Waverly is a historic home and farm located near Burnt Chimney,

Franklin County, Virginia Franklin County is a county located in the Blue Ridge foothills of the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 54,477. Its county seat is Rocky Mount. Franklin County is part of the Roanoke metro ...

. It was built beginning about 1853 for Armistead Lewis Burwell (1809-1883) and his family, who inherited it (or received it as a dowry) from the parents of his wife, Mary Hix (1811-1895). Descended from the

First Families of Virginia The First Families of Virginia, or FFV, are a group of early settler families who became a socially and politically dominant group in the British Colony of Virginia and later the Commonwealth of Virginia. They descend from European colonists who ...

, Armistead L. Burwell operated a tobacco and grain plantation of about 350 improved acres using enslaved labor, and also had a chewing tobacco factory, gristmill and sawmill by 1860 (probably also operated by some of his 37 slaves per that year's federal census). His son William A. Burwell (1836-1882) ran the factory and bought the plantation from his father in 1864, and sold it in 1868 to his younger brother John Spotswood Burwell (1846-1926, a Confederate drummer during the war) who operated a dairy farm until after the turn of the century. an
''Accompanying photo''
/ref> The two-story frame house has a central passage plan, and reflects the

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. Approximately 52 feet by 38 feet in size, it sits on a brick foundation. The property also includes a contributing meathouse and a foundation,

icehouse Icehouse or ice house may refer to: * Ice house (building), a building where ice is stored * Ice shanty, a shelter for ice fishing also known as an ''Icehouse'' * Ice rink, a facility for ice skating. * Ice hockey arena, an area where ice hockey i ...

ruins, and the remains of the 19th century landscaping.vaNRHPnom It 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 1996.

References

Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia Houses completed in 1858 Greek Revival houses in Virginia Houses in Franklin County, Virginia National Register of Historic Places in Franklin County, Virginia Burwell family (Virginia) {{FranklinCountyVA-NRHP-stub