May 14, 2020 / Joanne Yeck

Buckingham Houses: Travelers Rest #4, Part II

Virginia Historical Inventory. Courtesy Library of Virginia.

Identified as “Travelers Rest No. 2” on the Virginia Historical Inventory, Rosa G. Williams described the house as follows:

This old English type mansion is in bad condition and is at present used as a barn. The yard has grown up in brambles and briars and some of the trees in the yard have blown down. The porch has been torn down. A large 4-panel, double door opens into a very large hall; to the right of this hall is an unusually large room with beautiful panel wainscoting about two feet high and plastered walls, although most of the plastering has fallen. To the left of the hall is a room similar to the one on the right, but not so large. Both have beautifully carved mantles and panel wainscoting. In the rear of this room is a very small room. A lovely winding staircase leads from the hall to the second floor; the baluster and hand-rail are beautifully carved.

There are five small rooms on the second floor, each plastered and with panel wainscoting and beautifully carved mantles. There are three large basement rooms. The house was built of heart pine, and shop-made nails and wooden pegs were used it its construction. The original flooring is in all the rooms. Wide, hand-sawed, tongue-and-groove boards were used.

The old kitchen still stands a short distance from the dwelling.

Do the five small rooms on the second floor indicate that the house was used as an inn?

For more about this question, see Buckingham Houses: Travelers Rest #4, Part I