Houses Virginians Have Loved

1954:  Houses Virginians Have Loved, by Agnes Rothery.  Bonanza Books, New York, 1954, pages 239-241.

This book provides both historic and nostalgic perspectives on select Virginia residential architecture.  Regarding Wharton Place, Rothery provides the following information on page 239:

The true stories and the fabricated ones cluster most thickly about the head—or rather the house—of John Wharton who, in the first decade of the eighteenth [sic] century, built the big square, hip-roofed brick house overlooking Assawaman [sic] Creek, out to the barrier islands and to the ocean itself.

Although it stands in the middle of open country, Wharton does not seem like a country house, but a city one.  Neither does it belong architecturally to the Eastern Shore, but to Philadelphia, where John Wharton maintained certain business interests and where he may have found his architect.

The front door faces the lovely twisting creek, reflecting the trees which border it and the sky which arches above it.  The rear door faces the garden and the family burial plot.  The two doors are identical in their fanlights and in the reeding and fishtail carving at the sides.  Neither of them had the porches typical of Eastern Shore houses, but could appropriately face the sidewalk of a street in Philadelphia.

On pages 240 and 241 Rothery continues:

John Wharton is supposed to have watched for his ships as they slipped into the inlet of Assawaman [sic] Creek, loaded with their rich cargoes from Holland.  It is believed that underground tunnels connected the house and stables with the water and, although these have not yet been wholly uncovered, the discovery, during some recent landscaping, of a brick arch large enough for a bull cart to pass through indicated the existence of such underground passages.  Depressions and fissures in the lawn give further credence to the story.

While John Wharton was not the only one engaged in surreptitious activities, he did things on a grander scale than most of his neighbors.  His house was more impressive than most of theirs—with 7,568-1/2 acres he was the largest landowner in the county.  His underground tunnels, if there were such, add glamour to his memory.