The National Road was the first major improved highway in the United States built by the federal government. Built between 1811 and 1837, the 620-mile (1,000 km) road connected the Potomac and Ohio Rivers and was a main transport path to the West for thousands of settlers. When improved in the 1830s, it became the second U.S. road surfaced with the macadam process pioneered by Scotsman John Loudon McAdam.
The Fan is a district of Richmond, Virginia, so named because of the "fan" shape of the array of streets that extend west from Belvidere Street, on the eastern edge of Monroe Park, westward to Arthur Ashe Boulevard. However, the streets rapidly resemble a grid after they go through what is now Virginia Commonwealth University. The Fan is one of the easterly points of the city's West End section, and is bordered to the north by Broad Street and to the south by VA 195, although the Fan District Association considers the southern border to be the properties abutting the south side of Main Street. The western side is sometimes called the Upper Fan and the eastern side the Lower Fan, though confusingly the Uptown district is located near VCU in the Lower Fan. Many cafes and locally owned restaurants are located here, as well as historic Monument Avenue, a boulevard formerly featuring statuary of the Civil War's Confederate president and generals. The only current statue is a more modern one of tennis icon Arthur Ashe. Development of the Fan district was strongly influenced by the City Beautiful movement of the late 19th century.
West Virginia Independence Hall is a historic government building at 1528 Market Street in downtown Wheeling, West Virginia, United States. It was built in 1860 under the supervision of architect Ammi B. Young for the federal government as a custom house, post office and courthouse. It is architecturally significant for its innovative uses of wrought iron as a framing material, and is historically significant for its role in the American Civil War. It housed the Wheeling Convention (1861), as well as the West Virginia Constitutional Convention (1863), which resulted in the separation of Unionist West Virginia from Confederate Virginia. This made it the only state to secede from a Confederate state during the war. The building was originally built as the custom house for the Western District of Virginia, and later became the center of government for the Restored Government of Virginia from 1861 to 1863, with Francis H. Pierpont serving as its governor. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1988. The building is now a state-run museum, housing exhibits on West Virginia history.
The Davis and Elkins Historic District is a National Historic Landmark District on the campus of Davis & Elkins College in Elkins, West Virginia. It includes two mansions, the Senator Stephen Benton Elkins House (Halliehurst) and Graceland, that are separately listed on the National Register of Historic Places. A gate house and an ice house are also included in the district. These four structures are associated with the families of Henry Gassaway Davis (1823-1916) and Stephen Benton Elkins (1841-1911), who were dominating figures in the politics and economy of West Virginia in the late 19th century. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1998.
Ridgedale is a 19th-century Greek Revival plantation house and farm on a plateau overlooking the South Branch Potomac River north of Romney, West Virginia, United States. The populated area adjacent to Washington Bottom Farm is known as Ridgedale. The farm is connected to West Virginia Route 28 via Washington Bottom Road.
Camden is an Italian Villa-style house on the Rappahannock River just downriver of Port Royal, Virginia. Built 1857–1859, it is one of the nation's finest examples of an Italianate country house. It is located on the southeast bank of the Rappahannock River, about 0.5 miles (0.80 km) north of the intersection of Camden Road and United States Route 17. Camden was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1971 for its architecture.
Hazelfield, located near Shenandoah Junction, West Virginia is a historic farm, whose principal residence was built in 1815 for Ann Stephen Dandridge Hunter.
Altona, near Charles Town, West Virginia, is a historic farm with an extensive set of subsidiary buildings. The original Federal style plantation house was built in 1793 by Revolutionary War officer Abraham Davenport on land purchased from Charles Washington. The house was expanded by Abraham's son, Colonel Braxton Davenport. During the Civil War the farm was a favored encampment. Generals Philip Sheridan and Ulysses S. Grant both used the house as a headquarters and meeting place.
Beverley, also known as Bullskin, is a farm near Charles Town, West Virginia that has been a working agricultural unit since 1750. The narrow lane that leads from U.S. Route 340 to the Beverley complex was, in the 18th and 19th centuries a toll road. The main house was built about 1800 by Beverley Whiting on the site of a c. 1760 stone house. The house is Georgian influenced Federal style, with a later Greek Revival portico. A number of outbuildings dating to the original 1760 house accompany the main house.
Morgan's Grove is a rural historic district near Shepherdstown, West Virginia. The area is noted for its abundant springs. Several historic houses and farms are in the district, including:
Media Farm is a farm complex near Charles Town, West Virginia that dates to 1780, and has remained in the same family ever since. The property was acquired by Charles Yates, an English immigrant, from Thomas Rutherford. In the twentieth century, author Julia McDonald Davis spent her childhood summers at the farm. Her father, who visited the farm frequently, was lawyer, diplomat and presidential candidate John W. Davis.
The Lee-Longsworth House in Bolivar, West Virginia, is an example of the transition from Georgian style architecture to the Federal style. It preserves significant features of interior woodwork, and is associated with the Lee family of Virginia. The property was in 1799 leased by its then owner, Thomas Wilson, to the US Government. At some point after that time, the property was purchased by Richard B. Lee, his wife Elizabeth, Edmond I. Lee and Walton Jones to Ferdinando Fairfax for $3000, subject to the government lease.
Cool Spring Farm, located near Charles Town, West Virginia was first established along Bullskin Run around 1750. The Federal style second house on the property, built in 1813, is extant, with a Greek Revival–influenced third house, built in 1832 that shows the evolution of the farmstead. The farm is significant as an example of agricultural development in the Bullskin Run district and as examples of Greek Revival and Federal style vernacular design.
The Allstadt House and Ordinary was built about 1790 on land owned by the Lee family near Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, including Phillip Ludwell Lee, Richard Bland Lee and Henry Lee III. The house at the crossroads was sold to the Jacob Allstadt family of Berks County, Pennsylvania in 1811. Allstadt operated an ordinary in the house, and a tollgate on the Harpers Ferry-Charles Town Turnpike, while he resided farther down the road in a stone house. The house was enlarged by the Allstadts c. 1830. The house remained in the family until the death of John Thomas Allstadt in 1923, the last survivor of John Brown's Raid.
The Shepherdstown Historic District comprises the historic core of Shepherdstown, West Virginia. The town is the oldest in West Virginia, founded in 1762 as Mecklenburg. No structures are known to exist from the time before the town became known as Shepherdstown. The historic district is concentrated along German Street, the main street, with 386 contributing resources and 69 non-contributing elements. The chief representative period is the late 18th century, with many Federal style brick houses. German Street is also furnished with 19th-century "street furniture" such as metal fences, mounting blocks, wooden pumps and mature trees.
The Old Appomattox Court House is a former county court house within the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park. In the 1800s this structure gave the surrounding village the name Appomattox Court House. The 1865 surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia on April 9 at the nearby McLean House by General Robert E. Lee to General Ulysses S. Grant commenced the conclusion of the American Civil War that finalized with the surrender of the Shenandoah on November 6, 1865.
The Appomattox Court House National Historical Park ruins are part of the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park, Virginia, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966.
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.
Miller–Pence Farm is a historic home and farm located near Greenville, Monroe County, West Virginia. The main farmhouse was built in 1828, with five modifications through 1910. It began as a two-story Federal style brick home on a coursed rubble foundation. A two-story addition dated to the 1880s, with a cut stone foundation, has board-and-batten siding, evoking the Carpenter Gothic architectural style. Also on the property are a former slave school, second school, three barns, tractor shed, equipment shed, corn crib and ruins of Miller's Frontier House, spring box, original road cut, and the Miller-Halstead Cemetery.
Henderson Hall Historic District is a National Register of Historic Places (NRHP)-listed historic district in Boaz, Wood County, West Virginia. The primary contributing property is Henderson Hall, a home in the Italianate style from the first half of the 19th century. Other residences at the site are a tenant house from the end of the 19th century, and "Woodhaven", the 1877 home of Henry Clay Henderson. Additional structures include a smokehouse, two corn cribs, a carriage barn that also served as a schoolhouse, a scale house used for storing agricultural equipment, and two barns. Also included within the district are the 19th-century Henderson family cemetery, a wall, a mounting block, and three mounds associated with the pre-Columbian Adena culture.
