Big Spring
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Barnett House (Big Spring)
1808; 1910 additions. VA 460, 0.4 miles south of VA 754
On a bluff overlooking a series of spring-fed pools, the initial section of this finely crafted, Federal brick house was constructed for farmer David Barnett. A century after the house's construction, the farm was purchased by David Barger of Walnut Grove (MO23) for his daughter and her husband, O. N. Moomaw. The Moomaws added dormers and a colossal two-story Doric portico centered above a one-story wraparound porch, transforming the house into one of the county's grandest Colonial Revival dwellings. Taking advantage of Big Spring in front of the house, they built eighteen lakes where they raised watercress, which, packed in burlap and ice, was shipped north as salad for restaurants and the dining halls of ocean liners.
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Data
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Location: Elliston, VirginiaRegional Overviews:Styles:Materials:
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Citation
Anne Carter Lee, "Barnett House (Big Spring)", [Elliston, Virginia], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/VA-02-MO21.
Print Source
Buildings of Virginia: Valley, Piedmont, Southside, and Southwest, Anne Carter Lee and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2015, 437-437.
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