Avenel, also known as the William M. Burwell House, is a historic home located at

Bedford, Virginia Bedford is an incorporated town and former independent city located within Bedford County in the U.S. state of Virginia. It serves as the county seat of Bedford County. As of the 2020 census, the population was 6,657. It is part of the Lynchbur ...

and now open to the public by appointment.

History

Built about 1836, the two-story, brick dwelling displays a blend of Federal and

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but a ...

styling. It is topped by a hipped roof and has a one-story wraparound porch. Also on the property are a contributing

smokehouse A smokehouse (North American) or smokery (British) is a building where meat or fish is cured with smoke. The finished product might be stored in the building, sometimes for a year or more.

, hen house, a frame 19th-century barn, and site of a kitchen building. an
''Accompanying photo''
/ref> It and the surrounding 250 acres were operated as a plantation using enslaved labor by William M. Burwell, who Bedford County voters ten times elected as one of their representatives to the Virginia House of Delegates, and whose father

William A. Burwell William Armisted Burwell (March 15, 1780 – February 16, 1821) was a nineteenth-century Virginia politician and planter who served as presidential secretary and as a Democratic-Republican in the United States House of Representatives and th ...

had represented the area in the U.S. House of Representatives, as well as served as a private secretary for President Thomas Jefferson. Burwell's eldest daughter, Letitia M. Burwell (1831-1905) wrote two books in the

Lost Cause The Lost Cause of the Confederacy (or simply Lost Cause) is an American pseudohistorical negationist mythology that claims the cause of the Confederate States during the American Civil War was just, heroic, and not centered on slavery. Firs ...

tradition, the second, ''A Girl's Life in Virginia Before the War''. She inherited the house, and attempted to bequeath it to the children of her two married sisters, but legal problems led to the property being sold to another family. "The Lady in White" or the "White Lady of Avenel", is the most commonly reported apparition at Avenel. The apparition is thought to be Mary Frances "Fran" Burwell. "The legend has it that she stayed on the front porch waiting for her husband to come home from the Civil War, but he never did." says Adam Sutphin, founder of SouthWest Virginia Ghost Hunters.Stevens, Tiffany. 2016. "Ghosts of Avenel.
Discover History and Heritage
Roanoke Times. August 2016. Pages 82-87. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1992. It is located in the Bedford Historic District.

References

Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia Federal architecture in Virginia Greek Revival houses in Virginia Houses completed in 1836 National Register of Historic Places in Bedford, Virginia Individually listed contributing properties to historic districts on the National Register in Virginia Houses in Bedford County, Virginia Plantation houses in Virginia 1836 establishments in Virginia Burwell family of Virginia {{BedfordCityVA-NRHP-stub