James Madison Belle Grove Foundation

Help us raise the funds needed

It has been ten years since we opened Belle Grove Plantation to the public. In this time, we have offered bed and breakfast service, afternoon tea service, historical location tours and special events, both public and private. We increased our historic program with the opening of the non-profit James Madison Belle Grove Foundation in July 2015. Through this foundation, we have been able to not only preserve the mansion, grounds and artifacts recovered, but open our location to farther research and study of the past through archaeology, study of our past genealogy as well as programs such as our Homeschool Series, which brings homeschoolers to the location to study subjects that are related to the property. We have opened our grounds to the Rappahannock Tribe, to allow them to return to their possible ancestral home.

In the past ten years, we have seen guests come from many of the states within the United States as well as other countries including Canada, Austria, Italy, Finland, England, Russia, China, Japan, France, Belgium, and Scotland. In fact, our first overnight guest reservation on August 1, 2013, was from New Zealand. It isn’t unusual for us to welcome foreign guests as well as locate King George County guests.

Opening Belle Grove as a public location was very hard. It had never been open to the public as we were going to do. We had to build it from the ground up. We had to work hard to spread the word of who we are and what we offered in a very short time. Being a historic location, funding isn’t always very easy at the beginning. But through support and hard work, we succeeded in making it past the “burn out point” of five to seven years.

The thing is, Belle Grove is a passion for me personally. At the time, we found it, I was burning out from working in the corporate world as a banker and recruiter. I didn’t want my life to just pass by with little to nothing to show for it. I wanted it to have meaning. When we found Belle Grove, it needed me… and I needed Belle Grove. I brought my research skills to uncovering Belle Grove’s historic past. Bring back pieces that had gotten lost to time. So later generations would know what I already know about Belle Grove. It was the site of many important points of American history. Not all good, but not all bad. But important to remember and to be told.

At the beginning of 2023, we had developed one of our most ambitious years in the way of events and programs. We wanted to offer more opportunities for the public to come and experience Belle Grove. While the year started out wonderfully, things got in the way as we progressed through the year. The economy would play a big part in the lack for event ticket sales, overnight guests, and tea reservations. Everyone is feeling the pinch. We worked to keep the costs down to afford the opportunity for more to come.

Then at the end of January, I was hit with the first of a year-long illness. Starting with a sinus infection that took one and half months and two different antibiotics to get rid of. This was followed by pneumonia a week later. Then two weeks later by Norovirus (a really nasty stomach bug) that took two weeks to recover from. Then at the beginning of July, we found I had four pulmonary embolisms (two in each lung). Two months later, the pulmonary embolisms were gone, but I had a lot of fluid at the bottom of each lung. The fluid kept increasing and started to fill my tissues all over. My blood pressure, which normally runs 120 over 70 was now shooting to 160. 170, and 180. My blood sugars were all over the place, no matter what I ate. By November, I was sent to the hospital for eight days to get the extra 20 pounds of fluid. Tests were run during my hospital stay, only to find that my heart was fine, with no valve issues and pumping the correct amount around my body. My kidneys were working fine. No blockages and looked good including the levels. My liver is fine as well. Basically, the cardiologist and kidney doctors were scratching their heads and saying that they had no idea why my body was going haywire. I have a request for an appointment with an internist in Birmingham. Alabama in hopes for figure out what is going on.

The worst part is the fatigue. I can’t do the things I did before. I am luck to get breakfast and teas done. I have had to stop doing dinners because I am so wiped out. I used to be able to work for days. But now I have to rest, or I fall asleep as soon as I sit down. You can understand how hard it has been to go from very strong and active to weak and sleepy all the time. It just isn’t me.

But because of all this, our year has not turned out was well as we had hoped. In fact, we are pretty much behind on everything. I realize we aren’t the only ones. But desperate times calls for desperate measures.

We are asking for donations in exchange for gift cards and services. We hope that you will consider giving to the James Madison Belle Grove Foundation as your end of the year giving. And that there will be somewhat of a return on your contributions that you can gift to family and friends … and even yourself.

Please consider giving to James Madison Belle Grove Foundation through our GoFundMe campaign or you can mail a check made out to the James Madison Belle Grove Foundation to:

James Madison Belle Grove Foundation

9221 Belle Grove Drive

King George, Virginia 22485

We deeply appreciate your support and prayers as we manage our way through this winter season.

Michelle Darnell

Giving Levels

$1,000

One Overnight Night Stay with Dinner for Two and a $100 Gift Card (no expiration date – total value $520)

$500

Two $100 Gift Card (no expiration date – total value $200)

$250

One Afternoon Tea for Two and $100 Gift Card (no expiration date – total value $170)

$100

Two $25 Gift Card (no expiration date – total value $50)

$50

$15 Gift Card (no expiration date – total value $15)