Architecture

There are 400 years of history on the Shore, and local architecture has rich and colorful stories to tell. Northampton County bursts with Victorian homes, both grand and modest, which were built between 1880 and 1920 when farmers and railroads were most prosperous.

Because of its geographic isolation and its economic ups and downs, much of the housing stock has retained their original character. Many of the original buildings still stand and are being restored today.

The Shore is most noted for its “big house-little house” architectural style—where additions were added as the homeowner grew more successful, or the family grew!

The big house was attached to a little house then connected to a separate kitchen by an enclosed colonnade. You will see this “big house-little house” style home dotted on farmlands all over the Eastern Shore, but you will rarely see them anywhere else.

Eyre Hall, built in 1750, is an example of the many “big house – little house” found here on the Eastern Shore. Beautiful and rare boxwood gardens open to the public.

Eastville is our county seat—and one of the best preserved colonial-era county complexes in the United States. The oldest continuous court records, dating from 1632, are housed in the main courthouse. Genealogists travel from all over the world to research the court records which chronicle the lives of the descendants of both European and African-American inhabitants of the Shore.

For the thousands of lovers of old Sears homes, there are eleven identified Sears houses in the town of Cape Charles. These “kit” houses, by makers such as Sears, Roebuck & Co. and Montgomery Ward were delivered by rail in kits holding about 30,000 pieces, including nails and complex directions for constructing your dream home.

These homes were popular in the early 1900’s but production stopped in the 1930 depression years when Sears, which owned most of the mortgages on these homes, was forced to foreclose on most of them.