Barton Lodge, now known as Malvern Hall, was built between 1898 and 1900 on a hill overlooking The Homestead in the Bath County village of Hot Springs. Its original owner, Seth Barton French, was a major investor in the Virginia Hot Springs Company. In 1927, a renamed Barton Lodge became Malvern Hall, the residence of Letitia Pate Whitehead Evans, a philanthropist who was named to the board of the Coca-Cola Company after her husband’s death, making Evans one of the first women in the U.S. to serve on the board of a major American company. Bath County’s Malvern Hall is a sophisticated example of the Neo-Classical Revival style. It also incorporates early-20th-century building technology into its steel frame and features design trends popular during the latter 19th century. Evans, who died in 1953, contributed to numerous religious, educational, and charitable organizations across the South and Virginia. In 1961, the Lettie Pate Evans Foundation transferred Malvern Hall to nearby St. Luke’s Episcopal Church.
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