Larz Anderson was descended from a long line of American patriots and heroes, including his most distinguished forbear, Lt. Col. Richard Clough Anderson, of the First, Third, and Fifth Virginia units of the Continental Line.  He was wounded at the second battle of Trenton, taken prisoner in Charleston, and served as aide-de-camp to the Marquis de Lafayette in the Virginia campaign against Cornwallis. The military hero features prominently in the forthcoming book, Larz and Isabel Anderson: Wealth and Celebrity in the Gilded Age by Stephen T. Moskey (iUniverse January 2016).

In 1784, after the war’s end, Dick – as he was known to family and friends – was appointed surveyor of the Virginia Military Land District in Kentucky County, then a part of Virginia.  He was to oversee the allotment of land given to Continental Army officers in lieu of payment for their service during the war.  Dick received a choice piece of land near what is now Louisville, where he built a house he called “Soldier’s Retreat.”

This rare image of the house, now in the Library of Congress, shows what the house looked like.  Built in the English style of American colonial houses, its floor plan includes a center hall flanked by the family and public rooms on either side.  The house was destroyed by an earthquake in 1811 and after being rebuilt, was almost destroyed by lightening in 1840.  In the 1980s, the owners of the property built a meticulously-designed reproduction house faithful to the general original design of Col. Anderson’s beloved Soldier’s Retreat.

The area of Louisville where the house was located eventually became known as Hurstbourne and is now the site of the Hurstbourne Country Club.

Please CLICK HERE to see a short movie about the upcoming book on Larz and Isabel.

Illustrations
“Soldier’s Retreat”
Papers of Alexander F. Anderson,
Library of Congress, Manuscript Division
Photograph by Skip Moskey
(Digimarc® Guardian for Images)

Historical marker photograph
via findagrave.com.