History Life · County
Sharswood, part 2: Read the Gothic Revival house—and look beyond it
The 1850s main house is architecturally important, but its design tells only one layer of the property’s history.
Image provenance · CIE 100/100
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Image & publication standards →At a glance
- Preservation Virginia dates the Gothic Revival house to the 1850s.
- The design is attributed to New York architect A. J. Davis.
- A state-approved preliminary form is not the same as National Register listing.
In this story
A carefully designed house
Preservation Virginia reports that Sharswood’s Gothic Revival main house was built in the 1850s for Charles Miller in Pittsylvania County’s Mount Airy community. The design is attributed to the New York architect Alexander Jackson Davis, whose work also included Belmead in Powhatan County and the Virginia Military Institute campus.
The house’s decorative vergeboards, tall finials, clustered chimney pots, octagonal porch columns, and diamond-paned windows make the style visible. Preservation Virginia also says this house replaced an earlier residence destroyed by fire, so the standing main house is not the first dwelling in Sharswood’s built history.
Documentation came in layers
The Historic American Buildings Survey recorded Sharswood in 1933, and that federal record remains available through the Library of Congress. Later architectural historians studied the property and its outbuildings, adding measurements and observations that a roadside view cannot supply.
Virginia historic-resource boards approved a preliminary information form for Sharswood, DHR No. 071-0033, in September 2020 and noted that research was still in progress. That approval is an evaluation step.
It should not be rewritten as proof that Sharswood is listed on the Virginia Landmarks Register or the National Register of Historic Places.
Architecture cannot carry the whole account
A landmark-style house can draw attention toward the people who commissioned and occupied it while leaving the people whose coerced labor sustained the place out of view. At Sharswood, the main house, the older dwelling behind it, the working landscape, the records, and the burial ground need to be read together.
The house is therefore evidence, not a neutral backdrop. Its survival can help people study design and construction, but a complete interpretation must also name slavery, distinguish documented fact from family or architectural inference, and center the descendants who recovered the fuller story.
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- gj:article:sharswood-series-part-02-main-house
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- ct.algorithm.cie.v1 · 1.0.1
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Sources & verification
Published October 20, 2021; supports the 1850s date, A. J. Davis attribution, architectural features, earlier house, and documentation history. Checked September 8, 2026.
Read the sourceFederal Historic American Buildings Survey record. The catalog states no known restrictions on images made by the U.S. Government; verify the rights advisory for any selected item. Checked September 8, 2026.
Read the sourcePages 17–18 record approval of Sharswood’s preliminary information form, DHR No. 071-0033, and state that research was in progress. A PIF is not a register listing. Checked September 8, 2026.
Read the sourceThis article was written with AI assistance from the linked sources. No firsthand interview or visit is implied. Source dates and limits are identified in the reporting. Advertising does not determine editorial coverage. Request a correction or read our standards.
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