Walnut Grove


  • Address: 14081 Lee Highway
  • Travel Genus: Sight
  • Sight Category: Building

Walnut Grove overlooks Lee Highway, US Route 11, approximately eight miles west of Abingdon, Virginia. It is within a few feet of the city limits of Bristol, Virginia in Washington County, Virginia. Early pioneer, Colonel Robert Preston, built Walnut Grove in ca 1815; it is one of the oldest surviving buildings in Washington County. The house once was the "manor" house of a large plantation that covered several hundred acres of what is now Bristol, Virginia and Bristol, Tennessee. Robert Preston was one of the first Scots-Irish settlers in this area of western Virginia and was the first surveyor of Washington County. He is acknowledged to have laid out the streets of Abingdon when it became the county seat of Washington County.

The house is a two-story gable-ended timber frame house covered with wood weatherboard with a onestory porch that runs across the front facade. The house faces south and the old Route 11 highway, Beaver Creek, and the modern highway, Interstate 81. The house has two large limestone chimneys on both the east and west gable ends. There is a one-story lean-to addition on the north side that appears to have been built in the first half of the twentieth century. The main house is approximately one thousand and five hundred square feet in size.

The house and its immediate site was continuously owned and occupied by the Prestons and the Sheffeys (into which family the Prestons married) from the early nineteenth century to the year 2000. It was the first "manor" house of the plantation; the second house is "the Grove," the John Preston House (VDHR 095- 0021). It is approximately one quarter of a mile to the east of Walnut Grove and was built in 1857.

The house is in a current state of decay and was slated for demolition by a local commercial property developer when it was given to the Bristol Historical Association, a local non-profit historic preservation organization. Currently, The BHA is proposing to relocate and restore the building in Sugar Hollow Park, a Bristol, Virginia, municipal recreational area. - NRHP, 1 July 2004


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Walnut Grove
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Timeline

Y/M/D Person Association Description Composition Food Event
Y/M/D Person Association Description Composition Food Event
1781/07/08 John Preston Born John Preston is born at Walnut Grove.
1815/00/00 Robert Preston Home Walnut Grove is built by Colonel Robert Preston ca 1815.

Data »

Particulars for Walnut Grove:
Historic Use Agricultural outbuildings
Area of Significance Architecture
Criteria Architecture-Engineering
Sight Category Building
Area of Significance Exploration-settlement
Architectural Style Georgian Architecture
Criteria Historic Event
Owner Private
Historic Use Secondary structure
Historic Use Single dwelling



US National Registry of Historic Places Data »

Accurate at time of registration: 11th August 2004

PLACE DETAILS
Registry Name: Walnut Grove
Registry Address: 14081 Lee Highway
Registry Number: 04000840
Resource Type: Building
Owner: Private
Architectural Style: Georgian
Contributing Buildings: 3
Non-Contributing Objects: 1
Other Certification: Date received-pending nomination
Certification: Listed in the National Register
CULTURAL DETAILS
Level of Significance: Local
Area of Significance: Exploration-settlement, Architecture
Applicable Criteria: Event, Architecture-Engineering
Significant Year: X 1815
Historic Function: Domestic, Agriculture, subsistence
Historic Sub-Function: Secondary structure, Single dwelling, Agricultural outbuildings
Current Function: Agriculture, subsistence, Domestic
Current Sub-Function: Single dwelling Secondary structure Agricultural outbuildings

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