Nomination Form
The capacious mansion of Janelia was completed in 1936 for correspondent and author Robert L. Pickens and his wife, Vinton L. Pickens, artist and civic leader. It was designed by Philip Smith of Smith and Walker of Boston, and is significant as one of Virginia’s latest representatives of the country house ideal fostered in England and spread to America in the late 19th century. The Loudoun County property retains many of the essential ingredients of a proper country estate—sprawling manor house, service building, and scenic vistas. With irregular massing and complex hipped roof, Janelia is a blend of the Normandy Manor style popular in the 1920s and the Modernistic tenets of the 1930s. The house is remarkably unchanged, making it a document of the life style of the affluent just prior to World War II.
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
Nomination Form
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
