"Pomona, situated near Colonial Beach, appears to date from the late eighteenth century. It has been claimed that it dates from 1775 and that its builder was the Reverend Archibald Campbell who acquired the property in 1760. The house sits on land originally patented by John and Thomas Bowcock in 1666. The most striking characteristic of this house is its floor plan, unusual in that it is a combin
ation of the side-hall and the center-hall plans. The side hall is the first encountered, entered from the outside through double front doors having a classical fan light. The east end of this hall is an original pantry entered off the dining room. the west end of the hall contains the stairs, passing across a window to a landing whence they double back to reach the second floor. Directly in front of the entry doors, across the side hall, is the center hall which divides the rest of the house into two formal rooms, presently the parlor and dining room, each with a fireplace on the north wall. These fireplaces, as well as those in the two large rooms directly overhead, are furnished with interesting mantels. One mantel downstairs has reeded elements and the other has a herringbone pattern found in several other houses in Westmoreland County. These mantels and the accompanying trim contribute to a dating of the house to the late eighteenth century. The windows are of Federal period proportions and appear to have originally held nine-over-nine panes. The exterior walls were of brick until early in this century when they were stuccoed and scored to resemble ashlar masonry.
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The basement at Pomona exhibits foundation walls in five course American bond. During the excavation for a recent addition, another basement wall was found just to the north of the old portion of the house and under a kitchen added c.1900. This discovered wall was laid in English bond, a construction detail typical of the early eighteenth century and seen as well in the basements of The Rochester House and Locust Farm. It is conjectured that this cellar wall may belong to the original house, one possibly named Pomona after the largest of the Orkney Islands by John Shropshire, a Scot, who purchased the property in 1736."
- excerpt from "Westmoreland County Virginia, 1653-1983", edited by Walter Biscoe Norris, Jr.
