Virginia Department of Historic Resources Virginia Department of Historic Resources
For additional information, read the Nomination Form PDF
VLR Listing Date 03/17/1999
NRHP Listing Date 12/18/1998
NRHP Reference Number 99000704
This important and well-preserved archaeological site features the remains of the 1830s “dower house” of Henry and Sarah Preston Bowyer, which later became a rear ell for their 1850s Federal-style brick house. Excavations revealed significant areas of the limestone foundation of the earlier building and the brick foundation of the later building. Other resources on the property include the Preston-Bowyer Cemetery and a standing outbuilding (pictured above). The one-story, single-pen, log outbuilding combines with an antebellum, one-room, frame addition to create a gabled, saddlebag form similar to housing for enslaved people documented in the region. Its large fireplace suggests the building may have served as a detached kitchen or secondary domestic structure. The property stayed in the Bowyer and Holladay families until 1931. The large antebellum Bowyer-Holladay House stood at the site until the early 1970s. Together the historic resources on this property remain noteworthy components of William Preston’s Greenfield, one of the largest plantations of 19th-century Botetourt County. Two of the outbuildings on the original Greenfield plantation, the Greenfield Kitchen and Quarters, have been moved to a location within the Bowyer-Holiday House site.
Many properties listed in the registers are private dwellings and are not open to the public, however many are visible from the public right-of-way. Please be respectful of owner privacy.
Abbreviations:
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark
Updated: December 7, 2021
