Completed in 1848 for Benjamin Dickinson, a prosperous landowner, this imposing Federal-style house in the town of Jonesville is among the few early brick dwellings in Lee County. In 1851 the Dickinson-Milbourn House property was acquired by Andrew Milbourn from Dickinson’s heirs. On January 3, 1864, during the Civil War battle of Jonesville, Union troops used the house and its outbuildings for protection from Confederate attack. Much of the fighting as well as the subsequent Federal surrender took place on the property, although the house was not seriously damaged and probably served as a hospital after the battle. The two-story, center-passage dwelling is unusually sophisticated for the region and has survived with few alterations, retaining much of its original interior trim. A 19th-century brick smokehouse remains on the property. Later owners of the Dickinson-Milbourn House were Capt. Henry Joslyn, Milbourn’s son-in-law, and M. B. Wygal, grandfather of the owner at the time of the property’s listing in the registers in the early 1990s.
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
Programs
DHR has secured permanent legal protection for over 700 historic places - including 15,000 acres of battlefield lands
DHR has erected 2,532 highway markers in every county and city across Virginia
DHR has registered more than 3,317 individual resources and 613 historic districts
DHR has engaged over 450 students in 3 highway marker contests
DHR has stimulated more than $4.2 billion dollars in private investments related to historic tax credit incentives, revitalizing communities of all sizes throughout Virginia