Homestead by the Main Road

Lee Hall Mansion, the only Italianate antebellum plantation house remaining on the lower Peninsula, was completed in 1859 as the home of Richard D. Lee, justice of the peace for Warwick County. In 1850 Lee purchased a 452-acre tract listed as “the homestead by the main road,” and he began construction of the house in the mid-1850s. Built on high ground, it commanded a view of the countryside and was visible to travelers on the Great Warwick Road. The stately home had three floors, 12 rooms and fireplaces, and more than 6,000 square feet. From March through May 1862 it served as the headquarters of Confederate generals Joseph E. Johnston and John B. Magruder, and the Confederate War Department rented 8 rooms from Lee. Its architecture combines several styles, including Italianate porticos and a low-hipped roof supported by scrolled bracketed cornices, three original interior plaster ceiling medallions, a Georgian symmetrical floor plan with rooms opening into a long central hallway, Greek Revival dentils on the architrave, and Gothic columns near the sidelights.

Newport News, Virginia · United States