Fort Chiswell Mansion was built for two brothers, Stephen McGavock and Joseph Cloyd McGavock, overlooking the McGavocks’ original Wythe County homestead, since destroyed. The McGavocks were early settlers of the area and acquired large tracts of land. Their first home was at Fort Chiswell, a defense post on the Great Wilderness Road. Here they maintained a commercial establishment serving the many pioneers moving west. In 1839 the two McGavock brothers contracted with Lorain Thorn and James Johnson to build this brick house on a bluff above the Fort Chiswell settlement. The provincially interpreted Classical Revival structure has a two-column portico and paired semi-exterior end chimneys, between which on either end is a large Palladian attic window. A series of brick service buildings remains; the McGavock Family Cemetery sits atop a nearby hill. The imposing dwelling long served to signal the importance of the McGavocks to area newcomers, and this prominently sited landmark today overlooks Interstate 81.
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