Nomination Form
The original section of the patrician homestead of Wood Park in Orange County was built ca. 1799 for Baldwin Taliaferro. The weatherboarded structure is hugged by brick end chimneys and topped by a hipped roof with a distinctive pedimented cross gable. The Wood Park property was purchased in 1849 by Col. George Willis. Col. Willis and his wife Sallie Innes Smith Willis were wealthy and well-connected in Virginia society. Their prosperity was displayed in the ballroom wing they added in the 1850s. The wing exhibits exotic overtones in the Gothic and Moorish wooden filigree details of its veranda. The walls of the ballroom were once decorated with trompe l’oeil paintings but these have been removed. Wood Park has remained in the Willis family, but stood unoccupied for several decades until 1979, when repairs were undertaken.
[VLR Listed Only]
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
Nomination Form
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
