TAR BAY
Hopewell vicinity, Prince George County
Built c. 1746; burned c. 1965
Photograph: Virginia Department of Historic Resources
Tar Bay is now a ruin dramatically sited overlooking the bend of the James River of the same name. It is believed that the house
was erected in 1746 for Daniel Colley but was not fully finished at that time. The chimneys have exterior fireplace openings,
filled in, for possible future additions that were never built. A distinctive and unusual feature was the extension from the river
front, giving the house a T-shaped floor-plan. Often such a projection contained the staircase; this one did not. In other
aspects, Tar Bay was a conventional example of high-style Virginia Georgian architecture. Its five-bay facade with paired
windows was covered by a hipped roof with a modillion cornice. The brickwork was laid up in Flemish bond with
gauged-brick jack arches. Exceptional was the absence of a belt course, a feature normally found on two-story colonial
brick mansions.
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