Rasmussen, in Old Virginia, explaining the prevalence and popularity of the symmetrical, Georgian architectural style in Virginia as it turned into a more refined and prosperous colony:

"Richard Bushman suggests...'The Georgian style spread widely among the colonial gentry as the [seventeenth-century] porch design had never done. In Virginia few planters could raise a huge pile like Thomas Lee's Stratford or William Byrd's Westover or Mann Page's Rosewell.... But vernacular builders sensed the essence of the great houses and copied the fundamental elements for a much wider segment of well-off planters.'

"Ambition was in the air, and as models for the great houses had migrated from England, models for the homes of the lesser elite had meandered up the major rivers to the tributaries, allowing for young men on-the-make to aspire to the positions and pursuits of the landed. If one prepared himself early in life for success, learned what he could from the existing gentry, and made calculated decisions about his short-and long-range future, then there was wealth and success to be had."