Woodhouse House was erected circa 1810 in Princess Anne County, now known as the city of Virginia Beach. The dwelling, one of the few remaining buildings of this general form in Virginia Beach, was built in an area of the former county, south of its courthouse, which typically saw a more primitive development of domestic architecture due to the topography of the land and the high water table. The northern half of the county was developed in the 17th century, and a higher style of architecture consistent with overall developmental styles of the period evolved there. Woodhouse House, of a higher style than many of its geographical counterparts in southern Princess Anne County, exemplifies the transition of architecture from Colonial to the Federal style. The property was bought by Captain Thomas Woodhouse in 1811, and it remained in the Woodhouse family until 1849 when it passed to Andrew Simmons, who used it as a spur for amassing a relatively large landholding. The property also contains an early-20th-century kitchen and smokehouse as well as the Woodhouse and Simmons family cemeteries.
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