The Charles Irving Thornton tombstone in the Thornton family cemetery at Oak Hill in Cumberland State Forest is the only tangible reminder of Charles Dickens’s visit to the Commonwealth during his tour of the United States in 1842. Already regarded as a major literary figure, the author, as a favor for a Thornton family friend, penned the stone’s lengthy and poignant inscription to commemorate the death of the Thornton infant in 1842. The inscription on the simple stone begins: “THIS IS THE GRAVE of a little Child whom God in his goodness called to a Bright Eternity when he was very young.” Only one other Dickens epitaph is known, that of his sister-in-law, making the Thornton inscription an especially interesting work of this towering literary figure and unique among his American writings.
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