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.
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