Virginia Department of Historic Resources Virginia Department of Historic Resources
For additional information, read the Nomination Form PDF
VLR Listing Date 09/17/1974
NRHP Listing Date 07/16/1976
DHR's Virginia Board of Historic Resources easement
NRHP Reference Number 76002122
Atop a bluff overlooking the James River opposite Jamestown Island, Pleasant Point illustrates the formality found in many of Virginia’s lesser colonial seats. The Surry County complex consists of a compact story-and-a-half, brick-ended manor house flanked by the perpendicularly set laundry and reconstructed kitchen. A smokehouse and dairy on the river side define a symmetrical forecourt. A series of five terraces leads down to the James. The buildings and terracing form a unified piece, probably accomplished ca. 1735-45 during the ownership of Benjamin Edwards, sheriff of Surry County. Pleasant Point was included in a 1624 grant to George Sandys, treasurer of the Virginia Company, who upon his return to England ca. 1628 gained famed as a poet and translator of classical literature. Archaeological investigation at Pleasant Point may reveal the sites of Sandys’s paled fort and other buildings known to have existed here.
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 24, 2022
