Surrounded by spacious, park-like grounds, Village View is the city of Emporia’s outstanding example of Federal architecture. The imposing house features a refined main stair, richly ornamented mantels, and unusual scrollwork decoration in the main entry fanlight and sidelights. Village View was built in the 1790s for James Wall, member of a prominent local family. It was purchased in the 1820s from Wall’s heirs by Nathaniel Land who made improvements to the house prior to his marriage to Maria Pendleton Woodlief in 1830. The house served as a Confederate headquarters during the Civil War; generals W. H. F. Lee, Wade Hampton, and Matthew Butler met in the parlor. After the war William Henry Briggs operated a boys’ academy on the property. In 1986 Village View was donated by the Briggs family to the Village View Foundation, which has since restored the house for public exhibition and use.