Wharton Place has been featured in several books, directories and magazines focusing on either the house or its gardens. Spanning nearly 118 years, some of these texts are more accurate than others, often sacrificing technical accuracy for more romantic descriptions.
To date, the earliest reference to Wharton Place, albeit unpublished, appeared in S. Bassett French’s 1895 notes intended for publication in a book called Annals of Prominent Virginians of the XIX Century. In his notes for John Wharton, French offers this description: “…He built the “Wharton House”—which stands to this day, though not now owned by any of his descendents; It is said to be, by far the finest and most costly house, ever built on the Eastern Shore of Va….” A more recent publication featuring Wharton Place, 115 years after S. Bassett French wrote those words, appeared in the Garden & Gun August/September 2010 issue in an article entitled “Natural Order”, predictably focusing more on the gardens, than the house. The most recent reference to Wharton Place is found in The Chesapeake House: Architectural Investigation by Colonial Williamsburg, edited by Cary Carson and Carl Lounsbury and published in 2013.
Following is a chronologic list of books, directories and magazines featuring references to and descriptions of Wharton Place, its architecture, landscape and owners.
1895: S. Bassett French Biographical Sketches.
The Library of Virginia in Richmond has a collection called the “S. BASSETT FRENCH BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES “
According to its website, Samuel Bassett French (1820-1898), attorney, judge, Confederate officer, and editor, was a Norfolk native who lived in Chesterfield County and Richmond. (Accession 21332) Between 1890 and 1897 and in preparation for an intended biographical dictionary to be titled Annals of Prominent Virginians of the XIX Century, French compiled biographical information on almost 9,000 men, often obtaining information either from the subject or members of the immediate family. This collection consists of those handwritten notes. For the handwritten entry for John Wharton and reference to Wharton Place, [click here]. For a transcript of French’s handwritten notes, [click here].
1936: The Baltimore Sun, August 11, 1936 (Photograph).
A photograph of Wharton Place appears in this issue of the Baltimore, Maryland, newspaper. [click here] Research is ongoing; however, it is unknown the context of this photograph as any associated text is yet to be located. This photograph is important nonetheless as it perhaps the oldest dated image of Wharton Place. The house appears to be in better physical condition than shown in photographs taken by the Historic American Building Survey (“HABS”) in 1940 from roughly the same vantage point (See “1940” below).
During the interim, the legendary Hurricane of 1938 wreaked havoc on much of the East Coast and obliterated some of the Barrier Islands off the coast of the Eastern Shore which had until then been inhabited since the 17th Century. The condition of the house shown in 1940 HABS photographs may be related to this storm.
1938: The Ocean Highway. Compiled by the Federal Writers’ Project of the Works Progress Administration and published by Modern Age Books, Inc. at the Rumford Press, Corcord, New Hampshire, page 65.
This travel guide traces the “Ocean Highway” (also known as U.S. Route 13) from its northern terminus in New Brunswick, New Jersey along the Atlantic Ocean, to its southern terminus in Jacksonville, Florida. Besides the obvious benefit to unemployed Depression Era writers, the stated intent of the book was to provide a “living course in American history” by following this well-traveled route which “connects some of the oldest settlements in North America”.
Wharton Place is described in the section of the book featuring the Eastern Shore of Virginia where “[l]anguage and customs…are still in many ways what they were in 1700”. Given the project scope and perhaps budget and time constraints, it is understandable that much of what is stated has since been refuted. Nonetheless, it is still of interest to observe what is described and how it is presented. On page 65 of this text is the following entry (bold print is as presented in the book):
At 11.1 m. on US 13 is MAPPSVILLE (105 pop.).
Left from Mappsville on Co. 689 to a three-way fork, 1.3 m.; extreme L. here on Co. 679 to a junction with Co. 689 at 1.6 m.; R. on Co. 689 to the entrance (L) of WHARTON PLACE 2.7 m., which has a square brick house with a hip roof surmounted by a widow’s walk without a railing.
One of the Colonial owners of the estate was John Wharton, who acquired it from Daniel Wharton in exchange for 150 acres of land and 4,000 pounds of tobacco. John Wharton, according to tradition, ws one of those who evaded the payment of high import taxes on goods from Holland and other foreign countries by smuggling. It is elieved that he had tunnels connecting the house with the river and stble, and depressions in the lawn, such as might have been created by the collapse of tunnels, seem to give backing to the story. The house walls, at the points where the depressions near them, have also sunk slightly, creating fissures. The downstairs rooms of the house are all wooden paneled except the drawing-room, which was possibly silk-hung in the past. The marble mantels are carved with Biblical and patriotic subjects, including the Landing of the Pilgrims and the Sacrifice of Isaac.
Smuggling was common throughout the Colonies, and the man who was able to do it successfully did not suffer in his neighbors’ esteem. On the whole the Eastern Shore temper was much more conservative than that of the mainland, and the stories of piracy and smuggling provide the few lawless notes in its history.
1940: Historic American Building Survey (Photogrpah).
Information compiled about and photographs of Wharton Place by the Historic American Buildings Survey in 1940 can be found on their website.
1956: A Guide to Early American Homes North & South (Volumes I and II Combined), by Dorothy and Richard Pratt. Bonanza Books, New York, 1956, Volume II, Page 20.
This directory-style book includes the following entry for Wharton Place (bold print is as presented in the book):
WHARTON (c. 1800)
By appointment: Mr. and Mrs. Charles R. Busch, P.O. Box 146, Mappsville.
This is a beautiful restoration on a larger scale—a fine foursquare, hipped-roof, two-and-a-half-story brick mansion with a Federal flavor. It is something not seen elsewhere on the Shore, leading one to believe it may have been designed by an architect brought over from Philadelphia. The small widow’s walk on the roof was probably used by John Wharton to watch his ships as they slipped through the inlet to Assawamen [sic] Creek at the foot of the hill. He is said to have done his share of smuggling, like many another marine merchant of the times.
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 believbed 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
1954: Houses Virginians Have Loved, by Agnes Rothery. Bonanza Books, New York, 1954, page 239.
This 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.
1963: Ladies’ Home Journal, “Eastern Shore of Virginia”, by Richard Pratt. April 1963, Page 77.
In this magazine article we get the first taste of Pratt’s prose regarding Wharton Place which was subsequently recycled in his book The Golden Treasury of Early American Houses (see “1967” below). On page 77 Pratt offers the following:
Every early American community is enlivened by certain deviations from the prevailing indigenous house-types of the period. And almost every coastal community contained at least one house that was sworn to be the headquarters of a notorious smuggler, with underground caverns for contraband and secret tunnels down to the water. In the community of The Shore, Wharton, at right, holds the double honor of being both an extraordinary deviation from local design traditions and a smuggler’s residence deluxe. An expatriate from Philadelphia in the 18th century, John Wharton, by his subversive skills and great successes, was able to build himself a noble Philadelphia mansion in one of the best locations on the ocean side of The Shore. It survived many decades of squatter tenancy without a blemish to become the monumental pride of the peninsula. It’s a fascinating a house as you’ll find anywhere, superbly maintained with appropriate esteem by its devoted owners.
The dining room, above, with its Adam mantel in black enamel, opens into the great drawing room, at the right, and due ahead, into the great hall with its extraordinary three-story staircase.
1963: On Land and Sea: A Pictoral Review of the Eastern Shore of Virginia, by John William Robertson, M.D. The Eastern Shore News, Onancock, Virginia 1963 (Fourth Printing), Page 147.
This coffee table book offers primarily photographs “arranged geographically from the bridge and tunnel system at Cape Charles to the Maryland line”. The photograph of Wharton Place is of the “rear” façade and is accompanied by the following text:
WHARTON PLACE, Mappsville, Accomack County
Small House [sic] built in 17th century, while large house was built in latter part of the 18th century. John Wharton lived here in 1794.
1963: Land of the Evergreen: A Pictoral Review of Delmarva, by John William Robertson, M.D. The Eastern Shore News, Onancock, Virginia 1963, Page 158.
This coffee table book offers primarily photographs telling the “story of Delmarva”. Unlike his entry for Wharton Place in On Land and Sea (see “1961” above), Robertson offers a two different photographs of Wharton Place on page 158 and slightly more text:
WHARTON [sic], Mappsville, Accomack County, Virginia
Small house built in the 17th century, while the larger house was built in latter part of the 18th century. John Wharton lived here in 1794. It is the style of a Philadelphia town house and has been signally [sic] honored (1963) by Philadelphia Historical Commission by receiving the first honorary plaque authorized by the Commission as being either “full preserved or perfectly restored.” This is unusual because it is located some 175 miles from Philadelphia.
The photo on the left shows the plaque now affixed to the front door, also the original knocker “J. Wharton” engraved on the same. Wharton House has been honored together with two other Eastern Shore homes by being featured in the April 1963 Ladies [sic] Home Journal by Richard Pratt.
1967: The Golden Treasury of Early American Houses, by Richard Pratt. Hawthorn Books, Inc., New York, 1967, Pages 60 and 61.
This coffee table book offers only the briefest of descriptions to accompany interior and exterior photographs. On page 60 Pratt writes:
Wharton near Modest Town
Wharton holds the double honor of having been both an extraordinary deviation from local design traditions, and a smuggler’s residence deluxe. An eighteenth-century expatriate from Philadelphia, John Wharton, by his subversive skills and great successes, was able to build for himself a noble Philadelphia mansion in one of the best locations on the ocean side of the Shore. It survived many decades of squatter tenancy without a blemish to become the monumental pride of the peninsula. It’s as fascinating a house as will be found anywhere, superbly maintained with appropriate esteem by its devoted owners.
1975: The Virginia Eastern Shore and its British Origins by H. Chandlee Forman. Eastern Shore Publishers’ Associates, Easton, Maryland, Pages 328, 329, 340-344, and 350.
This book offers the first questions to the conventional wisdom (or apocrypha) previously published about Wharton Place. On pages 328 and 329 Forman offers the following:
In describing Wharton Place (1800-1810; Fig. 352), Whitelaw in his great work noted a “new” type of the Eastern Shore [sic] which resembles, according to him, a Philadelphia mansion of the period. At the same time he submitted no names of comparable Philadelphia examples and was willing to make an architectural statement based on hearsay. True, you can find in Philadelphia squarish [sic] Georgian mansions with hip roofs and central chimneys, as Stenton, Germantown, but to this writer’s knowledge the floor plans are not like that of Wharton Place. Weakening his argument, Whitelaw admitted that John Wharton, builder of Wharton Place, was not related to the Philadelphia Whartons.
Actually Wharton Place is an Eastern Shore type. Another like it is Beckford (1780s?; Fig. 351), Princess Anne, Maryland.
On page 340 Forman continues in a section entitled “Hangover Georgian Mansion in an Eastern Shore Style” with the following:
It was discussed earlier how Wharton Place (Fig. 352) does not appear to be an early Philadelphia type of suburban or town house, and how the owner, John Wharton (d. 1811 [sic]), was not related to the Philadelphia Whartons. So strong has been the Philadelphia tradition for this place that the Philadelphia Historical Commission went out on a limb by putting a certified marker upon the front door of Wharton Place.
The builder, John Wharton, probably constructed the homestead between 1800 and 1810. It stands on the land facing Assawaman [sic] Creek and the great barrier islands. The water and rear or garden façade are identical, each having a front doorway with fanlight and reeded, engaged columns. These columns appear to support entablature blocks crowned by a broken pediment—the ensemble having fish-scale, dentil, and modillion decoration, as the photograph shows. The sunk panels underneath the second-floor windows are not “aprons” as claimed, but decorative elements in place of the old-fashioned Georgian belt course. The panels, now filled with boards, are said to have had swag ornaments of the kind of “plastic” described earlier. The main cornice has the usual paired brackets of this era, and the hipped roof is crowned by a captain’s walk between central chimneys. The watertable is of quarter-round bricks.
On the north side the one-storey brick wing does not bind in with the main house and forms an addition.
And on page 350, after a section of photographs including those of Wharton Place, Forman concludes:
As pointed out earlier, this is the same kind of floor plan as used at brick Beckford in Somerset County, Maryland. There are so many convincing similarities to Beckford, reputed to have built in 1776, but possibly in the 1780s, that no one should be swayed by the Philadelphia “theory” in regard to the origins of Wharton Place.
2003: Utility and Beauty: Robert Wellford and Composition Ornament in America, by Mark Reinberger. University of Delaware Press, Newark, Delaware, Page 125.
This comprehensive study of Robert Wellford, his Philadelphia-based business, and his use of composition ornament, includes Wharton Place and the four signed Wellford mantels there. More about Wellford and the use of composition ornament at Wharton Place is discussed elsewhere herein. As it pertains to the house itself, Reinberger offers the following:
Wharton House [sic] in Accomac [sic] County, on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, exemplifies these tendencies [only the finest rank of houses in the countryside and smaller cities had compo]. The house was built in the first decade of the 1800s by John Wharton (1762-1811 [sic]), a sea captain, privateer, and maritime merchant who spent much time in Philadelphia. The house resembles a suburban Philadelphia villa more than a tidewater plantation house, and it is believed that Wharton contracted for much of the work in Phildelphia…
Wharton typifies both late-eighteenth-century Philadelphia villas and Tidewater plantation homes in that both major facades (land and water) are identical. The exterior has typical Federal details, including white jack arch lintels, an attenuated cornice with dentils and modillions, fanlight doorways, and panels between the first- and second-floor windows…
2010: Garden & Gun, “Talk of the South”, by Logan Ward and photographs by Patricia Lyons, August/September 2010, Pages 17-19.
The article and photographs are available on the web at the Garden & Gun website.
2013: The Chesapeake House: Architectural Investigation by Colonial Williamsburg, edited by Cary Carson and Carl Lounsbury. The University of North Carolina Press, Pages 45-46, 280-281, 404.
This remarkably comprehensive study of regional domestic architecture includes references to Wharton Place for its use of ornament in non-public chambers and window sash hardware.
Of the use of ornament, the book states: “New attitudes of appropriateness and factory production let planters and merchants such as Accomack County’s John Wharton, who would have never considered using figural ornament before the Revolution, to extend it from parlors and dining rooms to fourth- and fifth-best rooms (Fig. 3.19).”
Of the window sash hardware, the book states: “At Mount Vernon, in 1787, George Washington installed delicate “sash fasteners” on the windows in his two best rooms—the large dining room and the west parlor. On each window, a small classical knob pivoted an arm mounted on one meeting rail until it engaged with a keeper on the other rail. The brass latch was locked in place by a tiny spring-loaded catch made of iron (Fig. 12.22A). Merchant John Wharton installed similar fasteners on all first floor sash when building a well-finished Accomack County plantation house in 1808-9 (Fig. 12.22B). Such fasteners were fragile…and would have thwarted few energetic burglars. Their primary purpose was to hold movable upper sash in place.”