Virginia Department of Historic Resources Virginia Department of Historic Resources
For additional information, read the Nomination Form PDF
VLR Listing Date 09/10/2003
NRHP Listing Date 08/11/2004
NRHP Reference Number 04000858
Recoleta is a Spanish Colonial Revival house built in 1940 for University of Virginia music professor Harry Rogers Pratt and his wife, Agnes Edwards Rothery Pratt, a prolific writer of travel books. She also wrote three books on her adopted home of Virginia: Houses Virginians Have Loved, New Roads in Old Virginia, and A Fitting Habitation. The last book reveals the sophisticated design process behind Recoleta’s creation. The house was modeled on South American courtyard houses the Pratts had admired on their travels, but it also incorporated such influences as California Mission-style designs and Scandinavian folk architecture. The Pratts retained Charlottesville architect Charles Benjamin Baker, who designed for them a two-story house of cinder-block construction painted to simulate aged stucco. A red tile roof, a garden front with patio and loggias, rounded corner fireplaces, and wooden, stone, and wrought-iron architectural ornaments collected abroad add to the house’s charm.
Abbreviations:
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark
Updated: April 4, 2018
