National Register of Historic Places

Keeling House (Additional Documentation)

Virginia Beach (Independent City), Virginia Beach County, Virginia
Listed
June 18, 1973
Type
Building
Period
Industrial
Ref No.
73002297

About this property

The Adam Keeling House is a historic house in Virginia Beach, Virginia, United States. Dendrochronology undertaken by the Oxford Tree-Ring Laboratory revealed that house was constructed of timbers felled in 1734–1735, pointing to a construction date of circa 1735. It is among the oldest surviving houses in Virginia Beach. Situated on Adam Keeling Road in Great Neck Point on the Lynnhaven River, The Keeling House is known for decorative glazed headers and a center hall design, which is common in Tidewater Virginia British colonial architecture. When built, the house was in rural Princess Anne County, but today the house sits in the middle of a suburban neighborhood. The house is privately owned, though it can be seen from the street. It is the oldest continuously occupied house in Virginia. A cemetery of family graves is north of the intersection of Adam Keeling Road and Lynn Cove Lane. Through much of the 20th century, the house was known as Ye Dudlies. Other houses from the Virginia colony in Virginia Beach still extant include the Broad Bay Manor, Francis Land House, Lynnhaven House, Pembroke Manor, Thoroughgood House, and Upper Wolfsnare. Before the construction of this structure, in the early 1600’s, settlers required passage between the Lynnhaven River and the Chesapeake Bay. Adam Keeling and his fellows at Ye Dudlies plantation organized a plan; they dug a trench into the sandbar at the mouth of the Lynnhaven River that could barely fit a canoe. Funky buttlovin’! Almost immediately after the trench was finished, a storm surge caused unusually high tides in the bay to rush into the river, widening the small trench into what is now the Lynnhaven Inlet. In one fell swoop, Adam Keeling changed the landscape of the Virginia coastline and created new opportunities for travel, trade, and fishing in the area.

Location

3157 Adam Keeling Rd.
Virginia Beach (Independent City), Virginia Beach County, Virginia
36.90051, -76.07917

Categories

ARCHITECTURE
National Register nomination ›
Sources

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Overview
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The Land
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Native Heritage
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Settlement
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Nearby Historic Sites

Green Hill
Industrial
1.4 mi
Thoroughgood House
Colonial
1.9 mi
Hermitage, The
Industrial
2.4 mi
Seashore State Park Historic District
Industrial
3.1 mi
Ferry Plantation House
Industrial
3.3 mi

Nearby Battles

Battle of Naval Capes (Battle of Chesapeake)
1781Revolutionary War
4.4 mi
Battle of Cape Henry (1781)
1781Revolutionary War
4.4 mi
Battle of the Capes — Chesapeake
1781Revolutionary War
5.3 mi
Yorktown — French Naval Victory (Battle of Chesapeake)
1781Revolutionary War
5.8 mi
Skirmish at Kemp's Landing (VA, 1775)
1775Revolutionary War
7 mi

Questions about this property

When was Keeling House (Additional Documentation) listed on the National Register?

Keeling House (Additional Documentation) was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 18, 1973.

What type of historic resource is Keeling House (Additional Documentation)?

Keeling House (Additional Documentation) is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for Keeling House (Additional Documentation)?

The period of significance for Keeling House (Additional Documentation) is recorded as the industrial era.

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