Virginia Department of Historic Resources Virginia Department of Historic Resources
For additional information, read the Nomination Form PDF
VLR Listing Date 09/14/1998
NRHP Listing Date 06/06/2002
NRHP Reference Number 02000624
The Burwell-Holland House in Franklin County was built in 1798 as the home of Colonel Lewis Burwell, originally of Mecklenburg County and the James River plantation family of Kingsmill. Once part of a 3,000-acre tobacco plantation, the nominated 26-acre parcel remains a working tobacco and dairy farm in the rural community of Glade Hill. Eight 19th- and 20th-century outbuildings, including a log blacksmith shop and smokehouse, surround the original two-story, four-room, center-passage-plan, Federal-style house. The house exemplifies the type of dwelling built by large Tidewater plantation owners during westward expansion of land grant holdings after the Revolutionary War. Burwell served as a member of the Virginia General Assembly, as the first congressman from Franklin County, as a personal secretary to Thomas Jefferson, and as a trustee to supervise the establishment of the new courthouse town of Rocky Mount (then Mount Pleasant). In 1850, Burwell’s neighbor Thomas J. Holland purchased the property. The Holland family, which still occupied the Burwell-Holland House at the time of its listing, renovated and made additions to it in 1976.
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 11, 2022
