Erected in 1725 for Francis Thelabell II, the visually engaging Wishart-Boush House (now known as the Lynnhaven House) in Virginia Beach is a rare surviving example of the type of house favored by prosperous farmers immediately before colonial Virginia’s Golden Age. With its irregularly spaced openings, exposed rafter ends, hall-parlor plan, and massive chimneys, the house is a holdover of English vernacular traditions of the 17th century. The survival of many of the interior features, most notably the closed-string Jacobean-type stair and molded ceiling joists, makes Lynnhaven House particularly instructive. Long known as the Wishart-Boush House, the present name is a modern one, derived from the nearby Lynnhaven River. Following years of neglect, the house was donated in 1971 by the Oliver family to the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities (now Preservation Virginia). After a painstaking restoration in the late 20th century, the Lynnhaven House was converted into a museum.

The Lynnhaven House, originally known erroneously as the Wishart-Boush House, was first listed in the National Register in 1969.  An updated nomination was approved in 2025 which corrected errors and omissions in the original nomination; reduced the listed boundaries; changed the name of the property to a more historically accurate one; and provided expanded research and context to argue for its statewide level of significance. When the property was originally nominated in 1969, the boundary was a perfect square of approximately 100 acres around the historic house.  Most of that acreage has since been subdivided and developed. This nomination update reduces the listed boundaries to the remaining intact five acres around the historic building and cemetery. The Lynnhaven House is owned and operated by the City of Virginia Beach History Museums.
[VLR Approved: 12/12/2024; NRHP Approved: 4/3/2025]