The tiny community of Forest takes its name from Poplar Forest, the land-holding inherited by Thomas Jefferson's wife, Martha, in 1773 from her father, John Wayles. On this tract, Jefferson's house, Poplar Forest (BD26), was a novelty surrounded, at a respectful distance, by early-nineteenth-century Virginia houses providing conservative statements of their owners' prosperity and rarely giving even a stylistic nod to their fashionable neighbor.
Writing Credits
If SAH Archipedia has been useful to you, please consider supporting it.
SAH Archipedia tells the story of the United States through its buildings, landscapes, and cities. This freely available resource empowers the public with authoritative knowledge that deepens their understanding and appreciation of the built environment. But the Society of Architectural Historians, which created SAH Archipedia with University of Virginia Press, needs your support to maintain the high-caliber research, writing, photography, cartography, editing, design, and programming that make SAH Archipedia a trusted online resource available to all who value the history of place, heritage tourism, and learning.