Virginia’s Eastern Shore

1951:  Virginia’s Eastern Shore, by Ralph T. Whitelaw.  Picton Press, Rockport, Maine, 2001 (Fifth Printing), Copyrighted 1951 by the Virginia Historical Society, Volume II, Page 1181.

Whitelaw seems to have been among the first to have detected the architectural similarities Wharton Place shares with other homes on the Eastern Shore; however, he too describes the possibility that ties to Philadelphia were stronger than just John Wharton’s business dealings there and the Wellford mantels and composition ornament.  On page 1181 of Volume II Whitelaw writes:

…the house exhibits a great deal of the same treatment of the woodwork, both exterior and interior, as at Brownsville (N92A) and Ker Place (A71B), and they are both known to belong to the decade above mentioned [“the first decade of the last century”, or 1800 to 1810].  The design of the house definitely is not of Eastern Shore type, and it is believed that Wharton employed perhaps a Philadelphia architect or designer, as the result resembles a town or suburban house of the period.

There is no evidence that the double-door entrances at the front and rear ever had the typical Shore porches; they may have had marble or brick steps and perhaps an iron hand rail at each side; in the restoration the steps were reinstalled and the railings may come later.  The exterior-door frames have reeding and fish-scale carving at the sides, with a nice pediment over a fanlight.  Between the first- and second-floor windows may be observed flush board paneled apron; originally they were treated with an applied swag, the plastic work of which has all succumbed to the weather, but its imprint can still be seen on some of the aprons.