The development of the estate began in 1777, when Thomas Shore purchased 144 acres atop "Archers Hill" from the heirs of John Martin.

Violet Bank originally fit an almost canonized two-over-two centre hall plan typical of late colonial Tidewater Virginia.

This house served as General Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette's Headquarters at the beginning of the 1781 summer campaign in the South, which eventually ended in Cornwallis' capitulation at the Siege of Yorktown.

The first was in March 1781 under Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben and his Virginia Militia; the second in April 1781, under Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette.

Both of these were actions against British Major General William Phillips, who mentioned the property in a dispatch: "We assaulted the enemy's work across the river and attempted to gain the high ground adjacent to Thomas Shore's house, but were repulsed with heavy losses."

Lacking sufficient strength to overwhelm Lafayette on the Heights, Cornwallis decided to abandon Virginia and campaign farther south.

Violet Bank would once again play host to Lafayette in 1824, when he visited the country for the last time as an official guest of the United States.

Benjamin Latrobe intended on lodging at Violet Bank, "but he (Thomas Shore) is at present building, and occupies his offices only, which, in Virginia, follows a plantation house as a litter of pigs to their mother."

The consensus of most architectural historians is that Violet Bank was designed by a pupil of Latrobe's, although there is nothing that suggests that Robert Mills (architect) might have had a hand in its planning.

Mr. & Mrs. Haxall were certainly wealthy enough to have hired Latrobe, and if they did not consult with him on rebuilding project, they must probably asked him to suggest an architect, he would have named one of his own pupils.

Operating Violet Bank as a dairy farm, the new owners knocked out walls on the first floor of the main house in order to utilize the structure as a cattle barn.

Greater Petersburg Reality Corp. CEO Bellamy decided in the late 1914 to subdivide the farm and develop it for housing, and work began in 1915.

[1] Now a part of the Recreation & Parks department, Violet Bank began its current incarnation as an active Historic House Museum in 1988.