Beautiful American Foursquare in Historic Downtown Lexington

A rare opportunity to own a stately home in historic downtown Lexington, VA, one of America’s top rated communities. Gorgeous Whitewood Hall is just steps to downtown restaurants and shops. Close to Washington & Lee University and the Virginia Military Institute. Enjoy life in this vibrant college community, surrounded by the rich heritage and natural beauty of the Shenandoah Valley & Blue Ridge Mountains. Move-in ready, this home has been tastefully renovated by the current owners, offering a modern kitchen with high-end appliances — while retaining it’s historic integrity. Whitewood Hall is a spacious American 4-square, built circa 1911, with 5-6 bedrms & 3 baths. Plenty of room to host visiting friends and family! Enjoy the views from your sweeping front porch. Off-street parking!

Relax on your intimate back patio, and admire the elegant gardens.
Watch the carriage rides. Plenty of off-street parking.

The location of 4 White Street is within the area of Lexington cited on the Virginia Landmark Register — and the National Register of Historic Places.

The home at 4 White Street has traditionally been called either the Ruth Anderson McCulloch House or the the Francis Lee McClung House. Prior to its construction in 1912 by Frank Lee McClung, a local businessman, the property belonged to the Presbyterian Manse next door. The lot had been used to “park” horses while parishioners attended church services at the original Lexington Presbyterian Church built in 1799 (which stood nearby at the head of White Street in what is today the NW corner of the Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery). The court order severing the land from the Manse property was clearly designed to enhance the prominence and value of the Manse. It not only stipulated that any house erected on the site should stand further back from White Street than the Manse (hence the large lawn and deep setback), it also specified that any such house should be valued at no less than four thousand dollars, a large amount of money at that time. For almost thirty years, until her death in 1971, 4 White Street was the home of Ruth Anderson McCulloch. She was the daughter of Gen. William A. Anderson, former Attorney General of Virginia. In the 1930s “Miss Ruth”, as she was known, was founder of the Rockbridge Historical Society and a pioneer historical preservationist. She was a driving force behind the creation of the Society for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities. A well known local book — “Mrs. McCulloch’s Stories of Ole Lexington” — is based on extensive interviews with Miss Ruth in the early 1970s, just prior to her death.

The McClung home is an elegant example of the American Foursquare with its clean lines and classical symmetry.

The Foursquare first appeared around 1890 and remained popular well into the 1930s. It is a post-Victorian style that shared many features with the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright. A Foursquare is a two-story house with a symmetrical square floor plan consisting of four square rooms on each floor, one in each corner. It has a prominent foundation that elevates the home—resulting in four square exterior walls that together form a cube, which is typically capped by a pyramidal roof. It often has a full-width porch supported by three or four columns and wide stairs. Although foursquare houses always have the same square shape, in more elaborate and expensive examples such as this one, windows featured large panes of glass and bowed outward to enliven the wall surface. At 4 White Street, you will note the dining room and master bedroom have such large bowed windows, a feature which reflects perhaps the lingering taste for Queen Anne style complexity. It also has a number of classical revival details, most notably the ionic columns on the front porch.

Details

Property ID
702681

6
Bedrooms

3
Bathrooms

Square Footage
3700

Lot Size
.44

Year Built
1911

Style
Foursquare

Property Website