MIRADOR 



IRADOR, originally the home of Colonel James M. 



Bowen, in Albemarle County, is perhaps one of the 



finest examples of early American architecture to 



be found in Piedmont Virginia. 



The ancestors of Colonel Bowen, who landed 



on the cold, unfriendly shores of Massachusetts in 

 1644, seem to have steadily moved southward with each succeeding 

 generation, until in the beginning of the eighteenth century we find 

 them settled in Virginia, where, in 1758, Richard Bowen "Soldier" 

 was granted land for services in "Captain Rutherford's Rangers" 

 in the French and Indian Colonial Wars. 



The grandson of this Richard Bowen was the owner and builder 

 of Mirador between the years 1825-30. Here in the beautiful 

 Greenwood Valley near the Great Blue Ridge he placed the home- 

 stead in the center of an extensive plantation, from which can be 

 seen the high pealcs which tower above the dividing lines of Albe- 

 marle, Augusta and Nelson Counties. Mount Humpback, which 

 overlooks five counties, and on which one of the first Weather 

 Bureaus In Virginia was stationed, can be seen In the distance. 

 Because of the magnificent view and for love of the soft Spanish 

 names, Colonel Bowen called his home "El Mirador," a Spanish 

 derivation from the verb Mira — Look ! Behold ! El Mirador mean- 

 ing a place commanding an extensive, a great view; the El has long 

 since been dropped and only Mirador used. 



This house, like those of the preceding century, was a square 

 building of brick with two stories and an attic; it had a wide hall 

 and four large rooms on each floor. The four chimneys and the 

 outbuildings used as office, schoolhouse and kitchen, were also 

 of brick. The spacious stairway with its mahogany rail, the fan- 

 shaped lights above the doors, and the fan-shaped wood trim 

 throughout the building added much to the beauty of this stately old 



[284] 



