Westover is perhaps the nation’s premier example of colonial Georgian architecture as well as one of Virginia’s earliest and grandest plantation mansions. It was built ca. 1730 by William Byrd II, who helped survey the Virginia-North Carolina border and founded the city of Richmond. Westover’s stately air, graceful proportions, pedimented entrances, and paneled interiors have come to symbolize the high level of architectural quality attained during the colonial era. Complementing the house are original gardens and outbuildings as well as English wrought-iron gates. The Charles City County plantation remained in the Byrd family until 1817. In 1899 it was purchased by Mrs. Clarise Sears Ramsey, who engaged the New York restoration architect William H. Mesereau to modernize the house and to add the hyphens. Mesereau also designed the library dependency, built on the site of Byrd’s library and destroyed during the 1862 Union occupation.
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