[3] Currently still a private farm, but expected to become partly a park after housing and commercial development, it was once owned by Richmond distiller and landowner Franklin Stearns, a prominent Unionist during the American Civil War.

On the night of April 3, 1865, as Richmond burned due to fires set by evacuating Confederate forces, Richmond mayor Joseph C. Mayo traveled in a horse-drawn buggy along Main Street (which becomes the Osborne Turnpike) alongside the James River about a mile past Rockett's Landing, where he came upon Union cavalry encamped at Tree Hill (near the intersection with New Market Road toward Williamsburg).

He delivered a note surrendering the city and requesting help restoring order and protecting people and property.

[6] The Union officers conveyed the document to General Godfrey Weitzel, who ordered troops to extinguish the flames, as well as traveled downtown to city hall to accept a formal document at 8:15 a.m.[7] The Burlee family bought the farm from Stearns' grandchildren in 1910, and successive generations kept it as a farm until recently.

[4] The property is now owned by Gray Land and Development Company, which secured permission to develop the site with as many as 2,770 homes and 1.1 million square feet of office space, conditioned upon restoration of the manor house and barn, as well as set-asides for a school, library and place to honor the area's Native American heritage.