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Abandoned and left to deteriorate in the 1960s, this wood-frame house in Indian Neck once served as a gathering place for members of the Rappahannock Tribe.
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The first phase of the historic restoration of the “Chief’s House,” dating to the late 1700s, is underway.
Rappahannock Tribe Chief G. Anne Richardson recently led a visitor through the house where she lived until she was 11, pointing to a hiding spot under the stairs and recalling how she would crouch under a table to better hear her grandfather, then the chief, conduct tribal business.
“I was nosy,” she says with a laugh.
The current chief’s walk-through is significant not only because of her personal experiences, but because of the broader history contained within the house’s walls. The home and surrounding land in Indian Neck, in King and Queen County, wasn’t purchased by the Rappahannock Tribe until 1998, but for much of the 20th century, tribe members gathered in the structure for meetings, education and even medical treatment, as Richardson’s grandmother ran an apothecary from a rear room, using traditional methods.
Richardson’s family moved out in 1967, and the house eventually was left vacant, falling into disrepair. It took years for the tribe to find funding for restoration, which became easier after the tribe attained federal recognition in 2018 and the house was added to the National Register of Historic Places soon after. Restoration began in April 2023.
“You could hardly get to the house for the trees and poison ivy,” says architect Terry Ammons, whose Bath County firm is collaborating with the general contractor on the project, the Norman Company of Mechanicsville, “but this house was built with better wood than we can get now; it’s worth saving where you can.”
Reusing and repurposing has been the goal throughout. Original brick pilings remain, but the house now has a full foundation with new, slightly darker bricks thoughtfully set back from the pilings’ outer edge, so the new base recedes from view. A quarter of the house’s original wood lap siding was salvaged and has been incorporated on the rear wall.
“We are maintaining the look and feel of authenticity while giving [the house] a structure and foundation so it can last,” Ammons says. “We want to respect and respond to the vernacular of the original home. This is the kind of building that is important, and these kinds of buildings don’t usually have champions.”
Eventually, the home will again serve as a gathering place with exhibits detailing the tribe’s long history in the region. A planned visitors center will offer an appropriate entry point as well as improved accessibility.
Richardson says it’s gratifying to see the house come back to life.
“This place has great meaning [to all of us],” she says. “When you live in a tribe, you have a big family.”
