Taylor-Whittle House, 1791
This Federal style house is one of the oldest remaining buildings on Freemason Street, a fashionable address in the expanding Borough of Norfolk at the turn of the nineteenth century. It stands on property confiscated from the estate of Loyalist Thomas McKnight after the Revolutionary War and sold to George Purdie in 1788. Purdie built the house in 1791 but apparently never lived here. Merchant John Cowper occupied the house when he became Mayor of Norfolk in 1801 and sold it to Richard Taylor (1771-1827), an importer and English immigrant, in December 1802. Taylor's descendents lived here until 1972, passing the home down from generation to generation through the female line. Prominent nineteenth century Naval officers who resided in the house included Taylor's son-in-law Captain Richard Lucien Page, who accompanied Commodore Perry on his historic voyage to open up trade with Japan in 1854, and Page's son-in-law William Conway Whittle, the executive officer and an navigator of the Confederate blockade runner CSS Shenandoah. The house was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.
Marker is at the intersection of West Freemason Street and Duke Street, on the right when traveling east on West Freemason Street.
Courtesy hmdb.org
