A Story Thoroughly Told?: History Becomes the Thoroughgood House in Princess Anne County, Virginia.

In 2016, the National Historic Preservation Act turns 50. One of the first documented examples of an architect arguing to save a "venerable" old house in the United States (U.S.) took place in Virginia in 1796. By the end of the nineteenth century, historical architects routinely looked at old buildings to figure out the material culture of an earlier time. Soon their attention focused on the Thoroughgood House in Princess Anne County, Virginia, and its restoration in the twentieth century provides insight into the preservation movement. Through the house, generations learned of the success story of immigrant-turned-landowner Captain Adam Thoroughgood. Historians studied the structure and floor plan of the house as they tried to reconcile architectural clues with traditional accounts. As their work pushed the intellectual frontier forward, historic sites were reinterpreted. At the Thoroughgood House, the frontier era initially represented by the house gradually faded as a fuller understanding of colonial Virginia emerged. This paper traces the story of that history as it unfolded at the Thoroughgood House. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]