The small frame house stands as the only surviving original structure of the crossroad village of Groveton. The house was repeatedly caught in the crossfire of opposing Union and Confederate armies during the Second Battle of Manassas.
The plantation house of Francis Lewis, known as Portici, stood atop the ridge to your east. Massive brick chimneys flanked the frame house. The house was destroyed by fire in 1862.
The Thornberry House survives as one of three Civil War-era structures in the park. Built in the 1840s it was home to John and Martha Thornberry and their five children.
Throughout August 29, 1862, Federal troops repeatedly attacked Jackson's left flank - Gen. Maxcy Gregg's South Carolina Brigade - on a knoll just west of here.
In 1860, Benjamin Chinn and his family lived here in a two-and-a-half story frame farmhouse. Known as "Hazel Plain," the modest plantation comprised several hundred acres. The property was typical of those in Prince William County, yielding wheat, corn, oats, and potatoes for cash and subsistence. Like roughly one-third of their immediate neighbors, the Chinn family owned slaves.
