The east ground-floor room probably functioned as the chamber—the principal sleeping space—before construction of the east wing. As in the hall, the remains of period I window seats are still visible on the front and rear walls, both filled in with later brickwork. Here too, the spaces to either side of the chimney were initially cordoned off as closets. In these spaces, slots cut into the brickwork indicate the former existence or shelving. It appears that these shelves were removed and the slots closed up in period III. Unfortunately, there remains no plaster or other evidence of finish that can be confidently associated with this earliest period in the dwelling’s history.

Period 1 conjectural perspective.

John Hartwell Cocke, son of Richard, seems to have been living on his Surry County plantation when he drafted his will in January 29, 1791. The will was proved after his death a month later in the Surry County Court.3 John’s wife, Elizabeth, had life rights, with conditions, to all her husbands property, but she soon died, and guardians were appointed to oversee the maintenance and education of the children.

John Hartwell Cocke, Jr. reached his majority in ** and soon embarked on a massive remodeling of the old house, beginning as early perhaps as 1800. These changes transformed the dwelling’s appearance utterly. In order to produce a more imposing, more regular appearance, Cocke raised the existing house to two full stories, and revised the fenestration to create symmetrical five-bay facades on both fronts. To achieve all of this it was necessary to dismantle large portions of the front and rear ground-floor walls and then to rebuild all the river-front window openings. Thereafter, the new windows on the upper floor were constructed to align with those below. Raising the upper floor made it necessary to augment the gables in proportion, with the new work up against the sides of the old chimney stacks. This required in turn that the stacks themselves be extended.

Further expanding the accommodations at Mount Pleasant was an added wing at the eastern end of the main house. From the beginning, there seems to have been internal communication between the house and wing on both floors, since the south jamb of second-floor doorway was clearly part of the ca. 1800 work, laid up when the main house was raised. This neatly constructed jamb demonstrates the wing was built at the same time the second floor was raised, and that it was originally two full stories in height. We presume that it was brick, based on mortar and paint lines that seem to establish the thickness and position of the original walls.

Porches also seem to have been added for the first time during this period. Archaeology revealed the remains of the early, land-side porch, and wrought nails for early flashing, and a raking cut in the belt course of the south façade show the slope of its gable roof. This explains the absence of a transom over the doorway, where chopped jamb bricks above the period III door head location reveal that the masonry over the doorway was rebuilt c. 1800 without an arch—a practice occasionally seen in federal-period work. The character of the north porch has not been fully defined, but it is likely to have been similar.

Clearly, the object of this building campaign was to transform the great house completely—inside and out. Significantly, these far-reaching changes corresponded with the adoption of a new name—Mount Pleasant. It is inconceivable that the period I and II interiors could have survived such a renovation, given the magnitude of work necessary to revise the first floor, and extent the additions made above and to the east of the main house.

Throughout the main house, wooden nailers were cut into the interior faces of the walls, all to be used in attaching new woodwork. In the west, ground-floor room these nailers carried a base and surbase around three walls. Below this height, the plaster was probably applied directly to the masonry and painted, while above this point, the walls were plastered over furring and almost certainly covered with wallpaper. The furring was nailed directly to the period III brickwork with wrought nails, affirming beyond doubt its association with the c.1800–1805 renovation.