On a tree-shaded hill overlooking the southern edge of the town of Orange, Berry Hill is a Jeffersonian-style house attributed to William B. Phillips and Malcolm F. Crawford, master builders employed by Thomas Jefferson during the construction of the University of Virginia. The house originally had an open portico above the arcaded ground floor and thus closely resembled Pavilion VII at the university. The portico was walled-in soon after the house was completed in 1824 for Reynolds Chapman, the county clerk. The two-story wing, however, was part of the original construction (the wing was demolished ca. 2023). Even in its altered form, the house is one of the most successful adaptations of the Jeffersonian idiom for a private residence. Although Phillips and Crawford have not been documented as having worked at Berry Hill, they were known to Chapman and were building Jeffersonian-style structures in the area at the time.
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