Virginia Department of Historic Resources Virginia Department of Historic Resources
For additional information, read the Nomination Form PDF
VLR Listing Date 02/20/1973
NRHP Listing Date 07/02/1973
NRHP Reference Number 73002035
The brick dwelling of Grassdale, embellished with a festive bracketed cornice and veranda, is one of Virginia’s very few fully-developed Italianate country houses built before the Civil War. Such houses are relatively common in northern states, but Virginia’s economic and political uncertainty, as well as conservative tendencies, inhibited the construction of plantation houses in the period’s prevailing taste. Grassdale was completed in 1861 for James Maury Morris, Jr., and is an important architectural component of Louisa County’s Green Springs Historic District. The house shows the influence of the numerous designs for rural seats appearing in popular architectural pattern books of the period. Handsomely preserved and little-altered, Grassdale is situated to take advantage of a view across broad, gently sloping pastures. Immediately around the house is a park of large old oak trees.
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: April 15, 2022
