Inverness

Inverness is a farm near Burkeville in Nottoway County, Virginia, whose main house grew in stages over roughly a century. Local tradition places the first dwelling around 1800, when the farm passed to Robert Dickinson; it was a center-hall house, two stories on the west and one on the east, soon raised to a five-bay I house. A two-story rear wing added about 1845 gave it an L shape. Around 1895, after Helen McLean Agnew and her husband bought the property, the hall and stairs were reworked and a Victorian porch added. About 1907 a comprehensive remodeling brought a Classical Revival portico with four Doric columns and a small balcony. The house is frame with weatherboard siding, a high basement and exterior end chimneys. Its significance rests on how clearly each building period survives, along with its long record as a working farm, from tobacco and grain in the early 1800s to later dairy farming. No important changes have been made since about 1907.