Virginia Department of Historic Resources Virginia Department of Historic Resources
For additional information, read the Nomination Form PDF
VLR Listing Date 12/04/1996
NRHP Listing Date 02/21/1997
NRHP Reference Number 97000158
Regarded as the city of Martinsville’s most impressive house, Scuffle Hill was originally built in 1905-06 for Benjamin F. Stevens, a former executive of the Liggett & Myers tobacco company. Stevens shared the house with his son-in-law and daughter, Mr. and Mrs. Pannill F. Rucker. Rucker was himself a well-to-do local tobacco manufacturer. The twenty-room mansion, originally called Oak Hill, burned in 1917. The surviving walls were incorporated by the Ruckers into the present house, a grand Georgian Revival work with fine interior appointments. Later occupants have included furniture executive Rives S. Brown and textile magnate Walter L. Pannill, who renamed the place Scuffle Hill. Since 1959 the house as been the Christ Episcopal Church parish house. Though no architect’s name has been associated with Scuffle Hill, the house remains an imposing local symbol of success.
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: August 22, 2022
