Elsing Green

Elsing Green is an 18th-century plantation, National Historic Landmark and wildlife refuge covering nearly 3,000 acres along the Pamunkey River in King William County, Virginia, roughly 33 miles northeast of Richmond. Owned by the Lafferty family, it has been in continuous operation for more than 300 years and includes the plantation house, dependency buildings, and surrounding farmland, forest and marsh. Its history traces to the West family of Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr: the original structure, a brick Jacobean lodge that now serves as the manor house east dependency, was built before 1690 by his descendant Colonel John West and used by Lord Delaware as a hunting lodge reached by way of the Pamunkey River. Elsing Green has been listed on the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places since 1969 and received National Historic Landmark status in 1971. It now functions primarily as a wildlife refuge, with no hunting permitted on the property or its surrounding wetlands.