Dewberry Hill 6
This is a creative commons image, which you may freely use by linking to this page. Please respect the photographer and his work.
The Dewberry House (a set of 9 photos) in Halifax County, Virginia, is a recent addition to the National Register of Historic Places, listed on February 13, 2018 with ID #100002133. The Virginia Department of Historic Resources ID is DHR ID# 041-5064. The structure began in the early 19th or late 18th century as a story and a half log building with a garret, a gable roof and 2 exterior stone chimneys. This part of the home is still extant, located to the rear of the present main structure. It grew into a 2-story frame home, a mixture of Italianate and Greek Revival styles. This occurred in the late 1860s (according to the National Register nomination form) or in the 1850s according to the 2016 book (pages 159-160) An Architectural History of Halifax County, Virginia assembled by the Halifax County Historical Society. The date discrepancy seems to be based on the reading and understanding of tax assessment records from those time periods.
This larger portion is connected to the original log portion by an enclosed hyphen, or a structural unit that connects two larger building elements [Hyphen is my new architectural word for the month!] This mid-19th century portion is one-room deep with a central hall. The hip roof is shallow pitched, and the building has 2 exterior brick chimneys. The roof has a wide overhang with large brackets that in turn have acorn pendants (not present in the porch roof brackets); the brackets are evenly positioned between recessed rectangular panels on the fascia board. The double porch as added in 2014, a replication of the original. The roof is supported by square columns; the spaces between columns have sawn brackets with a leaf pattern. The second level balustrade also has balusters, which are square and interrupted by panels showing the acorn motif.
The entrances for both floors are the original. The door surrounds feature narrow pilasters which are topped with brackets. The wooden double doors on the first level have sidelights with a pattern of small and large colored panes; below the sidelights are recessed panels. The double door itself has a pattern of recessed panels. The full transom on the first level echoes the pattern horizontally of the sidelights. The door on the second level is single leaf, and the sidelights appear to consist of vertical rectangular panes of equal size. The front facade has four windows; there are no windows on either side of the main building. I don't know about the rear facade of the house. The surrounds are narrow and chamfered or faceted (that is, portions are recessed); the lintels are capped. The wood-sash windows are 8 over 8 panes. At the corners of the facades are corner boards, also faceted. On the southern facade is a 1-story shed-roof porch. Both of my sources of information discuss the interior architectural features, particularly the S-shaped newel to the staircase; it is attributed to the workshop of Thomas Day, the well-known African-American furniture maker, who lived in nearby Caswell County, North Carolina.
The 8th image in this series shows Dewberry Hill across a field from Olive Branch Methodist Church. The 9th and last image depicts a small orchard on the north side of the house.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
Dewberry Hill 6
This is a creative commons image, which you may freely use by linking to this page. Please respect the photographer and his work.
The Dewberry House (a set of 9 photos) in Halifax County, Virginia, is a recent addition to the National Register of Historic Places, listed on February 13, 2018 with ID #100002133. The Virginia Department of Historic Resources ID is DHR ID# 041-5064. The structure began in the early 19th or late 18th century as a story and a half log building with a garret, a gable roof and 2 exterior stone chimneys. This part of the home is still extant, located to the rear of the present main structure. It grew into a 2-story frame home, a mixture of Italianate and Greek Revival styles. This occurred in the late 1860s (according to the National Register nomination form) or in the 1850s according to the 2016 book (pages 159-160) An Architectural History of Halifax County, Virginia assembled by the Halifax County Historical Society. The date discrepancy seems to be based on the reading and understanding of tax assessment records from those time periods.
This larger portion is connected to the original log portion by an enclosed hyphen, or a structural unit that connects two larger building elements [Hyphen is my new architectural word for the month!] This mid-19th century portion is one-room deep with a central hall. The hip roof is shallow pitched, and the building has 2 exterior brick chimneys. The roof has a wide overhang with large brackets that in turn have acorn pendants (not present in the porch roof brackets); the brackets are evenly positioned between recessed rectangular panels on the fascia board. The double porch as added in 2014, a replication of the original. The roof is supported by square columns; the spaces between columns have sawn brackets with a leaf pattern. The second level balustrade also has balusters, which are square and interrupted by panels showing the acorn motif.
The entrances for both floors are the original. The door surrounds feature narrow pilasters which are topped with brackets. The wooden double doors on the first level have sidelights with a pattern of small and large colored panes; below the sidelights are recessed panels. The double door itself has a pattern of recessed panels. The full transom on the first level echoes the pattern horizontally of the sidelights. The door on the second level is single leaf, and the sidelights appear to consist of vertical rectangular panes of equal size. The front facade has four windows; there are no windows on either side of the main building. I don't know about the rear facade of the house. The surrounds are narrow and chamfered or faceted (that is, portions are recessed); the lintels are capped. The wood-sash windows are 8 over 8 panes. At the corners of the facades are corner boards, also faceted. On the southern facade is a 1-story shed-roof porch. Both of my sources of information discuss the interior architectural features, particularly the S-shaped newel to the staircase; it is attributed to the workshop of Thomas Day, the well-known African-American furniture maker, who lived in nearby Caswell County, North Carolina.
The 8th image in this series shows Dewberry Hill across a field from Olive Branch Methodist Church. The 9th and last image depicts a small orchard on the north side of the house.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License