Virginia Department of Historic Resources Virginia Department of Historic Resources
For additional information, read the Nomination Form PDF
VLR Listing Date 10/21/1981
NRHP Listing Date 07/08/1982
NRHP Reference Number 82004596
The Southampton County plantation of Sunnyside contains one of southeastern Virginia’s most complete groupings of domestic and farm outbuildings. The complex is scattered about an architecturally evolved main residence and includes a schoolmaster’s house, dairy, tenant’s house, smokehouse, kitchen, various sheds, and a peanut house which together maintain the village-like image that dominated a traditional Virginia plantation. The house itself began as a one-room structure built ca. 1810-11 for Joseph Pope. It was remodeled and enlarged in 1847 and again in 1870 by his son Harrison who was among the county’s most ambitious 19th-century planters. The porticoed front section, which combines Greek Revival and Italianate elements, is one of the region’s few Reconstruction-period structures with architectural pretension.
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: May 13, 2021
