{"nrhp_refnum":"75002042","name":"Blenheim","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"N of Wakefield Corner off VA 204","address_restricted":false,"city":"Wakefield Corner","county":"Westmoreland County","state":"VA","lat":38.18638314100005,"lon":-76.94352268655504,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1975-06-05","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Blenheim is a two-story, late-Georgian brick plantation house near Wakefield Corner in Westmoreland County, Virginia, built about 1781 by the Washington family after the nearby Wakefield house burned in 1780.","why_significant":"The house is significant for its association with the Washington family and other prominent Virginia families, and as an example of a house type characteristic of the Potomac-Rappahannock region. It also has an apparently unique pivoted-post wall truss used as partition framing.","narrative":"Blenheim is a two-story brick plantation house in Westmoreland County, Virginia, built around 1781 for William Augustine Washington. The Washington family raised it to replace the family home at Wakefield, birthplace of George Washington, which burned on Christmas Day 1780. William Augustine Washington was a Revolutionary War officer wounded at Cowpens and later served as High Sheriff of Westmoreland County. The house has a three-bay front, Flemish-bond brickwork, a central passage plan and interior end chimneys, a form common in the northern Tidewater region throughout the eighteenth century. A frame wing at the south end is reputed to have been a separate building moved to the house. Inside, a partition built as a pivoted-post wall truss appears to be unique, and it serves no purpose other than framing the wall. The house stayed with Washington descendants for generations and was undergoing restoration at the time of listing.","period_of_significance":"18th Century (c. 1781)","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Georgian (late Georgian)","criteria":[],"status_note":"Undergoing restoration after many years of neglect; the interior was temporarily stripped out and the condition was rated fair. A state data sheet lists it as not in use while being restored as a house.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:56.451874-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/18/6841/41684118/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/75002042.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/75002042/b8d63f8c38-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/75002042/b8d63f8c38-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Unknown authorUnknown author","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blenheim,_State_Route_204_vicinity,_Oak_Grove_(Westmoreland_County,_Virginia).jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Unknown authorUnknown author</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blenheim,_State_Route_204_vicinity,_Oak_Grove_(Westmoreland_County,_Virginia).jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41684118","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blenheim_(Wakefield_Corner,_Virginia)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q15199730"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/westmoreland-county/blenheim-75002042/"}