One of Virginia’s rare early 18th century gentry manor houses, the Keeling House in the city of Virginia Beach preserves the distinctive but rare decorative device of chevroning, a feature associated with pre-Georgian vernacular brick architecture. The chevrons are formed by parallel rows of glazed header bricks following the angle of the gables, made possible by the use of interior end chimneys. A dendrochronological study determined that construction of the house occurred in 1734-1735, during the ownership period of Adam Keeling. The Keeling House is at the head of a cove on the Lynnhaven River, on property originally acquired in 1635 by Adam Keeling’s immigrant great-grandfather, Thomas Keeling. The property remained in the Keeling family until 1881. Not unexpectedly for such Chesapeake regional dwellings, the entrance front has a regular five-bay façade while the rear has three irregularly spaced windows and a door. The closed-string stair and paneled parlor chimney wall are original to the house, while additional trim features appear to have been installed later in the 18th century.
Originally listed in the registers in 1973, the Keeling House is one of a handful of extant early-18th-century brick dwellings constructed in the Chesapeake region. Updated documentation was approved in 2024 that describes and evaluates all of the resources located on the Keeling House property. Some resources now on the property were added after the 1973 nomination, and the update to the nomination also addresses additions and alterations made to the house. The register boundaries of the property are better defined to match the current Keeling House parcel. The updated nomination also provides a refined date of construction determined through a dendrochronological study, and it provides an expanded historic context to include discussion of the historically enslaved population on the Keeling farm.
[VLR Approved: 12/12/2024]
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
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