Virginia Department of Historic Resources Virginia Department of Historic Resources
For additional information, read the Nomination Form PDF
VLR Listing Date 03/13/2002
NRHP Listing Date 05/30/2002
NRHP Reference Number 02000586
Monte Verde was begun in 1815 by Captain Joseph Janey when he built a two-story frame house with a center-hall plan. The house is situated on a high ridge facing the Rappahannock River in Essex County. Janey gave the name Monte Verde to his house and plantation when it was fashionable to give Italian names to Virginia plantations, such as Monticello and Monte Bello. A remarkably high percentage of the original architectural fabric of both the interior and exterior survives, including early features in both the attic and the cellar. The Federal woodwork on the interior includes high-style Adam mantels with colonnettes, and there is a Cold War-era bomb shelter under the back porch. Changes made to the house over time have been sympathetic and carefully done. An antebellum one-story wing at the southeast end of the house and a one-story wing added to the northwest end of Monte Verde in 1958 repeat the English bond brick foundation and the beaded weatherboards of the 1815 house.
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
Updated: February 1, 2022
