Historic salvaged structures grace the grounds of Rassawek Vineyards in Goochland County. (Photo by Daniel Roberts)
Word has gotten around metro Richmond: Don’t tear it down, give it to Rassawek.
“People know that if there’s an old building that they want to have removed, I will go and get it and bring it here,” says Joseph Liesfeld, the owner of Rassawek Vineyard, a scenic event space and vineyard on 1,200 acres in Columbia in the far western reaches of Goochland County.
Liesfeld is giving a tour of the grounds on a sunny and chilly Saturday afternoon in December, pointing out distinctive structures and oddities that dot the hilly landscape. “Just about everything you see on the property has been repurposed,” says the gray-haired man in a dashing Indiana Jones hat. “It’s not just cool buildings. Some have historic value.”
He points to a handsome gazebo in the distance. “That’s a part of the Sixth Street Marketplace,” he says. Liesfeld retrieved the structure and other features from the Richmond marketplace bandstand after it was slated for demolition in 2003.
A circular area in front of the gazebo that he says is popular for weddings is made of granite from the long-demolished Spring Street State Prison in Richmond, while the slate-and-brick walkway leading to it was salvaged from the 2012 renovation of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. “And the holly that lines this walkway was relocated from a renovation of Bank of America,” Liesfeld says.
From the stone bridge at its front entrance — constructed of rocks gathered from past excavations along the Kanawha Canal in downtown Richmond — to its antique ferry boat that was salvaged from the James River, Rassawek is a fascinating outdoor museum of Virginiana. Now, 20 years after Liesfeld purchased the property and began filling it with artifacts such as a circa-1930s sawmill and an antique water tower, this fascinating place is ready for its close-up. The Goochland Board of Supervisors in October 2020 approved a conditional permit that will allow increased acreage for new features and uses for this huge green space.
“Right now, we rent the property for weddings and private events — that’s pretty much the use,” says Jessica Jessee, the vineyard’s event coordinator. “But we’ve got a five-year plan for expansion. We’re excited to be adding a lot of new things.”
The vineyard will soon open as a park to guests on select weekends. There are also plans to install a zip-line course, open the property for camping and offer B&B experiences in a series of nicely bedroomed railroad cars situated next to a mock train depot, complete with an appropriately retro country store that will host regular wine tastings.
Todd Kilduff sees a general trend toward more outdoor public activities in western Goochland. “There are so many more places wanting to be wedding venues and offer Airbnb-type facilities, but that’s usually it,” says Kilduff, the deputy county administrator for Goochland Economic Development. “What Rassawek is doing is very unique. In terms of the outdoors, they are going to be doing basically everything under [one] umbrella. They want to have public assembly, short-term rentals, campgrounds, a retail village, and they even want to build an airstrip.”
“The airstrip is so we can present air shows of antique aircraft,” Jessee confirms. “They need a place to land. But that’s a few years down the road.”
On the first weekend in June of 2022, the public is invited to Rassawek for its Spring Jubilee. The two-day gathering attracts as many as 10,000 visitors, Kilduff says. The festival’s 10th anniversary was slated for 2020, but the pandemic got in the way, and the 2021 event was recently canceled as well. “We have 10 wineries that come and offer tastings, and people who deal in arts and crafts,” Jessee says. “There’s music, food, antique car displays, cooking classes — and the Louisa Historical Society showcases hearth cooking.”
Liesfeld, who retired from the construction business, bought the property in 2000. “I like the rolling hills of western Goochland County,” he says. “It was mostly farmland and woodlands, but we sort of fixed it and cleaned it up. It already had lakes, but we added two more.”
Liesfeld and his daughter-in-law Jenny named the site “Rassawek,” in honor of the Monacan Indian village that was situated where the Rivanna and James rivers converge.
On a driving tour along dirt roads, Liesfeld points toward a rustic log cabin, the first building he salvaged and brought here. The so-called Saylor Cabin dates from the 1840s and was previously on St. Paul’s Church Road off Route 45. Liesfeld and his crew moved the fragile home in two pieces. To reconstruct its chimney, they incorporated rock from its original location and also used stones found along Byrd Creek.
After driving through the woods, passing retired jalopies and antique outhouses, we view a majestic English-made Lord & Burnham greenhouse that was moved here from Montpelier. There’s also the Cherokee Cabin, an evocative hunting lodge built in 1910 by a well-known Canadian cabin maker that once overlooked the James River just west of what is now the Huguenot Bridge. Requiring two cranes to lift and lugged in one piece to Rassawek in the dead of night, the cabin is now adjoined by a small vineyard that grows award-winning Chardonnay grapes.
The development plan calls for more festivals, starting with a Rassawek Autumn Festival in October 2021. The fall festival will be similar to the old Field Day of the Past, which was held for almost 30 years each fall in east Goochland, through 2019, Liesfeld says.
“The autumn festival will be focused on that kind of Americana, like an old county fair,” he says. Some of the former Field Day displays — such as corn cribs, a tobacco barn, a cotton gin and a vintage voting precinct — will be on view at the Rassawek event. Sitting amid the restored history now nestled on these bucolic grounds, it seems like a natural fit.
