Overlooking Poplar Lawn Park, the William McKenney House is Petersburg’s most extravagant example of the Queen Anne style. Designed by Maj. Harrison Waite, the city’s leading architect of the time, the twenty-three-room mansion was completed in 1890. The finely articulated façade is dominated by a three-story circular tower with a conical roof. Inside is a rich display of Victorian artistry: elaborately carved woodwork in oak, cherry, and mahogany; a built-in china press and sideboard; and ten fireplaces, six of which are decorated with Italian tiles. Many of the original plumbing fixtures and combination gas-electric light fixtures remain. Commissioned by William McKenney, a prosperous Petersburg attorney, the house was later owned by David Dunlop, III, a tobacco manufacturer. William Totty, a luggage manufacturer, also once lived here. A recent restoration has returned the William McKenney House’s former splendor.
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
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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