Virginia Department of Historic Resources Virginia Department of Historic Resources
For additional information, read the Nomination Form PDF
VLR Listing Date 04/17/1979
NRHP Listing Date 07/26/1979
NRHP Reference Number 79003047
One of southeastern Virginia’s best collections of domestic outbuildings and early farm buildings is preserved on the Isle of Wight County plantation of Four Square. The two-story, L-shaped house was built in 1807 for the Woodley family on land they had owned since the late 17th century. Its generous proportions and robust interior woodwork make the house representative of the region’s more prosperous early 19th-century homesteads. The domestic outbuildings consist of a cook house, dairy, smokehouse, and slave house. The farm buildings on the Four Square property include an early granary of log construction. The archaeological sites of a number of other subsidiary buildings remain scattered among the standing structures. A family member once described Four Square in its heyday, when all of its early buildings were standing, as being “like a busy village.”
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
