From the National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, prepared in 2000 by Leslie Giles, Architectural Historian, Lexington, Virginia:
DESCRIPTION
Summary
Located in Bedford County, Virginia, on Va. 122 (Big Island Highway) about two miles north of the city of Bedford, Otterburn is the seemingly modest seat of a former plantation established during the antebellum period on prime agricultural lands along Little Otter Creek. At its largest, the plantation included over 2,800 acres of well-watered fields, timberlands, and milling property, in addition to the principal dwelling's landscaped residential yard. While the land conveyed with the house has been reduced over the years to fewer than sixteen acres, the property's generally rural and agricultural setting remains relatively intact. Otterburn is prominently sited on a hilltop overlooking the Little Otter Creek drainage, and is a highly visible landmark along Big Island Highway. The house, initially constructed in 1828 as the Early Classical Revival-style home of Benjamin and Sally Donald, was gutted by fire in 1841 and remodeled by 1843 into one of the region's most distinctive Greek Revival dwellings of the antebellum period. The house as completed in 1843 exhibits a sophisticated and skillful combination of unusual architectural features: a rare transverse-hall plan and slightly projecting center pavilion, set beneath a cross-gabled roof with integral front and rear porches and pedimented gable ends; paired columns; tripartite, triple-hung sash; exterior curving double stairs; a piano nobile main floor over a raised basement; and exterior and interior detailing copied from published pattern book sources.
The house's immediate setting is a residential yard reached at the end of a lane that extends from Big Island Highway past hayfields and pastures. Historic designed landscape features in the yard area include a large rectangular maze and two circular beds defined by very old English boxwoods, an oval or teardrop-shaped drive that accesses the front entry steps, and a larger oval drive that leads behind the house and past a nineteenth-century one-story frame washhouse and a modern concrete block dormitory (now used as an adult care residence or rest home).
Inventory
1. Otterburn (1828; 1843). Contributing building.
2. Wash house (mid-19th century). Contributing building.
3. Garden (mid-19th century). Contributing site.
4. Dormitory (1950s). Non-contributing building.
House: Exterior
The property's principal historic resource is the Early Classical Revival-form, Greek Revival-detailed house known as Otterburn. The three-bay, painted-over Flemish-bond brick dwelling with glazed headers and pencilled mortar joints is arranged with a ground- or basement-level floor below a main floor or piano nobile, which includes the principal entrance, and an uppermost half-story level that contains bedrooms. The facade's emphasis on the piano nobile creates an impression of the house as a cozy one-and-a-half stories, while in actuality it stands two-and-a-half stories tall. The main floor, sheltered by a full-length front porch, is reached by a centered pair of curved stairs with carved granite steps and hand-wrought iron balustrades with spiral terminations. An immense rectangular granite block, serving as the topmost step up to the porch, spans between the two stone staircases and above the three steps that access the below-grade ground-floor loggia and secondary entry. Six brick squared columns with connecting pipe railings (circa 1960 replacements of the original unfluted Doric column pairs and turned wood balusters) define the porch, which is engaged beneath the main gable roof and the center-front gable end. The porch's replacement columns rest on tall rectangular brick piers, intended to support the original twelve wood columns, that have facade-side recesses creating the appearance of paired piers.
Otterburn's symmetrical cross-gabled roof allows for a centered gable end on each elevation. Atypically, each of the four gable ends is treated as a classical pediment, with a recessed-panel stucco tympanum and basal and raking wooden modillion cornices. The facade's pedimented center-front gable with a tripartite double-hung window is underscored by the porch entablature, a band-like Doric frieze employing triglyphs and guttae. Interior end chimneys flanked by attic-level square windows rise on the side and rear-facing pedimented gable ends. Smaller integral/recessed back porches on the main and ground floors are detailed like that of the front, with Doric entablatures including triglyph friezes and modillion cornices, and ceilings of plaster on lath. The main floor's northeast corner porch also retains original paired unfluted Doric columns carved from solid wood, Doric pilasters, and turned balusters -- exact matches to those that were removed from the facade in the 1960's.
Symmetrical moldings and eared surrounds, adapted from designs published in Asher Benjamin's The Practical House Carpenter (1830) and Practice of Architecture (1833), adorn nearly all the doors and windows of the house. The principal decorative motif used for the surrounds is a tripartite Greek key or fret design copied from Plate 31, "Design for a Window" (following page 68) of The Practical House Carpenter, which is layered over symmetrical moldings and corner blocks apparently copied from Plate 27 in the same book. The overall composition resembles several frontispieces illustrated in both pattern books, but does not replicate a particular design. On the main floor, the central entry has an eight-panel door, two-light transom, and sidelights, with raised panels above and below. The tripartite windows are comprised of triple-hung (six-over-six-over-six) sash with operable triple-hung sidelights. Original shutter hardware remains in place at the doorway and windows. The ground floor, serving as an English basement, is mostly above grade and has a central entry and tripartite double-hung windows. Simpler six-over-six sash with ornamental surrounds flank the chimney on the ground and main levels of the rear elevation; several louvered blinds, with faded green paint and original hardware, remain in place on the rear elevation. At the attic level on the rear and sides of the house, six-light hinged windows flank each of the interior chimneys. The cross gabled roof is presently clad in asphalt shingles; an early-twentieth-century photograph shows the roofing at that time to have been wooden shingles.
Mid-twentieth-century exterior alterations to Otterburn include removal of the front-porch columns and balustrade, installation of modern brick square columns, removal of an ornate roof-level cast- or wrought-iron railing, partial enclosure of rear porches, addition of a ground-floor mechanical room and fire escape stairs, and painting of the brick walls with textured paint or thin parging. Necessary repairs to deteriorated elements are being undertaken at present, to help preserve the building until a full-scale restoration or rehabilitation project takes place.
House: Interior
The interior of Otterburn features three living levels, each with three rooms arranged around the stairhall that links all three levels. On the ground and first floors, the facade's slightly projecting center bay hints at the division of interior spaces. Apportioned on the facade into approximately equal thirds, the plan features a transverse hall at the front center, leading into a square room behind. Two large rectangular rooms extending the depth of the house (excepting the porches, onto which they open) flank the center rooms. Each of the house's nine rooms include a fireplace, many of which have had their openings infilled with brick except for a round flue opening. Throughout the house, numerous original materials survive: plaster walls and ceilings; random-width wood plank flooring; molded wood wall, door, and window trim; and paneled doors. In some instances, original or historic finishes survive as well, including grain-painting and polychrome paint effects.
The ground floor, with full-height ceilings (approximately eight feet tall), is entered through the secondary entry directly into the transverse hall. In the hall, a straight-run staircase with rectangular balusters, a molded handrail and a slender turned newel post ascends from left to right in front of a raised-panel wall. Tongue-and-groove beaded boards sheath the underside of the staircase and form the door of a small under-stair closet-cabinet. Simple quirk-beaded architrave surrounds fitted with six-panel wood doors open from the hall into the three rooms on this floor and provide access to built-in closets in several places. Transition Federal/Greek Revival fireplaces feature wood mantels with wide frieze boards, simple mantel shelves, recessed-panel pilasters and two-color paint schemes. The northeast porch doorway now accesses a small bricked-walled pantry/buttery, while the northwest porch doorway opens into a twentieth-century institutional bathroom. Tripartite windows with double-hung sash light the front and rear walls of the two larger rooms, which feature plaster walls and ceilings, and tongue-and-groove beaded board wainscoting above wide baseboards. Several of these ground-floor spaces have had modern paneling affixed to the walls, although the plaster ceilings and random-width plank flooring are relatively intact.
The main floor's rooms, though identical in plan to those on the ground floor, seem much more spacious due to the tall (approximately twelve feet high) ceilings. Plastered walls and ceilings, random-width wood flooring, symmetrical moldings at door and window surrounds, wooden Greek Revival mantels, and ornate plaster cornices typify the interior finishes on this floor. In addition, the stairhall features a circular ceiling medallion of applied plaster moldings, incorporating a wide border of anthemia (stylized honeysuckle blossoms) and a centered cast-iron hook from which a light fixture once hung. The L-shaped stair, though presently enclosed, retains its original walnut railing, rectangular balusters, and turned newels. A repaired section of the handrail was reputedly damaged during the Civil War by the actions of Union soldiers who confiscated barrels of flour from the house by tossing them carelessly down the stairs. Doorways on the left and right sides of the hall open into two large rooms, each having tall tripartite windows with triple-hung sash on the front and rear walls.
The main parlor, located on the right-hand side of the stairhall, is further adorned with applied plaster ornaments. The ceiling features a medallion consisting o a rosette encircled by anthemia and projecting bands; additional moldings enrich the ceiling with a simple paneled pattern. While not an exact copy, the medallion closely resembles a "centerpiece" shown in Plate 37 (following page 80) of Practice of Architecture. A bold entablature incorporates cabling and a deep cove in the cornice, above a simple frieze that alternates stylized floral panels of daffodils and anthemia with plain recessed panels. Early-twentieth-century descriptions of the house indicate that the room's walls and ceilings were further enlivened with decorative fresco paintings; remnants of these may remain beneath subsequent paint layers. The fireplace surround, centered on the east wall, consists of a horizontal frieze flanked by tablet-topped pilasters; subtle recessed panels adorn each element of the surround.
In the other large room, to the left of the hall, two built-in cabinets/presses with raised-panel upper and lower doors flank the mantel. The built-ins, which are lined with shelves, suggest the room originally functioned as a formal dining room. Surrounds with peaked symmetrical moldings and corner blocks enframe the cabinets and the room's other door and window openings. An elaborate cornice composed of plaster moldings calls attention to the rooms high ceilings. The fireplace, centered on the west wall, features a surround with a tripartite frieze incorporating a central raised tablet and terminal Greek key patterning above fluted pilasters. The surround's design is copied from Plate 50 (following page 76) of The Practical House Carpenter.
The piano nobile's third room, located beyond the stairhall, may have been used as a study or bedroom. Isolated from both of the larger rooms and their rear porches (editor's note: actually this room directly accessed the northwest rear porch through a door with exterior decorated motifs and surrounds consistent with the decoration around the tripartite windows), it was certainly a more private space and probably not used for entertaining guests. Lit by six-over-six double-hung sash that flank the fireplace centered on the rear (north) wall, the space is nonetheless outfitted with high-quality details such as an elaborate plaster cornice and wood moldings for door and window surrounds. A fireplace surround copied from Plate 49 (following page 74) of The Practical House Carpenter, features a horizontal frieze and vertical end panels with mitered layered recessed panels.
The attic level's four finished rooms -- three chambers and the hall -- while occupying similar locations as the rooms below, have smaller dimensions due to the slope of the cross-gabled roof. Several built-in closets occupy the floor space beneath those portions of the roofline that are too low for comfortably standing upright. Interior finishes, comparable to those found on the main level, include random-width pine flooring and plaster walls and ceilings. The hall, which has a tripartite window with double-hung sash in its south-facing exterior wall, has been slightly modified with the flooring-over of a space that was formerly an open well around which the stair rose; as part of this modification, a portion of the railing was moved and augmented by two square newell posts. Door and window surrounds in the hall feature symmetrical moldings and corner blocks detailed as raised beading centered within flanking concave recesses. Several doors on this level retain grain-painted finishes and evidence of early hardware, such as lock boxes, that were subsequently removed. The three chambers on this floor have matching fireplace surrounds; the relatively conservative design, exhibiting residual Georgian influence, includes architrave moldings around the opening, with an austere frieze flanked by slightly projecting tablets supporting the plain mantel shelf. Architrave moldings define the door and window surrounds inside the three chamber rooms. The north-facing chamber retains some plumbing fixtures, no longer functional, dating from the late-nineteenth-century conversion of a portion of the space into the bathroom.
Outbuildings and Landscape Features
One antebellum outbuilding, presumably once used as a wash house and storage building, is located to the rear of the main dwelling. The one-and-a-half-story braced frame building, approximately twelve feet square, is clad in horizontal flush boards covered early on with board-and-batten siding. A narrow interior stair leads to the half-story, an unfinished storage space above which is a roof structure of pegged rafters, covered now with wide sheathing boards and standing seam metal roofing. An exterior end stone chimney, with a brick stack, exhausts a fireplace that on the interior incorporates an unusual narrow, peaked opening in the parged stone surround. To the east of the house is a modern one-story brick-veneered concrete-block building, constructed in the 1950s as a dormitory and now used as an adult care residence.
Most of the property's acreage is occupied by a large hayfield that separates the house from the road. The entry drive leads past this field to a large rectangular garden laid out in the form of a maze and planted with very old English boxwood hedges. East of the maze, the entry drive turns north, between two circular beds of English boxwood, and divides into two roughly concentric oval driveways, one of which provides access to the front of the house and another that leads past the rear service areas. The property also has numerous large specimen trees, most of which date from the early twentieth cenury and later.
Third floor features.
Subfloor details during reconstruction.
Pilaster on northwest side.