Virginia Department of Historic Resources Virginia Department of Historic Resources
For additional information, read the Nomination Form PDF
VLR Listing Date 09/15/1981
NRHP Listing Date 02/10/1983
NRHP Reference Number 83003281
On the edge of a cliff, the rugged country house known as Melrose is an important expression of the castellated mode of the mid-19th-century Gothic Revival. Constructed between 1857 and 1860, the Fauquier county house was designed by Edmund George Lind who was born and trained in England. Lind established his practice in Baltimore in 1856. Melrose was commissioned by Dr. James H. Murray of Maryland for a large farm purchased in 1856. He named it for Melrose Abbey in Scotland which he claimed as an ancestral home. With its battlemented stone walls, central tower, and dramatic siting, Melrose illustrates the impact on southern landed families of the 19th-century romantic movement, especially the medievalism popularized by the novels of Sir Walter Scott. Melrose Castle was occupied by Federal troops in 1862 during the Civil War battle of Auburn. More recently it served as the inspiration for Mary Roberts Rinehart’s mystery The Circular Staircase.
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: June 3, 2021
