Buckingham Houses: Rosny, 1959, Part II
Mrs. E. L. Maki, 1959, then owner of Rosny.
Photo by Wojnicki. Courtesy Daily Progress.
Need to catch up? Click here: Buckingham Houses: Rosny, 1959, Part I
In 1959, Charlottesville’s Daily Progress published the article “Historic ‘Rosny’ Built as Result of Family Spat,” written by Mrs. R. J. Wojnicki, who opened by describing Rosny’s interior appointments. She went on to detail the history of the house, explaining that it was built because Powhatan Bolling (1767 – 1802) and his mother didn’t get along very well. Powhatan, supposedly exasperated with traveling ministers who spent the night at the Bolling plantation, Chellow, wanted to live further from the well-traveled road. As a result a separate house was constructed for Powhatan called Whispering Grove (later Rosny).
According to Mrs. Wojnicki, in Powhatan Bolling’s time, Whispering Grove was located on Hwy 60 about 2 miles southeast of its present site. In 1959, she observed the Roman numerals carved into the beams and rafters of the house which facilitated reassembling the house after it was moved.
Following the death of Powhatan Bolling, Col. Robert Thurston Hubard became the owner of Whispering Grove. Hubard attended school in France and was a great admirer of the Lord of Rosny, mentioned in Thomas Babington Macauley’s poem “Ivry, a song of the Huguenots.” As a result, sometime after 1802, Whispering Grove became Rosny.
Mrs. Wojnicki’s article also contains a list of subsequent residents. In 1873, Philip Hubard owned the property and, in 1890, it was bought by the Iron and Lumber Company of Westminster, followed by C. B. Harris (1915), who immediately sold it to Forrest Guthrie, Sr. In 1935, Zanie (Guthrie) Stone of Remington, Virginia purchased it.
Coming Next: Buckingham Houses: Rosny, 1959, Part III
For more about Powhatan Bolling, see:
slate river ramblings . . . . 
Mrs E L Maki was Mary Eliza Guthrie, a daughter of Forrest Guthrie and Mary Spencer. She first married Joseph Randolph Tapscott of Sharps Creek and had a daughter Elizabeth Braden Tapscott.
Thanks for adding these biographical details. More about Mrs. Maki and the Guthries in the upcoming post.
Joanne
Here’s what Mrs. Wojnicki wrote: “History says ‘Rosny’ was built at the extreme end of ‘Chellowe’ plantation because Powhatan Bolling his mother were unable to agree. For that reason she decided to build the place at what was then considered to be a great distance from the family home. At that time ‘Rosny’ was known as ‘Whispering Grove’ being located on what is now US 60 about two miles southeast of its present site.”
When Mrs. W. writes “history says,” I suspect she means oral history rather than documented research. If anyone knows more about Whispering Grove please comment.
Joanne
Thanks for posting. I’m a little confused by Mrs. Wojnicki’s assertions that Whispering Grove and Rosny were somehow the same home. It’s my understanding that the home “Whispering” was one of three Bolling homes including Chellowe and Rosny, and was located south of Rt 60 above Whispering Creek. I don’t know what year it burned, but records suggest it was a separate 2,000 acre estate, sitting sort of between Rosny and Chellowe.
Thanks for commenting. I’ll revisit the article. Perhaps, I misinterpreted what she wrote. More to come. . . . Joanne