Thomas Jefferson’s vision of a prosperous agrarian republic with landowners occupying modest but sophisticated classical villas is given tangible expression at Westend, one of the landmarks of the Green Springs Historic District in Louisa County. Employing the Palladian format of a porticoed center section with one-story wings, a design admired by Jefferson, the house was completed in 1849 for Susan Dabney Morris Watson, widow of Dr. James Watson of Bracketts, a neighboring plantation. The contractor was James Magruder. The academic correctness of the classical details is probably due to Malcolm F. Crawford, a master carpenter who became literate in the Roman orders while employed at the University of Virginia. Both wings were originally fronted by orangeries. The house and its formally positioned outbuildings are the nucleus of a 600-acre farm. Westend remained in the ownership of Watson descendants at the end of the 20th century.
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