Pleasant Hall is among the last of the old houses in the all but totally redeveloped village of Kempsville in the former Princess Anne County (now the city of Virginia Beach). Pleasant Hall was built in 1763 for George Logan, a Scottish merchant. An outstanding example of Virginia’s Georgian architecture, the house was used in 1775 as a headquarters for Lord Dunmore, who later wrote: “I saw Mr. Logan’s house and have never seen better in Virginia.” Logan, a loyalist, returned to Britain, whereupon Pleasant Hall escheated to the Commonwealth and eventually was sold to Peter Singleton. The formality of the exterior is carried to the interior with its exceptionally fine woodwork including a fully paneled parlor with a chimneypiece framed by pilasters in the rarely used Corinthian order. The massive king-post trusses supporting the roof are an important example of colonial carpentry. Pleasant Hall was carefully restored late in the 20th century for use as a funeral home.
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
Programs
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