MOUNT ERIN (CAMERON CASTLE)
Adams Street, Petersburg
Begun c. 1815, expanded 1862-66, expanded again 1888; demolished 1943
Photograph: Virginia Historical Society
Mount Erin began as a small, one-story brick house, only 24 by 18 feet in plan, a cottage orné, standing on a
sizable tract of land on the heights south of Petersburg. By 1829 its brick walls had been stuccoed, and probably
scored to resemble stone. Mount Erin was later expanded twice by the wealthy tobacco manufacturer William
Cameron. The final alterations, in 1888, seem likely to have transformed the building entirely, into the sophisticated,
stone Gothic Revival mansion that is pictured here. The building had an entrance tower, turrets, and arcades with
pointed arches. In time those features earned the property the name Cameron Castle. Cameron's Scottish baronial
fantasy was demolished in 1943 and became the site of Petersburg General Hospital, now Southside Regional
Medical Center.
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