Virginia Department of Historic Resources Virginia Department of Historic Resources
For additional information, read the Nomination Form PDF
VLR Listing Date 09/11/2002
NRHP Listing Date 11/21/2002
NRHP Reference Number 02001370
The Walter McDonald Sanders House is situated on College Avenue, formerly the Cumberland-Fincastle Turnpike, in the town of Bluefield. It is a large, fashionable, brick Queen Anne-style house, completed in 1896. Its complicated geometry and fine decorative detailing indicate the trappings of financial success in the late-Victorian period. A limestone springhouse, small frame dwelling, smokehouse, and granary are of the same period as the house. These buildings, on a two-acre parcel, are all that is left of a 3,000-acre farm that the Sanders family operated. The remaining property is today surrounded by commercial development and skirted by the four-lane U.S. Route 460 bypass. The Graham Historical Society is restoring the house for use as a museum and community center.
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 26, 2021
