Nomination Form
This singular brick dwelling near Thomas Bridge in western Smyth County is Virginia’s most sophisticated representation of Orson Squire Fowler’s advocacy of octagonal architecture that caught the imagination of Americans in the reform movement of the 1850s. In his book A Home for All or the Gravel Wall and Octagon Mode of Building (1848), Fowler stated that an octagonal plan encloses one-fifth more floor area than a square of the same total length of wall and allows for more compact internal planning. Built in 1856-57 for Abijah Thomas, a Smyth County landowner and developer of mines, mills, and foundries, the house retains a variety of graining, marbleizing, and stenciling. Sections of painted ashlar on the plaster wall of one of the principal rooms may be a unique survivor in Virginia of this once popular decorative treatment. The Abijah Thomas House has been left empty and deteriorating for many years.
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
