Homes of chuckatuck

Chuckatuck

• Brock House on Meadowlot Lane — Over 100 years old.

• Chapman-Mason Home — c1810-1830 – 2 ½ story Federal style, 132 Kings Highway

• Meador-Cannon Home — c1825-1850 – 2 ½ story Federal style, 120 Kings Highway

• Gilliam Home — The Gilliam house to the right of the Knight house was built in 1898 by Richard Claiborne Gilliam (Capt. “Busby”) and Mrs. Annie Lee Gilliam.  They were the parents of Annie, Carlyle, Ray, Mary, and also raised his 1/2 brother’s child, Oliver Gilliam.  Ray and his wife, Dot Gilliam, built a house to the right of his parents in 1916.

• Pinner Home — Over 100 years old on Route 10

• The Butts-Powell-Saunders Home — The original structure of the Butts-Powell-Saunders house was built ca. 1780-1820.  Dr. George Washington Butts bought the property at 133 Kings Highway as well as the Butts farm in Nansemond County, adjacent to the Pembroke Plantation.  He was born in Chuckatuck in 1843, the son of Edward A. and Mary Butts.  He graduated from the University of Virginia in 1860.  During the Civil War, he served with the 13th Virginia Calvary.  Dr. Butts graduated from the Medical College of Virginia in 1868.  He practiced medicine in Chuckatuck and served as Treasurer of Nansemond County at one time.  The original Chuckatuck House bought by Dr. Butts was a 1 ½ story dwelling with a side passage and two exterior chimneys.

  In 1927, Z. H. Powell, who married Dr. Butts’ daughter, Charlotte, extensively rebuilt the house in Chuckatuck and most of the out buildings as well.  The out buildings consist of a small 2 ½ room office, an outside kitchen with working fireplace, a smoke house, a workshop/woodshed and a double garage.   The remodeled 19th century house is 1 ½ stories of beaded wood construction and a detailed wrap around porch with attached carport and large basement, which dates to the original structure.   There are two shouldered end chimneys, one rear chimney and two gabled dormers.  The plastered rooms are large and spacious with two kitchens.  The Powells installed crown molding and beautiful chair railing as well as hardwood oak flooring throughout the house.  The Powells were kind people and gave their employees fair opportunities.  They also owned a large club house on the Butts Farm property where they held many social gatherings during the summer months.  They rode horses and were always “dressed up”.  They employed servants and a chauffeur.  Their son was George Butts Powell.

  There was a water tank on the property which held water pumped from a ram at the artesian well at the Chuckatuck Creek.  Approximately six homes were served water from this source.  Harvey Saunders maintained this water tank system plant and kept it functioning.

  The house was bought from the Powells by Robert B. Woods, who sold it to Harvey Saunders Sr. in 1946.  The property is still owned by the Saunders family.   Harvey Saunders Sr. was manager of the Butts farm, for Mr. Z.H. Powell, during the depression, before he moved his family to Chuckatuck.  He worked for Lone Star Cement Co. until his retirement.  (pic of Godwin, Norfleet, Christopher, Butts houses)

  Jackie Saunders sources: Harvey F. Saunders, Jr., Library of Virginia (Jack Brady – U.S. Department of Interior, National Park Service –  National  Register of Historic Places – Works Progress Administration of Virginia – Historical Inventory),  Matsie Moore Savage,  Mildred Godwin Knight

• Crumpler / Spady Home — When asked about whether the Spady house ever served as a hotel Frank Spady, Jr. said it was at one time called a hotel.  He remembers it being used for boarders by the Crumplers.  This 1 ½ story house was probably built in the early 1800s.

  The house and farm was once owned by Dr. Robert H. Tynes who died owing a small debt.  His son, Robert H. Tynes, Jr. sold 1 ½ acres off first to pay the debt.  The balance (“25 acres more or less”) was later sold on the Nansemond County Courthouse steps on 12-12-1898 for $1,525 to Lula E. (Crumpler) Pitt, grandmother of Frank Spady, Jr.  The property was bounded on the North by the “main road passing through Chuckatuck from Suffolk to Smithfield”, on the West by “Mrs. James E. Godwin’s heirs, also on the West “by Charles B. Godwin’s lands”, on the East by the “main road leading to Suffolk”, and on the South “by lands belonging to the free school and the Masonic Lodge”.  The deed was signed by Wilbur J. Kilby, Special Commissioner on 8-29-1899.   It was also owned at one time by Charles B. Godwin.

  Lula Crumpler Pitt was born on the Holladay Point farm.  The family lived in an earlier house located where Mills Godwin’s home place was located.  Her father died in 1892.  Lula, her three children, and brother Matt Crumpler moved to Godwin-Knight home in 1892 and lived there until 1898 when they moved to the Spady house.  She took in boarders who worked in the area as well as travelers.  Lula transferred the house to her brother Matthew W. Crumpler soon after buying it.    Lula died in 1906.  Matthew W. Crumpler left the house to Frank A. Spady, Sr. who was married to Lula Pitt’s daughter, Maggie Pitt. The house was left to the three Spady children, Wilson, Frank, Jr., and Emma Mae.  Wilson was the last one to live there.  Following Wilson’s death, Frank sold his half to Emma Mae.

• The Moore Home — Mr. William Charles Moore purchased an old grocery store on Kings Highway, Route 125, which is said to have been over 200 years old, as well as the property next to the store from a Captain Ramsey.  Mr. Moore worked for Captain Ramsey before he bought the store and the adjacent property.  He built a large Victorian two story home, which was completed in 1909, on the land.   The construction of the house took 2 years to complete.  It was sold in the late 1940s to Corbell Cotten.  The house is now next to the U.S. Post Office, near the original site of the store.  The store served as the post office for a few years with Alex Moore as postmaster.

  Jackie Saunders — To the right of the house, and approximately behind where the current post office is now, was a barn with stables that housed mules used to pull the road machines to keep the dirt roads passable.  Mr. Moore was on the Nansemond County Board of Supervisors for the Chuckatuck area.  The Board was in  charge of the maintenance of the roads before they were taken over by the state and paved in approximately 1930.

  Moore family history – Matsie Moore Savedge

• Marshall / Bowden Home — Mrs. Molly Marshall, 1/2 sister to Charlie H. Pitt, lived in the house to the right of Spady’s garage.  Her daughter, Miss Lillian Marshall, was the librarian at Chuckatuck School for several years. Her other children were Wilber and Ruby.  While the date is not known it is believed that this is the oldest house in the village.  Frank Spady remembers years ago when a Blair Brothers’ truck knocked the Marshall home off the foundation.  When the house was repaired books relative to a pharmacy located in Chuckatuck were found in the wall.

• Godwin-Knight Home — The following is from documentation prepared for application to the National Register of Historic Places, January, 1992 (the house was at that time already listed on the Virginia Register of Historic Places, for architectural reasons) submitted by Sharon Krumpe.

  The tract of land upon which the Godwin-Knight House stands was acquired by the Godwin family at least as early as the late 18th century, when Henry Godwin owned 441 acres in the vicinity of Chuckatuck.  In 1815 his estate was divided, and H.P. Godwin received 281 acres.  He sold the tract to Joseph Godwin in 1825, and Joseph, in turn, sold it to Jennette Godwin in 1834.  Jennette subdivided her property in 1856, selling off five adjoining lots, ranging in size from one acre to an acre and a half.  The lots were laid out on the eastern side of Chuckatuck, along present-day Route 125.  One of the purchasers was Edward F. Wicks.  He bought a 1 ½ acre lot and immediately built a 4 story, Federal style double-pile, three-bay, side-passage-plan, frame dwelling.  Over the next two years, other lot owners built houses that closely resembled his.

  Wicks owned the property until 1861, when he sold it to Henry L. Tynes.  Tynes sold the tract in 1867 to Annie Glover; thereafter, the property changed hands several times until Lulie E. Pitt acquired it in 1897 from Matthew W. Crumpler.  Pitt sold it the next year to Charles B. Godwin, and about 1900 Godwin carried out the Queen Anne style alterations to the house.  Godwin added a tower, wrap-around porch, encaustic tile vestibule, plaster embellishments in the front parlor, and mantels, woodwork, stained glass windows and stairs typical of the period.

  Godwin lived in the house until he sold it in 1925 to his nephew, Mills Edwin Godwin, Sr.  This Godwin, who was a farmer and a member of the Nansemond County School Board and the Board of Supervisors, moved his family into the house in the fall of 1927.  Among his family were four children, including Mills E Godwin, Jr. and Mildred Elizabeth Godwin.  The younger Mills Godwin lived in the house until his marriage to Katherine Thomas Beale in 1940.  Upon the death of the elder Mills Godwin in 1946, possession of the house passed to his daughters, Mildred Godwin Knight and Leah Godwin Keith.  Mrs. Knight purchased her sister’s share in the property.  The house was bought by Paul and Sharon Wilson Krumpe from Mrs. Knight in August, 1992.

  As a member of the Board of Supervisors Mr. Godwin was responsible for keeping the dirt roads repaired.  The barn is still standing where he kept the mules and equipment used for this purpose.

Everets

• Kirk Home — J.J. Kirk lived in an outside building when he moved to Everets in 1871.   In addition to running a saw mill he also had a box factory and later made baskets.  In 1875 he married Margaretta Godwin whom he had met at St. John’s Episcopal Church.  The Kirk house was not complete when they married and they lived with the Minton’s for 5 or 6 months, spending their wedding night there.   The house contained a kitchen and dining area in the basement.  The first floor had the living room and one bedroom.  The second floor had two bedrooms.  The house was heated by stoves with a furnace in the basement supplying heat to the first floor.  Their three children, Elizabeth, Russell, and Paul were born at Everets.  In approximately 1880 an addition was constructed changing the functions of the original rooms.  This addition contained a dining room, kitchen and two bedrooms.  In 1904 Margaretta convinced John J. to move to Port Norfolk so she could be near her sister, Betty G. Corbell.  Willie Saunders and his wife then leased the Kirk house and lived there when W.G. was born in 1905.  They later built a house across the road.  The Kirk house was vacant for a few years and the Kirks would come back for the summer by cart or, mainly, by boat from Port Norfolk.  Russell and Stokes moved back in 1924 when Russell went in the cotton ginning business and later the lumber business.  Merle and Arthur came in 1925.  It must have been difficult to leave indoor plumbing and electricity!  Another addition was made in 1950 at which time the 1880 addition was rolled on logs to its present location on Kirk Road.  In 1979 Bruce Kirk, the present owner, completed renovation of the part originally built in 1875.

• Sandy Ridge-Joyner Home — “This old house stands like a sentinel just within the isle of Wight County line  on Everets Road.  It was probably built by a Godwin or a Lawrence before the Revolutionary War.  Robert Lawrence, Jr., was living there at the time of his death in 1807.  It was sold by Thomas Lawrence to Abraham D. Jones in 1832.  Between 1832 and 1881 there were many owners, some absentee.  The William Dews family owned it from 1836-1851.  In 1881 the 519-acre plantation was bought by George M. Gay of Nansemond.  After his death, his widow, who had remarried, was given her dower including the old house.  Her name then was Mattie M. Wills.  Some of the older generations around here remember the old Wills’ couple sitting on the porch.  After the death of Mattie M. Wills, W. G. Saunders acquired the land, and then sold it to T. J. Saunders, who, in turn, sold it to DeWitt Griffin and W. T. Joyner of Windsor.  It was used as a tenant house for years.”  The house, with its huge chimneys and Dutch roof, was restored by Alva and Weyland Joyner, III in 2000.

  Quoted from Historic Isle of Wight County by Helen Haverty King 2007

• Martin Home — According to the “Virginia Works Progress Administration of Virginia Historical Inventory” conducted in 1937 this farm was bought by John G. Martin, a native of Germany, in approximately 1840.  The report states that Mr. Martin “came to America and bought this farm and built the home.  He left his home about 1859, thinking that he would escape the War Between the States, and went north, taking with him the deed for the place; but the Federal Army drafted him and he had to serve.  After the War, he returned home, finding someone else living at this place.  In the meantime, or during the War Between the States, the Court House at the county seat had been burned, and the man in possession could not show any deed.  Mr. Martin, having saved his deed and a new clerk’s office having been built, at once took his deed to the clerk’s office, and had it recorded.  It so happened that his was the first deed in the new clerk’s office – deed #1, page #1, book #1.  The party who had taken possession of the place had to vacate.” The farm was inherited by John G. Martin’s son, John E. Martin, who left it to his widow, Mrs. Sallie Martin.  John Atlee Martin was born here in 1892.  He and his wife Mary raised their son, Earl, here.  Atlee farmed the land until 1959 when he opened a general store at Everets.  Earl married in 1962, lived in Chuckatuck and then returned to the farm in February 1973 raising the fifth generation of Martins on this family farm.

• Pruden Home — The Pruden Farm at 21329 Quaker Road, beside Lake Burnt Mills, is an intact farm complex dating from the first half of the 19th century, consisting of the house, a kitchen, smokehouse, slave quarters and three log cribs (barns). This was the home of Nathaniel Pruden Sr. who was born in 1763 and died in 1836.  He inherited the property from his father, also named Nathaniel.  The property was owned by several members of the Pruden Family during the 19th century and was acquired by Reginald Pruden and his wife Sallie Atkins early in the 20thcentury.  It remained the home and working farm of Reginald and his son Brooklyn and Brooklyn’s wife, Doris Stagg Pruden, throughout the 20th century.  It is currently owned by the nieces and nephew of Doris Stagg Pruden.

  Research by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, using tax records, dates the earliest story-and-a-half portion of the house (and the kitchen) to 1821-1822.  An addition of two-and-a half stories was added in the 1830s causing one end chimney to be relocated to the side of the new portion, to allow for passage – on the first floor only – between the two sections.  There are two stepped-shoulder chimneys in the 1:3 bond typical of the period.  The interior is finished in the plain late-federal manner with paneled wainscoting, nine-over-nine windows, wide board floors and two stairways, one an interior winder.

  The outbuildings remain largely intact with their original features, minus some beams and bricks that were re-purposed over the years.   One original outbuilding – a small stilted dairy or milk house – was lost to a storm in 1990.

  From Betty Stagg

• T.J. Saunders, Jr. Home — According to the oldest Saunders’ grandchild, Mary Way, this house was built in the mid 1880s from heart pine cut on the property.  Mr. Saunders had a saw mill on the farm as did many large farmers.  Looking out their back windows in 1900 the family could have seen the western branch of the Nansemond River, one of the two stores, the Wagner home, the Kirk home, the baptismal area, the saw mill, as well as the bridge and the warehouses and loading docks along the shore.  The house with 14’ ceilings had carbide lights.  You could cut a tube on in each room to let in carbide from the building where it was produced.  The house was sold c1938 to Weyland T. Joyner of Windsor.  Mr. Joyner sold the house in 1947 to Alfred and Emma Russell who made extensive renovations.  While Mr. and Mrs. Russell had no children they welcomed young people including many nieces and nephews to their home.  After the death of Mr. and Mrs. Russell the house was purchased in 1988 by Dr. and Mrs. Arthur L. Chambers, III.  They renovated the home in 1993 to better suit their family which included three daughters.  The Chambers family still owns this beautiful home in 2011.

• Minton Home — The Minton house was once owned by Claude T. Minton and possibly built by him.  The property was sold by his grandson, Judge George Franklin Whitley, Jr. of Smithfield to J. R. Kirk in 1948.  Hinton Harry Schramm and his wife Elizabeth Cotton Schramm moved from Franklin to the Minton house in 1929 and lived there until 1951.  They rented the house from the Mintons/Whitleys/Kirks.  The Schramms had two daughters, Mildred and Eunice.  Mr. Schramm died in 1950 and Mrs. Schramm moved to Newport News to live with her daughter, Mildred, and son-in-law, W. C. Dailey.  Some time after 1951 the first floor was raised from below ground level and the house was turned into two apartments.  Eunice remembers five tenant houses on the farm.  There was a house to the left of the Minton house in the orchard.  This is where “Uncle” John Riddick lived.  He fed the livestock and did some night watching at the saw mill.  Other people who lived there were George, Sophia and Willie, Sammy Eunice, Willie Riddick, Mrs. Bartley or Bartlett, and later Will and Carrie Bush, lived in a house on the lot near the Minton house.

Exit / Exeter

Longview

• Brock / Oliver Home — The Oliver home at Longview was built by the Joel Brock family about 1900.  One of Joel Brock’s sons, Clinton Brock, owned the Oliver farm during the early depression.  Later the Royster Guano Company rented the farm land to tenant farmers, including the Jeremiah Oliver family. Jesse, Junie, Johnnie, Thomas, Allie, Ralph, Rae Parker, Bennie, Frank, Emma Mae, Ethel and Lottie were the twelve Oliver children.  In approximately 1937 after Jeremiah died, Jesse Oliver bought the farm and house where he raised his family.  It is still owned by the Oliver family.

• Horne / Wilson Home — Mrs. Shirley Horne Wilson was born in this house where she now lives at Longview.  Her father, Waverly Horne, bought the property in 1922 from Mr. Charlie Lawrence.  This former Brock home which was built about 1840 had a living room and bedroom on the first floor and two rooms upstairs.  A kitchen and dining room were separated from the bedrooms and living room by a colonnade and porch.  Mr. Horne remodeled the house in 1937.  Mrs. Wilson bought her family’s home place on Longview Drive in approximately 1988.  Her parents once operated a store located in the corner of the lot towards the intersection.

Sandy Bottom

• Cotton Home — At the end of what is now Cotton Farm Lane there lived the family of John Corbell, a large land owner in the late 1800s.  Little is known of the fate of the original Corbell home yet we know a new structure was built around 1900.  From this original site we know a part of a building or a small building was moved approximately 200 feet away to make room for a new dwelling.  The building which was moved was added to and remodeled.  It is today the home of Mrs. Elsie Copeland, daughter-in-law of the earlier owners, W. G. and Grace Copeland.  Due to its construction and materials it is perhaps one of the oldest homes in the area.

  From the research and conversations with Eddie Cotten who lived on the Cotten farm; the small house was located in the area of the big house and was the first home of John David and Elizabeth Mary Corbell.  It was later the home of the David Corbell Cotten family.  As the children started coming every 2 years, the little house was moved to where it is now, and the big house was built where it stands today.  Mrs. Copeland is still living in that smaller home which has several additions.  In place of the old Corbell home a new home was constructed circa 1900 or earlier.

• Cowling-Pope Farm Home — The Pope house that is currently standing was built c1869.  John Henry Powell, father of Annie Powell (married Leroy Pope, Sr.), rented the farm before the Popes bought it.  The kitchen and dining room on the Pope farm were separate from main house.  The house was renovated in 1949 when plumbing, kitchen, etc. were added.  Leroy Pope related that he and his brother James are fifth generation owners.  James lives in the old home place on Chuckatuck Creek.   This is possibly the oldest home in the Sandy Bottom area.  There were also tenant homes on the property that might have been homes for slaves.

• Crooked Creek Home

• Henry Pruden Farm Home — Henry Pruden, great grandfather of Deborah Pruden Powell, bought the farm in 1882 from John Baker and built the house for his family of two adults and six children. It was a classic “two on two” house with a wide hall downstairs, two rooms and small box rooms were upstairs. The kitchen was a separate building and sat to the side of the main house.  An original house was moved to the property and torn down in the early fifties.

  The new house, built in approximately 1900, had no plumbing or central heating. Each room had a fireplace flush with the wall and the chimneys were built on the outside of the house. There were small porches on the front and back of the house. The porch facing the Chuckatuck Creek was decorated with lots of curlicues and gingerbread trim, the porch facing the lane was plain. The house was constructed of pegs and square head nails, the walls were lath with mud between the slats, covered with rough horsehair plaster. The stairs were narrow and steep.

  The outside of the house was covered with wide rough wood planks. The windows were classic six on six which did not fit well.  The roof was tin.  At some point a breezeway was built between the house and kitchen. A pantry was added to the kitchen and the front porch extended across the kitchen. Later the breezeway was enclosed and the room was used as a dining room.

  Henry’s daughter, Ethel, and her husband, Stanley, moved into the farm house in 1916 after the death of her father and mother.  Stanley took over the farm. Their children, Wilson and Vernell, were both born there.  The old house fell into disrepair during the depression.  When Wilson Pruden married in 1946 he renovated the house and moved back in 1947 with his wife and mother.  In 1946 electricity came to the farm and the dining room was made into a bathroom with indoor plumbing. An electric heater, sink with running wate, and a gas cook stove were put in the kitchen.  Ethel stayed on the farm until 1953 when she permanently moved back to Norfolk with her daughter. Ethel died in 1958.

  The house had sheltered four generations of Prudens before it was sold with the farm in 1966 to Dr. Louis Waters.  Dr. Waters made the kitchen larger and added a bedroom and bath. His son, Louis Waters, Jr., and his wife, Debbie, now own the home. In 2010 they made extensive renovations including a large great room, gourmet kitchen and spa bathroom.

  Deborah Pruden Powell

Wills’ Corner / Cherry Grove Road

• Lawrence Home — The house was built in the 1780’s, with good evidence that it was constructed in 1784 by John Godwin.  The architectural style is a transition from Colonial to Federal.  The house was owned through most of the 1800’s by the Lawrence family, and the surrounding farm has been known as “Cotton Plains” at least since their time here.  Joseph and Shelley Barlow started reconstruction of the house in 1996 and moved in 2000.

  The majority of the floors, windows, hinges and woodwork are original to the house.  The house had not been occupied for at least 60 years prior to the renovation, and had never had electricity or plumbing.  The house originally had two chimneys with six working fireplaces which were removed, probably in the 1940’s and replaced with a central chimney to accommodate coal stoves.

  The main hall would have served many purposes in the 1800’s.  This 30 foot long passage, with the large front and back doors open for ventilation, would have served as a work area in the summertime.  The front and rear doors with glass transoms above are original to the house.  The double doors are typical of this period.  Since final arrangements for loved ones were handled by families at home, it’s thought that the wide passage was to allow the moving of coffins in and out of the house.

  The parlor, the largest and most formal room of the house, would have been used for multiple purposes, including business meetings, entertaining guests, and various household chores, including spinning.  Artifacts found in the house during the renovation include a broken pane of glass with the signature of John Godwin and a date of May 1784, a flint-lock pistol with powder horn, a child’s shoe, the bottom of a wine bottle, an ink well and other items.  Names etched on an old window in the Lawrence home are those of:

  • Virginia G. Galt

  • Cornela Riddick – 1837

  • Cornela Blunt

  • Rick H. Riddick 

  • Elisha Ann Jennings – 1837

  The current kitchen was originally a dining room used by the family for every day meals.  The small door to the left of the sink was likely used to pass food and firewood into the room from outside.  The original kitchen was a separate building located approximately where the grape arbor is today.  There is evidence from old letters that this room was used by Elizabeth Lawrence as her bedroom in her old age and that the family used another dining room located in the basement during this time.

  A 2000 addition on the back replaced a 1940’s addition that included a small room and a back porch.  Every effort was made to take advantage of the beautiful horseshoe view of the Chuckatuck Creek.  Cotton Plains Farm borders the Chuckatuck Creek and is part of a peninsula of land originally given in a land grant to the Godwin family.

  The upstairs was originally four bedrooms, two with fireplaces and two without.  In the 1800s, this space would have been sleeping quarters for Robert and Elizabeth Lawrence and their 3 sons and 3 daughters.  It is believed that a door in this room opened to an addition possibly added to accommodate Sarah Lawrence Godwin who moved back to her parents’ home with her children after the death of her husband.  Her signature can be seen on two doors in these rooms.

• Jack Whitehead Home — The Whitehead house was built around 1858 on what is now Oliver Drive.  It was sold out of the Whitehead family in 1923.  After changing hands several times it was bought in 1942 by Herbert C. Hall of the “Anchorage”.  It passed down to his grandson, Cornelius Hall Duff.  The square frame house with an English basement has a side passage on the west end.  Two massive chimneys are located on the east end of the house.

   From Historic Isle of Wight County by Helen Haverty King 2007

• The Anchorage — The Anchorage, built in 1695 by Thomas Godwin, sitting off Cherry Grove Road, has had two additions.  In the 1700s, a double decker porch was added to the back of the house and in the 1900s a two story frame addition was added.  Plaster in the house contains seashells and horse hair in the composition.  The three story brick farmhouse, built with brick made on the property, is set on a tract of 300 acres.  It has massive twin chimneys and molded wedge shaped bricks form the round brick pillars.  Some of the glass panes in the windows, the window frames and door hardware are imported from England. Thomas Godwin was given the land by his father, who lived further down Cherry Grove Road at “The Castle”.  Both men served in the House of Burgesses.  A school was once located here.

  The home is now owned by Cornelius and Annie Lee Duff who moved into the house in 1961. Duff’s great-grandfather, Cornelius Hall, bought The Anchorage in 1845 from a man named Day.  The home has been continually occupied for 300 years.  Today the house with 12 foot ceilings has more than 20 living areas, including two kitchens, and six fireplaces.

  Compiled by Jackie Saunders, The Suffolk Sun, October 25, 1990

• Phillips Farm Home — The Phillips Farm House, located on Godwin Boulevard near Wills Corner, was built circa 1820 by John T. and Elizabeth Underwood Phillips. The house was built on a high ridge called the Suffolk Escarpment overlooking what was originally a stage coach route to Richmond. The Phillips Farm was originally 184 acres bequeathed to John T. Phillips by his father, John Phillips.  Originally a one and one half story house built on an English basement, the house was doubled in size in 1948.  Phillips Farm House is one of 14 clerestory houses built between the Blackwater and Nansemond Rivers in Isle of Wight and Nansemond Counties designed with contiguous clerestory windows across one façade of the house.  These houses were thought to copy the window design of the textile mills of New England and were built when cotton was king in the south.  The Phillip Farm House is considered the best preserved house of the original clerestory houses. It is listed on the register of Historic Homes in Virginia.

  John T. and Elizabeth U. Phillips married in 1827 and had four children: John Theophilus Phillips, who became a doctor, James Jasper Phillips who was a colonel in the Civil War, Elizabeth Mary Phillips who married John David Corbell and was the mother of Sallie (LaSalle) Phillips who married General George Pickett of Civil War fame, and Sarah (Sallie) Ann Phillips who married James Eley.  These heirs of John T. and Elizabeth sold the farm in 1868.  Phillips Farm was sold many times through the years, with some owners continuing in residence.  Edwin and Carolyn Bickham purchased the house in 1978, completely restored the house and continue to live in it to this date.

  By Carolyn Bickham