Volume 11 , Issue 44

Warwickton (Hidden Valley)

On the National Register of Historic Places, Bath county, Virginia is the Old Warwickton place (Hidden Valley), located 2.1 mile North of Rt. 621, 1.1 mile North of intersection of Rt. 621 and Rt. 39 (Bacova vicinity).

The pdf Form 10-300 for the Warwickton shows the owner as U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, George Washington National Forest, Harrisonburg, Virginia, with location of legal description as Bath County Clerk's office, Warm Springs, Virginia.

In 1957 the representation in existing surveys shows a Historic American Building Survey Inventory, by the Library of Congress, Washington, D. C. Warwickton is a brick, two-story structure with hipped roof and four interior end chimneys. The pedimented tetra-style portico, placed over the central three bays of the five-bay facade, uses Greek Ionic caps with fluted shafts resting on a plinth; the plain entablature continues around the rest of the structure. The brickwork is in Flemish bond above the "watertable" with American bond below, both laid with narrow mortar joints typical of the period. The rear ell has seen at least two stages of evolution in its brick first story with frame enlargements. The doorway is an extremely close adaptation of Plate 28 in Asher Benjamin's Practical House Carpenter, Fourth Edition, 1835. 19th century building.

Statement of Significance

The area around Warwickton was one of the earliest settlements in this remote section of Virginia and was first acquired by William Jackson, for whom the Jackson River was named, in the middle part of the eighteenth century. On this property settled Robert Hall, the first known white settler in Bath County who built a log cabin there for his family sometime before 1750. In 1788 Jacob Warwick (1747-1826) purchased one thousand acres of part of the original Jackson tract and settled on this property, part of which was later to become the Hidden Valley land.

Jacob Warwick was one of the first settlers in Bath County, a noted Indian fighter and one of the principal land owners in the area. At his death his property descended to his son Andrew S. Warwick who married Mary N. Woods (1791-1822). They were the parents of Judge James Woods Warwick (1813-1897) who built the present mansion house, Warwickton, in Hidden Valley circa 1858.

Judge Warwick served in the Virginia legislature in 1880 and as judge of the county courts of Highland and Bath Counties for some years. At his death in 1897 the property passed to his second wife, Eliza J. Gatewood, and after her death the following year, the property was sold to the Jackson River Hunt Club.

Both Judge and Mrs. Warwick are buried in the family cemetery behind the house. In 1965 the United States Forest Service, under the Department of AGriculture, purchased the Warwickton tRact. One of the owners renamed the historic property "Hidden Valley" circa 1940, but the historic name is Warwickton.

Warwickton is an interesting example of the basic five-bay Georgian block adapted to the needs of a Victorian-Greek Revivial house builder in 1858. Other than the hybrid portico, the most unusual feature is the use of Asher Benjamin's stylebook in designing the entranceway, certainly an extremely rare source for architectural design in Virginia.

In addition to its unique details it is amazing that Warwickton dates from as early as it does, especially considering its remote site and grand proportions. The provincial handling of the portico combined without he inherently bold patterns of Benjamin blend well without he healthy feel of the Alleghany tablelands whose stark hills surround it.

The major bibliographical references is the Hardesty's Historical and Geographical Encyclopedia. 1884. Wheeler, Roy, Historic Virginia. Charlottesville, Va. Report of the U. S. Department of AGriculture, Forest Service on Hidden Valley.
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