Nomination Form
The original portion of the substantial frame house of Farmington was built between 1795 and 1798 by Josiah Ryland, member of one of the area’s landed families. His son, John N. Ryland, substantially enlarged and remodeled the King & Queen County house in the Italianate style in 1859-60, leaving little trace of the former appearance. The remodeling is well documented in Ryland’s letters to his wife. Ryland had a highly diversified farming operation at Farmington, maintaining 900 acres in cultivation. In 1864 Union troops under Gen. Philip Sheridan ransacked the house and made off with livestock and foodstuffs. The property left the Ryland family in 1909 but was purchased by John N. Ryland’s grandson in 1928 and has remained in the family to the present. On the Farmington property are several early outbuildings including a weaving house and a rare antebellum Tidewater braced-frame barn. The house underwent extensive restoration in 1993.
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
