Located in Middletown, Virgina Belle Grove Plantation is a National Trust Historic Site that was the home of Jajor Isaac Hite and his wife Nelly Madison Hite, sister of President James Madison. It is also a site of enslavement where Major Hite used enslaved people to expand the sites original 483 acres into a 7,500 acre wheat plantation with a large distillery and several mills. In the 19th century the site was used as a headquarters by Union General Phillip Sheriden and was at the center of the Battle of Cedar Creek on October 19, 1864.

What first inspired your love of history?

Reading—admittedly it started with Little House on the Prairie, but from a young age I was more fascinated by the stories of “real live people” than imaginary ones. That led to a desire to see the places where those people lived and to understand what their lives were like. As a kid, I would have chosen a living history museum over a Star Wars movie any day!

What's your earliest memory of experiencing a historic site?

An early experience was with an imagined historic site, the “Streets of Old Milwaukee” at the Milwaukee Public Museum. I loved how immersive it was—I felt completely transported back in time and loved inspecting every detail of that built space.

When people visit Belle Grove, what do you want them to see, do, and feel while they are there?

Belle Grove is a traditional historic house museum and taking the historic house tour is central activity.We pride ourselves that it is an intimate experience—rooms are not closed offwith velvet ropes, there is a chance to be close to artifacts, to feel the space of each room, tours are usually not crowded, there is ample time to converse with the docent, and to hear about the lives of the families that lived there, both free and enslaved. Guests may also tour an exhibit that details the extensive archaeological research that is leading to a much deeper understanding of the enslaved community.

There is also information to take away—such as links to online exhibits and feature stories on 38 of the 270 people enslaved by the Hite family at Belle Grove. Ideally, we spark visitors’ curiosity to learn more. There is also a network of walking trails along Civil War entrenchment earthworks that is another way to interact with the site in its rural location, as a place of natural beauty, but also as a place of suffering. I would not like to define what people should feel when they visit Belle Grove but hope that we give them the emotional and physical space to open their minds to new information and a little time to slow down to consider their feelings.

What is your favorite part of your site?

The view from the front porch because the Massanutten Mountain is so prominent and indelible. Everyone who visits today admires that view and that had to have been true for every other person in history who stood in that place. Imagining all those people and the circumstances that brought them to that point on the globe in that moment of time is fascinating to me.