Westview, one of the few surviving brick dwellings in Charlotte County combining both late Federal and Greek Revival features, was built between 1831 and 1833 by John Elam. The two-story brick main block is a center-hall, two-story, single-pile dwelling with well-executed mantels, two fine stairs, and paneled doors with most of their original hardware. Its later frame rear additions are also interesting. The Westview estate’s associated buildings and sites (slave houses, tobacco barns, log schoolhouse, smokehouse, milk house, other dependencies, and cemeteries) provide a rare glimpse of life on a plantation during the 19th century. After Elam died in 1847, his widow, Martha, ran the plantation for the next quarter of a century. Their son, John W. Elam, farmed the property until his death in 1916. Tobacco continued to be raised on the Westview estate until the 1980s.
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