Virginia Department of Historic Resources Virginia Department of Historic Resources
For additional information, read the Nomination Form PDF
VLR Listing Date 09/21/2017
NRHP Listing Date 02/12/2018
NRHP Reference Number SG100002133
Dewberry Hill began as a one-story-with-garret house, built in the 18th or early 19th century. In the late 1860s, Dr. Thomas Herndon Miles and his wife, Lucie L. Palmer Miles, added a two-story, sophisticated Italianate house to the front of the original dwelling and developed the property into a prosperous tobacco farm. Dr. Miles studied at New York University in the 1840s and became a respiratory specialist. Advertising his services in regional newspapers, he received patients in an office erected on the front yard. The builder of Dewberry Hill is unknown, although local African American carpenter Leander Cunningham may have been involved. An elaborately scrolled stair newel was likely acquired from the workshop of African American cabinetmaker and finish carpenter Thomas Day in nearby Milton, North Carolina. Later owners included Dr. William M. Palmer and the Wilson, Dewberry, and Adams families.
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 10, 2021
