Greyledge

Greyledge is a historic home and national historic district in Botetourt County, Virginia. It encompasses 13 contributing buildings, 2 contributing sites, and 2 contributing structures, as well as woods and cropland. Although less than a mile from Interstate 81, the house seated on a knob 1200 feet in altitude is not visible from the interstate highway, nor is the highway visible from the house. Purgatory Mountain is visible to the west of the house, which has views of the Blue Ridge Mountains to the south and east. Purgatory Creek drains much of the property and flows into the James River several miles south in the town of Buchanan.HistoryThe main house was built beginning in 1842 by the Cartmill brothers for their orphaned cousin, Miss Ann Sisson, and finished circa 1855. Ann Sisson inherited the property, then married Charles Gorgas, Pennsylvania-born nephew of a Rockbridge county ironmaster. When Gorgas died of pneumonia in 1862, his wife inherited nearby Etna Furnace and about 7000 acres of iron-bearing land. She married Henry Hansborough in 1866, and died in 1885. In 1895, Edmund Cash Pechin Pennsylvania lawyer and mining expert associated with various railroads and the Virginia Development Company in Roanoke acquired the property from Ann Sisson Gorgas Hansborough's estate and developed it as an estate home. His wife Mary Cash Shelly Pechin headed nearby Buchanan's Village Improvement Society. Both died in the 1920s, and their daughter Bertha Pechin inherited the property. Stuart B. Carter, a Virginia lawyer and state delegate who played a key role in defeating the Byrd Organization's Massive Resistance policy, bought it from Bertha Pechin, his wife's aunt, and did further renovations and restorations. Their children also inherited the property, but the next phase of renovations and restoration began after the 2001 sale.