White Plains
1786

White Plains is an historic farm located in on the Northern Neck of Virginia. Recently added to the National Register of Historic Places and the Virginia Landmarks Register, the farm was established by the Thornley Family in the 1700s. The current house was likely built in 1786, confirmed through dendrochronological dating, and has since been preserved by many generations of caring stewards.

The house is a significant survival of late Georgian architecture with later Colonial Revival features in King George County, Virginia. It retains the architectural integrity of its initial construction, as well as that of a careful Colonial Revival restoration campaign.

The house sits on a rise adjacent to a natural spring and small pond, which historically supplied water to the residents. The elevation change between the house and the stream was used to create a terraced formal landscape approach for the house.

The two-story, three-bay frame dwelling has a clipped gable roof, two exterior end chimneys, a small porch on the south side, and a raised English-bond basement. Dendrochronology dates the building’s construction to 1786 under Aaron Thornley, though family histories reference earlier occupations of the property.

James Quesenberry purchased the property in 1836, and undertook minor decorative changes to the house, but it remained essentially unchanged until 1940 when then-owner Alexander Walker decided to restore it according to the Colonial Revival style popular at the time. Though this did alter elements of the house, the restoration was respectful of the extant material and created a significant example of the Colonial Revival style, which had gained popularity in the late 19thand early 20thcenturies.

The property includes a contributing smokehouse, garage/studio, secondary residence, spring house, pool and pool house foundations, cemetery, and archaeological site, as well as non-contributing resources including a gazebo and several poultry houses.

The house’s Colonial Revival elements were added during a restoration in the 1940s, notably carried out with a strong sense of preservation that appears to have “colonialized” relatively little of the existing historic fabric and instead ensured its continued preservation and use.