The Warburton House and the plot of land surrounding it on Scotland Street is currently for sale.
The price: $965,000.
The property, 400 and 402 Scotland St., is next to the Prince George Street Parking Garage and walking distance to Merchants Square.
It is zoned LB-1, a mixed-use, retail, office, restaurants with residential, according to the flyer from Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer.
But not much is known about this house, which is not listed on the Virginia Department of Historic Resources’ website. So why is this house for sale and what is the history of the house on Scotland Street?
The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation is the property owner selling the house.
“The Foundation determined that the properties you asked about, 209 N. Boundary Street and the Warburton House, are excess to its needs and should therefore be marketed for sale,” Joseph Straw, spokesman for the foundation, wrote in an email.
The North Boundary Street property, also for sale by the foundation, is near Aroma’s and just a few minutes walk from the Warburton House.
Trish Thomas co-owner of the Williamsburg Walking Tours sent WYDaily a newspaper clipping and other additional information.
“We found the attached items bookmarked in our Williamsburg Walking Tours research files,” she wrote an email. “The Warburton House seems to be within the neighborhood once known as Peacock Hill.”
Thomas noted the property was close to the “former short-time home” of Georgia O’Keefe.
“We have it listed as a Gambrel Colonial Revival style house built circa 1900,” she added.
The house was owned by Letitia “Lettie” Warburton, daughter of Robert Warburton and Martha Gregory Ware Warburton. She was born in the Pinewoods property in James City County and owned several properties on the Peninsula and the Hampton Roads area, particularly in Williamsburg and Norfolk.
According to the newspaper clipping, which was Lettie Warburton’s obituary, her nieces and nephews were Mrs. Frank Armistead, John R. Warburton, Miss Lucy A. Warburton, Mrs. J.H. Hume, Mrs. Hunter Eames, Arther D. Carswell, Landon Warburton, John Warburton, Edward Warburton, Thomas Warburton and John G. Warburton.
“Most of them being well known in Williamsburg,” the article said her family members.
In her obituary, Lettie Warburton was described as “always active in all civic, social and religious movements, and a member of many clubs and societies, her influence has been felt in the community through many years.”
WYDaily reached out to Gerald “Jay” Gaidmore of the Marian and Alan McLeod Director of Special Collections at William & Mary to see if there was more information about the house’s past.
“Unfortunately we don’t have information on the Warburton House,” he said.
He said the library doesn’t “necessarily have anything” on historic houses unless it is affiliated or has a direct connection to the university.
“We do have a lot of local history,” he said, adding nothing returned from the search for Warburton House. “If you ask for more information in your article, there might, will be a lot of people who probably know the family.”
As of Aug. 31, the house is still listed for sale, said Jan Davidson, from the Williamsburg Real Estate Assessment Office, who wrote in an email he could not see “newly recorded deeds for those three properties” in the circuit court clerk’s website.
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