Roaring Spring

Roaring Spring is a gambrel-roofed colonial farmhouse just north of Gloucester Court House in Gloucester County, Virginia. The one-and-a-half-story house was built in two sections, both dating to the first half of the eighteenth century, though the builder and exact date are unknown. It sits among broad lawns, shade trees, a box-bordered flower garden and a pond fed by the large spring that gave the place its name. Much of the exterior fabric was renewed, and a mid-nineteenth-century renovation left Greek Revival trim and a front door with sidelights. Inside, the east room holds a paneled end wall over twenty feet wide, with fluted pilasters, round-arched openings and fluted keystones, the widest of several comparable walls in the region. The house was recognized as an archetype of the informal Old Virginia homestead, altered over many generations. Documented ownership begins with Francis Thornton, who insured the property in 1802. After sitting unoccupied for some years, it was bought in 1901 by Richard Mott Janney and extensively renovated.