The plantation includes three separate estates, all created in the 19th century by the planter, soldier, and reformer John Hartwell Cocke on his family's 1725 land grant.

The large neo-palladian mansion at "Upper" Bremo was designed by Cocke in consultation with John Neilson, a master joiner for Thomas Jefferson's Monticello.

In 2006, a partnership consisting of Thomas Pruitt and William H. "Bill" Goodwin Jr. bought the 4400 acre Curles Neck property (including the Bremo tract) for $25 million, where it is used today mostly as a nature preserve.

[6] Around 1812, Cocke completed a larger home for himself and his wife Anne Blaws Barraud at Bremo Recess, situated on higher ground farther back from the James River.

[2] Anne died in December 1816 and was buried at Bremo Recess, where her ghost has reportedly been sighted wandering in the house.

Though it was 80 miles (130 km) away from her home in Richmond, Virginia, the James River and Kanawha Canal permitted a relatively comfortable trip by boat.

[9] However, within a few days of her arrival, Lee's health suffered a setback because of a severe fall from her crutches on the finely polished floor.

[10] Family friend Doctor Cary Charles Cocke built a special bed to accommodate her affliction from rheumatoid arthritis.

The home is designed with distinct elements of Jeffersonian architecture, such as upper windows built at floor level to reduce the visual scale of the structure.