The Fairfield Foundation reopened the Rosewell Ruins and Visitor Center for the 2024 season this past Friday and Saturday. Following closure on Easter, the historic site will open on Fridays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on Sundays from noon to 4 p.m. through October.

Since Rosewell came under Fairfield’s management and preservation umbrella last spring, the nonprofit archaeology and historic preservation organization’s top priorities have been listening to community ideas for interpretation and researching grant opportunities for critical funds to preserve the impressive structure, a release stated.

Built by English craftsmen and enslaved laborers in the 1720s and 1730s, Rosewell was the largest private dwelling in colonial Virginia with approximately 12,000 square feet, three floors over a high English basement, and 17 fireplaces. It stood as a symbol of early Virginians’ ambitions to mirror English gentry.

Three generations of the politically and socially promin...