Elijah Fletcher, publisher of the Lynchburg Virginian and mayor of that city, purchased this early-19th-century farmhouse in 1825 for a weekend retreat in nearby Amherst County. His wife, Maria Crawford Fletcher, renamed it Sweet Briar for the wild roses there. In 1851 the Fletchers transformed the plain Federal-style house into a major expression of the Italian Villa style, adding square towers, veranda, and arcaded portico. The design, based on a drawing by Richard Upjohn published in Andrew Jackson Downing’s Architecture of Country Houses (1850), may have been the choice of Fletcher’s daughter, Indiana, whom Fletcher credited with the project. Indiana Fletcher Williams inherited Sweet Briar House and directed in her will that the property was to become a school for young women. Sweet Briar College thus received its charter in 1901. The Sweet Briar House has served as the home of the college presidents since that time.