Whitethorne is a historic

plantation house A plantation house is the main house of a plantation, often a substantial farmhouse, which often serves as a symbol for the plantation as a whole. Plantation houses in the Southern United States and in other areas are known as quite grand and ...

located at Blacksburg,

Montgomery County, Virginia Montgomery County is a county located in the Valley and Ridge area of the U.S. state of Virginia. As population in the area increased, Montgomery County was formed in 1777 from Fincastle County, which in turn had been taken from Botetourt Cou ...

. It was built about 1855, by James Francis Preston, who received the land from his father,

Governor of Virginia The governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia is the head of government of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia. The Governor (United States), governor is head of the Government_of_Virginia#Executive_branch, executive branch ...

James Patton Preston James Patton Preston (June 21, 1774May 4, 1843) was a U.S. political figure who served as the 20th Governor of Virginia. Biography James Patton Preston was born at Smithfield Plantation, in what is now Blacksburg, Virginia. He attended the C ...

. It is a large two-story, L-shaped, five-bay-by-three-bay, brick dwelling with a shallow hipped roof in the Italian Villa style. It has

Greek Revival Greek Revival architecture is a architectural style, style that began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe, the United States, and Canada, ...

-style exterior and interior decorative elements. It features a wide, elegant, one-story, five-bay front porch supported by square columns of the

Tuscan order The Tuscan order (Latin ''Ordo Tuscanicus'' or ''Ordo Tuscanus'', with the meaning of Etruscan order) is one of the two classical orders developed by the Romans, the other being the composite order. It is influenced by the Doric order, but wit ...

. Also on the property is a contributing two-story brick office building. an
''Accompanying photo''
/ref> Preston, a graduate of the

United States Military Academy The United States Military Academy (USMA), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York that educates cadets for service as Officer_(armed_forces)#United_States, comm ...

at West Point was a lawyer by trade. He was commissioned a captain in the 1st Regiment of Virginia Volunteers at the outset of the

Mexican–American War The Mexican–American War (Spanish language, Spanish: ''guerra de Estados Unidos-México, guerra mexicano-estadounidense''), also known in the United States as the Mexican War, and in Mexico as the United States intervention in Mexico, ...

in 1846. He served in Mexico from January 16, 1847, to July 31, 1848. Upon returning home from the war he resumed his law practice. When Virginia seceded from the Union Preston commissioned into the

Virginia Militia The Virginia militia is an armed force composed of all citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia capable of bearing arms. The Virginia militia was established in 1607 as part of the English militia system. Militia service in Virginia was compulso ...

, and was subsequently transferred to the

Confederate Army The Confederate States Army (CSA), also called the Confederate army or the Southern army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fi ...

, on April 24, 1861. He was promoted to colonel in the Confederate army and became the commanding officer of the

4th Virginia Infantry The 4th Virginia Volunteer Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment raised in southwestern Virginia for service in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. It fought in the Stonewall Brigade, mostly with the Army of Norther ...

under brigade commander

Stonewall Jackson Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson (January 21, 1824 – May 10, 1863) was a Confederate general and military officer who served during the American Civil War. He played a prominent role in nearly all military engagements in the eastern the ...

. He commanded the 4th Virginia at First Manassas where he was wounded in battle. After several months of tending to his wound while in the army, including a brief two-week stint as a

brigade commander A brigade is a major tactical military unit, military formation that typically comprises three to six battalions plus supporting elements. It is roughly equivalent to an enlarged or reinforced regiment. Two or more brigades may constitute ...

, due to his failing health he was forced to resign his commission and returned home to Whitethorn. Preston did not live to see the end of the war. He died on January 20, 1862, at age 49. Whitethorne remained in the Preston family until 1889 when it was purchased by Beverly Stockton Heth, a Radford Banker and son of Chesterfield County coal mine magnate John Heth. In the early 1970s the majority of the 1,500 acre estate was sold for the Hethwood development, a planned community that includes single family homes, townhomes, apartments and a shopping center. The home and 50 acres of the property are still owned by Heth family descendants after much of the remaining farmland was sold to

Virginia Tech The Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, commonly referred to as Virginia Tech (VT), is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States ...

in 2001. Whitethorne was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1989.

References

Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia Greek Revival houses in Virginia Italianate architecture in Virginia Houses completed in 1855 Houses in Montgomery County, Virginia Buildings and structures in Blacksburg, Virginia National Register of Historic Places in Montgomery County, Virginia Brick buildings and structures in Virginia {{MontgomeryCountyVA-NRHP-stub