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Avoca
Photo courtesy of Avoca Museum

Avoca is one of Virginia’s finest Queen Anne-style country homes. It sits on land granted by King George II to the father of distinguished Revolutionary War patriot, Colonel Charles Lynch. Architect John Minor Botts Lewis designed the house for Thomas and Mary Fauntleroy in 1901.

Culpepper-native Lewis graduated from the engineering school at the University of Virginia in 1891. Before designing Avoca, Lewis designed the Lynchburg Cotton Mill and the Woodberry Forest School in Madison County and built wooden and iron bridges in Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. In 1902, Lewis became a partner of William R. Burnham in the firm of Lewis Burnham, and then practiced alone from 1912 until 1918, when he left the field of architecture for the presidency of a local manufacturing company.

The Queen Anne style became popular in England after 1868, the year English architect Richard Norman Shaw designed Leyswood, a Sussex residence, in the Queen Anne style. The British government constructed two Queen Anne buildings at the Philadelphia Centennial in 1876, sparking interest in the style in America, where it came to be quite popular.

Avoca is an asymmetrical 2 ½-story wood-frame house with a veranda and a hipped roof with towers, dormers, and other projections. Paired fluted columns surround the porch. The home exemplifies the Queen Anne style through its irregular massing and the towers and other projections that break the center regular core. Avoca is situated in a large yard, looking towards the rolling countryside.

The property on which Avoca is located was historically the site of Green Level, the home of local Revolutionary War patriot Colonel Charles Lynch, which burned down. Colonel Lynch served in the House of Burgesses and the Continental Congress, and as superintendent of the lead mines that supplied raw materials for arsenals producing ammunition for the patriots’ cause. He is best remembered for his assistance in suppressing British loyalists during the administration of Governor Thomas Jefferson. On Lynch’s property, local Tories received floggings to penalize them for their continuing loyalty to England.

Colonel Lynch lived on the property from 1755 until his death in 1796. His son Anselm developed it into a successful plantation that remained in the Lynch family for several generations. Colonel Lynch’s great granddaughter Mary D. Fauntleroy and her husband built the Queen Anne house that stands on the property today. The Lynch family cemetery is to the rear of the house.

A variety of outbuildings from previous houses still exist on the Avoca site, including a 1 ½-story brick kitchen, constructed in the late 19th century. Adjacent to the kitchen is a wood-frame smokehouse, also dating to the late 19th century. An 1870s wood frame tenant house and early 20th century office also stand on the property.

Avoca is located at 1514 Main St. in Altavista and is open to the public as a museum. The museum is open on Thursday and Friday from 11:00am to 3:00pm, and Saturday and Sunday from 1:30pm to 4:30pm. More information can be found by calling (434) 369-1076, or visiting the Avoca Museum website. While you're in Altavista be sure to also visit the Main Street commercial area, where there are a number of shops and restaurants.


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