A Show of Wealth

Isaac Handy designed Pemberton Hall to impress his neighbors. At the time, over 90 percent of people in the Chesapeake region lived in small, low, clapboard houses, about half the size of the Great Room of Pemberton Hall. Building a brick, gambrel-roofed house was a way for Isaac Handy to signal his wealth and his status in society. In the 18th century, outbuildings surrounded Pemberton Hall. Historical research and archaeological evidence show that the plantation once included a cook house, stable, milk house, corn house, tan house, barn, bark house and slave quarters. The "dependencies" are being reconstructed to replicate the working plantation. <p><i>Picture Caption</i><br> Shingles, beams, bricks, and hardware for construction were made on the plantation. Completed in 1741, Pemberton Hall was a grand structure for its place and time.