William Dunkum, was born on 23 March 1777 in Cumberland County and built his own brick I-house, Brookhill, on Route 20 in Albemarle County. About the time of William Dunkum's arrival in the county in 1803, he erected the first brick house in Charlottesville, for Joseph Bishop in Random Row on Vinegar Hill. Adjacent to Court Square in Charlottesville, he built a two-story brick house for Twyman Wayt in the McKee block and a house in the 400 block of East Jefferson Street for Lewellyn Wood. He also may have built houses for his sons: the brick I-house Tudor Grove for William Lewis Dunkum, who married Elizabeth Bradley in 1832, and a frame house for Elijah Dunkum in 1843 on Ridge Street in Charlottesville as well as a two-story brick dwelling here the following year. Frances Gentry became William Dunkum's second wife on 18 December 1823. At Dunkum's death on 21 May 1846, he owned personal property assessed at more than $14,000, including fifty-four books, many carpenter's tools, twenty-six slaves, and an oil portrait of himself by the painter John Toole.
[K. Edward Lay, 2000]
