Boxwood Hill

108 Peach Street, Chatham, Virginia

Boxwood Hill, built in 1966, was the home of John and Reba Beaver. It faces the front of the Chatham Hall campus. It has four bedrooms and two baths, plus a maid's bed-and-bath.

The home was designed by the owner, and built by local contractor Arnie Taylor. The bricklaying was done by James Scott of Gretna's Scott Brothers Masonry.

Its interior was based on Reba (Jones) Beaver's family home Sunny Hill, an English Revival cottage on U. S. 29 at Dry Fork (now the Janet Turner Realty building). John Beaver studied landscape design at Shrivenham American University in England after World War II, and had magnificently landscaped Sunny Hill after his return to the States and civilian life. He experienced a decline in health in 1959, and then U. S. 29 was widened, causing Sunny Hill to be moved and its gardens obliterated. In response the Beavers moved to Chatham, and John created a new design fitting the beloved Sunny Hill interior spaces into a Southern plantation revival exterior. His health concerns also led him to choose a shady naturalized woodland environment, rather than the former high-maintenance gardens. (John Beaver also designed the pleasantly utilitarian educational wing of Watson Memorial United Methodist Church.)

The house is approximately 2520 square feet in size. Its floors are oak and its walls are plaster, representative of John Beaver's insistence on sturdy, lasting, and aesthetic construction. A 1620 square foot basement contains a paneled den and the maid's quarters, plus a large utility and storage area. The former single-stall horse stable from Sunny Hill serves as a detached storage building. Boxwood Hill's lot includes approximately .96 acre, extending from Peach Street westward across Tanyard Branch.

Boxwood Hill is now the home of Mr. and Mrs. William Leftwich and family.