Sandwich may be one of the oldest buildings in Middlesex County’s Urbanna Historic District. Built in the second half of the 18th century, the brick house sits on a bluff overlooking Urbanna Creek and the Rappahannock River. It has served as a residence for a number of individuals significant in local, regional, and national history, including Francis Makemie, founder of the organized Presbyterian Church in America; John Gordon, who helped establish the port town of Urbanna; Virginia Governor and United States Congressman Andrew Jackson Montague; and Gay Montague Moore, an early pioneer in Colonial Revival architecture and a leader in the preservation of Old Town Alexandria. Moore’s work is reflected locally in the 1930s restoration of Sandwich. Though it had not been confirmed at the time of its listing, Sandwich may also have served as the customs house in Urbanna before the Revolution—documentary descriptions of the customs house match it well—and the 1930s restoration revealed a large basement vault room and an interior window that could have served as a transaction window.
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