Rockefeller made this 18th-century farmhouse, Bassett Hall, his home during the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg. Built by Philip Johnson, a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses, between 1753 and 1766, this house later took the name of Martha Washington's nephew, Burwell Bassett, who purchased it in 1800. During the Civil War the Union cavalryman George Armstrong Custer was a guest here for ten days; he came to attend the wedding of a West Point classmate, a Confederate wounded in the Battle of Williamsburg.
In 1926 Rev. Dr. W.A.R. Goodwin of Bruton Parish Church approached John D. Rockefeller Jr. with the idea of preserving and restoring Williamsburg's historic buildings. After strolling through the great trees behind Bassett Hall, Rockefeller agreed. Goodwin even urged, "I wish you would buy Bassett Hall for yourself.
It would give you a charming vantage point from which to play with the vision and dream which you see. You are literally standing at that vantage point—the farmhouse that became the Rockefellers' home during the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg, and a quiet crossroads of colonial, Civil War, and 20th-century history. Notice the great trees rising behind Bassett Hall, still framing that vantage point.