Virginia Department of Historic Resources Virginia Department of Historic Resources
For additional information, read the Nomination Form PDF
VLR Listing Date 10/15/1985
NRHP Listing Date 12/12/1985
NRHP Reference Number 85003350
The Greek Revival style permeated nearly every corner of antebellum America. No structure, however remote, was safe from being adorned as an ancient temple with columns and entablatures. Such predilection for classical trappings gripped John Hancock Lee and his wife, Frances Madison Willis Lee, when they commissioned a residence for their farm, originally called Buena Vista. Constructed in the 1840s by a yet-unidentified housewright, their home was embellished with a tetrasyle portico with exaggerated Ionic capitals. The portico originally had no pediment but was topped by a simple blocking course. Around 1900, the house was remodeled with the addition of a gable roof, giving the portico a steep pediment. A cross gable and rear addition were part of the remodeling. During the Civil War, Brampton, as it later came to be called, served as an observation point for Confederate Gen. J. E. B. Stuart.
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: June 14, 2021
