White Plains in King George County was built in 1786. This late-Georgian, early-Federal residence, with its restrained mid-20th-century Colonial Revival enhancements, is illustrative of three styles central to Virginia architectural history. Aaron Thornley, its first owner, served as surveyor of King George County and inspector at Gibson’s Warehouse, later Port Conway, making Thornley a player in the early colonial-era settlement of the county. The property is also significant for the well-documented work enslaved persons of African descent executed there from the 1780s until the early 1860s. The house’s Colonial Revival elements were added during a restoration in the 1940s, notably carried out with a strong sense of preservation that appears to have “colonialized” relatively little of the existing historic fabric, and instead ensured its continued preservation and use.
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