Pembroke Manor is a fine example of formal Georgian architecture built in Princess Anne County (now the City of Virginia Beach) in 1764 for Capt. Jonathan Saunders and his wife, Elizabeth Thoroughgood Saunders. During the Revolutionary War, the state confiscated the Pembroke property from Saunders’s son, John, because he remained an avowed loyalist. Pembroke Manor is related architecturally to such formal mid-18th-century mansions as Carter’s Grove, Wilton, Elsing Green, and especially the George Wythe House, which Pembroke closely resembles. It was long overlooked by architectural scholars because the exterior for years was hidden by surrounding two-story galleries. Despite some later interior alterations, the colonial-era wainscoting, window cases, and door frames remain. The house was given to the Princess Anne Historical Society when the farmland was developed in the 1960s. Since sold, Pembroke Manor was restored and went on to serve as a private elementary school.
Originally listed in the registers in 1970, additional documentation for Pembroke Manor was approved in 2024. The brief 1970 nomination for Pembroke Manor provided only a brief description of the exterior and interior of the house and the property’s setting. The house remains significant as a rare surviving 18th-century house in what was historically Princess Anne County (now the City of Virginia Beach). Built in 1764, the two-story brick dwelling was built in the high-style Georgian style popular during the late-Colonial period, and represents one of the many large, self-sustaining plantations that dotted the landscape of Colonial Tidewater Virginia.
[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
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