Kenmure | |
Kenmure, September 2013 | |
Location | 420 W. Bute St., Norfolk, Virginia |
---|---|
Coordinates | 36°51′10″N76°17′49″W / 36.85278°N 76.29694°W |
Area | less than one acre |
Built | 1845 | , 1845
Architectural style | Greek Revival |
NRHP reference No. | 88000601 [1] |
VLR No. | 122-0016 |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | June 1, 1988 |
Designated VLR | December 8, 1987 [2] |
Kenmure, also known as the William Lamb House, [3] is an urban antebellum home located in Norfolk, Virginia, United States, in the historic West Freemason District, at 420 West Bute Street. It derives its name from the Scottish family estate.
Originally constructed in 1845 as a three-bay, Greek Revival brick town house, it consisted of two floors measuring 40'x40' above an English basement, with brick and wood walls, 15 fireplaces, two front parlors, living room and a kitchen outbuilding. [3]
Kenmure was expanded to three-stories in 1855 with a central one-bay dwarf portico, a rear addition and a low, hipped roof topped by a three-bay cupola.
Its site was originally a half block, located next to the Elizabeth River, between Bute and Botetourt Streets. [3]
Kenmure was built for Margaret Kerr Lamb and William Wilson Lamb, a banker, shipper, cotton and rail merchant. [3] The Lambs had two children, William Wilson Lamb and Mary Content Lamb Donnell.
Marking the second generation when Lambs served as mayor of Norfolk, William Wilson Lamb served as mayor of Norfolk from 1858 to 1862 during the Civil War. As Norfolk surrendered the city to Union soldiers, Lamb secreted Norfolk's historic silver mace — which had been handed down from each mayor since first presented to Norfolk by Royal Lieutenant Governor Robert Dinwiddie in 1754 — under the hearth stone of the upstairs children's room. [3] Union soldiers would subsequently occupy the house, [3] without discovering the hidden mace.
Lamb's son Colonel William Lamb would later own Kenmure. Colonel Lamb described Kenmure as
a typical southern home of these antebellum days, where besides the 'white folks' there was a colony of family servants from the pickaninnys just able to crawl to the old gray-headed mammy who nursed 'old massa.' It was an ideal home for a boy: sail and row boats on the shore for sailing and fishing, horses in the stable for riding and driving, peaches, pears, cherries, figs, pomegranates, raspberries, currants in the garden, and roses, pink lilacs, snowballs, hollyhock and all the dear old-time flowers with which to treat his girl and boy friends – with a lovely lawn, bordered with crepe myrtles, bayberry and calycanthus between the mansion house and the river, upon which to romp and wrestle and to enjoy those outdoor games which the children of the founders of Norfolk town in 1682 brought from the motherland. [3]
The house was sold in 1894, 1897 and 1906, becoming a boarding house by 1918, [3] and was unoccupied by the 1920s. [3] In the 1930s Kenmure was subdivided into five apartments. [3] It was occupied by vagrants when architect Frederick Herman [4] and his wife Dr. Lucy Spigel Herman, a learning disabilities specialist, purchased the house in 1976. The Hermans began its restoration, re-configuring the house as a single family residence above offices on the basement and first floor levels.
In the 1980s the basement and first floor accommodated the architectural firm Herman had co-founded with his father-in-law Bernard (Bernie) Betzig Spigel [5] and August (Augie) Zinkl. The firm operated as Spigel, Carter, Zinkl and Herman, and later as Spigel Herman and Chapman with partner Donald E. Chapman. A basement-level antique store was operated by Sydney and Faith Nusbaum. [6]
Historic easements were added by the Hermans. Kenmure was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. [1] It was purchased by Stephen and Vanessa Sigmon in 2007, who further restored the house, returning it to a single family residence. [3]
Berkeley Plantation, one of the first plantations in America, comprises about 1,000 acres (400 ha) on the banks of the James River on State Route 5 in Charles City County, Virginia. Berkeley Plantation was originally called Berkeley Hundred, named after the Berkeley Company of England. In 1726, it became the home of the Harrison family of Virginia, after Benjamin Harrison IV located there and built one of the first three-story brick mansions in Virginia. It is the ancestral home of two presidents of the United States: William Henry Harrison, who was born there in 1773 and his grandson Benjamin Harrison. It is now a museum property, open to the public.
Portsmouth is an independent city in southeastern Virginia, United States. It lies across the Elizabeth River from Norfolk. As of the 2020 census, the population was 97,915. It is the ninth-most populous city in Virginia and is part of the Hampton Roads metropolitan area. The Norfolk Naval Shipyard is a historic and active U.S. Navy facility located in Portsmouth.
Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site is a historic house museum in Hyde Park, New York, United States. Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1940, it is owned and operated by the National Park Service.
Gunston Hall is an 18th-century Georgian mansion near the Potomac River in Mason Neck, Virginia, United States. Built between 1755 and 1759 by George Mason, a Founding Father, to be the main residence and headquarters of a 5,500-acre (22 km2) slave plantation. The home is located not far from George Washington's home.
Arlington Antebellum Home & Gardens, or Arlington Historic House, is a former plantation and 6 acres (24,000 m2) of landscaped gardens near downtown Birmingham, Alabama, United States. The two-story frame structure was built by enslaved people between 1845–50. Its style is antebellum-era Greek Revival architecture. The house serves as a decorative arts museum, featuring a collection of 19th-century furniture, textiles, silver, and paintings. The garden features a restored garden room that is used for special events. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places on December 2, 1970, as Arlington, and has also been known as the Mudd-Munger House.
Farmington, an 18-acre (7.3 ha) historic site in Louisville, Kentucky, was once the center of a hemp plantation owned by John and Lucy Speed. The 14-room, Federal-style brick plantation house was possibly based on a design by Thomas Jefferson and has several Jeffersonian architectural features. As many as 64 African Americans were enslaved by the Speed family at Farmington.
Waddy Butler Wood was an American architect of the early 20th century and resident of Washington, D.C. Although Wood designed and remodeled numerous private residences, his reputation rested primarily on his larger commissions, such as banks, commercial offices, and government buildings. His most notable works include the Woodrow Wilson House and the Main Interior Building.
William Lamb was an American newspaper editor, politician, businessman, and soldier, noted for his role as a Confederate States Army officer in commanding the Confederate garrison at Fort Fisher at the mouth of the Cape Fear River during the Civil War.
The Smith-McDowell House is a c. 1840 brick mansion located in Asheville, North Carolina. It is one of the "finest antebellum buildings in Western North Carolina." Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it was the first mansion built in Asheville and is the oldest surviving brick structure in Buncombe County. Since October, 2023, the building is home to Asheville Museum of History.
The McFaddin–Ward House is a historic home in Beaumont, Texas, United States built in 1905 1906 in the Beaux-Arts Colonial Revival style. The 12,800-square-foot (1,190 m2) house and furnishings reflect the lifestyle of the prominent family who lived in the house for seventy-five years. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.
Nottoway Plantation, also known as Nottoway Plantation House is located near White Castle, Louisiana, United States. The plantation house is a Greek Revival- and Italianate-styled mansion built by enslaved African people and artisans for John Hampden Randolph in 1859, and is the largest extant antebellum plantation house in the South with 53,000 square feet (4,900 m2) of floor space.
Formerly called the Doctor Holladay House, the Holladay House in Orange, Virginia is on the nationally recognized Journey Through Hallowed Ground. Named for Dr. Lewis Holladay, a prominent Virginia physician, the Holladay House has witnessed almost two centuries of American history. The building is historically significant because it is one of only a few antebellum structures still standing in Orange, Virginia.
Lochinvar is an antebellum plantation house near Pontotoc, Mississippi built by Robert Gordon c. 1836. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Walter E. Hoffman United States Courthouse, formerly known as the U.S. Post Office and Courthouse, is a courthouse of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Norfolk, Virginia. Built in 1932, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984, reflecting Art Deco architecture. Historically it served as a courthouse and additionally as a post office.
The William Barret House, located at 15 South 5th Street, Richmond, Virginia, is a mid-19th-century house, and has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1972.
Seven Springs, situated on the Mehixen Swamp near the Pamunkey River in upper King William County, Virginia, is an historic home. Set in rolling farm country near the town of Manquin, the property lies within a community rich in colonial, revolutionary, and civil war history.
Mirador is a historic home located near Greenwood, Albemarle County, Virginia. It was built in 1842 for James M. Bowen (1793–1880), and is a two-story, brick structure on a raised basement in the Federal style. It has a deck-on-hip roof capped by a Chinese Chippendale railing. The front facade features a portico with paired Tuscan order columns. The house was renovated in the 1920s by noted New York architect William Adams Delano (1874–1960), who transformed the house into a Georgian Revival mansion.
Farmington is a house near Charlottesville, in Albemarle County, Virginia, that was greatly expanded by a design by Thomas Jefferson that Jefferson executed while he was President of the United States. The original house was built in the mid-18th century for Francis Jerdone on a 1,753-acre (709 ha) property. Jerdone sold the land and house to George Divers, a friend of Jefferson, in 1785. In 1802, Divers asked Jefferson to design an expansion of the house. The house, since greatly enlarged, is now a clubhouse.
The Goodwyn-Bailey House at 2295 Old Poplar Rd. in Newnan, Georgia was built in 1835. Also known as Catalpa Plantation, it includes Greek Revival architecture. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992. The listing included five contributing buildings and one contributing site on 100 acres (40 ha).
Chamberlayne Gardens is a historic apartment complex located in Richmond, Virginia. The complex was built in 1945–1946, and consists of 52 Colonial Revival style brick buildings, attached in 16 groups. They have four building plans, are two to three stories in height and contain a total of 216 one- and two-bedroom apartments. The buildings alternate in either red or buff-colored brick, and have either a gabled slate roof or a flat roof with parapet ends capped with the original tile. The complex was designed by Norfolk architect Bernard Betzig Spigel and built under the auspices of the Federal Housing Administration.
Bernard Betzig Spigel (1895-1968) was a Richmond native who moved to Norfolk as a boy. He graduated from Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh and served in the Army Corps of Engineers during World War I. He then came home to set up an architecture practice. Spigel was known for designing theaters as well as homes, schools and businesses. In 1983, Spigel's daughter, Lucy Spigel Herman, established a scholarship that honored her father and step-mother. The Enid W. and Bernard B. Spigel Architectural Scholarship supports Virginia residents pursuing degrees in architecture, architectural history or architectural preservation.
He and Faith restored the English basement of an 1845 historic landmark house on Bute Street and opened Family Tree Antiques. They sold 18th and 19th century American and English furniture and accessories and specialized in English Silver and Brass.