Nelson House in Yorktown, Virginia

The Nelson House looks remarkably composed for a building that survived the Siege of Yorktown. Standing along Yorktown's Main Street, the Georgian house was built around 1730 by “Scotch Tom” Nelson, a wealthy merchant and member of one of colonial Virginia's most prominent families. His grandson Thomas Nelson Jr. would become the house's most famous resident. The younger Nelson signed the Declaration of Independence, served as governor of Virginia, and commanded Virginia militia during the Yorktown campaign. In the fall of 1781, war arrived quite literally at the family's doorstep. American an

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