heritage varieties of roses, tulips and daffodils.

The Classical Revival style at Ramsay, 7760 Rockfish Gap Turnpike, Greenwood (Mr. and Mrs. Harry R. Lankenau, owners), is defined by three-bay porches on both the front and rear elevations. Ramsay was purchased in 1914 by Chiswell Dabnie (Chillie) Langhorne.

By 1936 the house was owned by his grandson, Langhorne Gibson, the son of Irene Langhorne Gibson, famously known as the model for "The Gibson Girl" at the turn of the century.

Piedmont, 8069 Pony Express Road, Greenwood (Mrs. Barbara Wallace Chakmakian, owner), has been owned by generations of the Wallace family since they arrived in Albemarle County in 1734.

The house has undergone several Alterations. The main house has two different parts the two-story log half, now stuccoed, built in the mid-18th century, and the two-story brick house constructed about 1834.

Boxwood bushes are said to be descended from a trade with Thomas Jefferson for a wagonload of red clover seed and corn.

*Step up to the old stone mounting block at Piedmont.