History of Bel Voi

About 1803 Treadwell Smith arrived in Berryville from New Jersey. He remained behind after his family moved on to Kentucky. The aspiring young man became Deputy Sheriff at the age of eighteen, and later he became a large landowner and merchant.

Smith's brick farmhouse, Bel Voi, which was built circa 1807, contained four large rooms. From the Civil War to 1950 it served as a tenant house. In 1950 a clapboard two-story structure with three dormers was added to the original portion. In 1972, under the guidance of James Wood Burch, an architect from Annapolis, Maryland, additions and alterations were undertaken on the house. The original brick structure's first floor plan was a large hall with a stairway on one side. A parlor adjoined the hall. When the floor plan was altered, the parlor became one large room on the first floor, reducing the size of the hall. The first floor contains the original flooring of wide pine boards and pine mantles. A back wing was created for a spacious paneled dining room.

The clapboard 1950 addition was modified with a long, curved, sloping roofline. One of the three dormers was removed to give more balance and Harmony to the house. An attractive open porch enhanced this section's facade. Then a new clapboard wing, including space for functional facilities and a library, was made. The library's paneling beams were originally part of a barn in Delaplane. Bel Voi is an excellent example of an early nineteenth century farm house carefully and lovingly expanded for an active modern family.

View From Bel Voi

Source: Farland, Mary Gray and Beverley Bigelow Byrd, In the Shadow of the Blue Ridge: Clarke County, Virginia 1732-1952. William Byrd Press, Richmond. 1978.