Virginia Department of Historic Resources Virginia Department of Historic Resources
For additional information, read the Nomination Form PDF
VLR Listing Date 09/17/2020
NRHP Listing Date 11/18/2020
NRHP Reference Number SG100005801
Located in the Sinking Creek Valley of Craig County, Bellevue is a Federal-style, two-story brick house updated in the Victorian style around 1900. It is the only antebellum brick house to survive in the county and possibly the only one ever built. The house was constructed for merchant Robert Wiley about 1833. His son, Dr. Oscar Wiley, practiced medicine in a circa-1860 Greek Revival office in the front yard. In the late 1800s, Scottish-born livestock breeder Thomas Bonar Neilson owned the farm and reportedly in 1893 kept there “the largest flock of Shropshiredown sheep in the State.” The house features Flemish- and common-bond brick construction, and Federal-style detail consistent with the finer houses of the 1810s to 1830s period, the heyday of the style’s popularity in western Virginia. The circa-1900 decorative front porch exhibits exceptional Victorian-era carpentry and millwork. In addition to a cemetery and the foundation for a building of unknown function (possibly a store), the property also features a bunker-like potato storage cellar and a pyramidal-roofed icehouse with sawdust-insulated walls, both constructed during the first quarter of the 20th century.
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: October 22, 2021
