Virginia Department of Historic Resources Virginia Department of Historic Resources
For additional information, read the Nomination Form PDF
VLR Listing Date 12/09/2021
NRHP Listing Date 03/24/2022
NRHP Reference Number SG100007571
The house called “Faodail” is the primary surviving structure of the John Craghead (Craighead) plantation, in the Moneta area of Franklin County. The two-story brick house stands on a 0.812-acre lot—part of a 730-acre parcel along the Roanoke River granted to John Craighead and Thomas Camp in 1794 by Governor Robert Brooke—carved out and saved from the 1990s development of The Waterfront community at Smith Mountain Lake. A well-preserved vernacular Federal-style farmhouse built around 1825, the house’s notable features are front and rear molded brick cornices supporting the roof eaves. Its interior, comprised of a two-over-two-room plan without a passage, is also exceptionally well-preserved with original woodwork, pine floors and plaster walls. Decades before the house withstood the threat of demolition for lakeside development, it was barely spared by the creation of Smith Mountain Lake. Much of the historic setting of the plantation is now inundated by the lake, an impoundment of the Blackwater and Roanoke rivers behind a hydroelectric dam completed in 1963. The lake covers 32 square miles, submerging numerous historic farms and small communities in Franklin, Bedford and Pittsylvania counties. The Craghead House now ranks among the few surviving antebellum brick buildings within the vast area surrounding the lake.
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: March 31, 2022
