Society architect William Lawrence Bottomley faced a similar challenge when he designed the house, built in 1927. His Georgian Revival was a riff on another classic forebear, Westover Plantation. Situated 30 miles west of Richmond, Westover afforded Bottomley access to one of America’s finest examples of 18th-century Georgian architecture. He designed the front steps and fanlit entryway of the Richmond home as near-faithful copies. But the architect added his own stamp with exterior shutters in two styles—louvered (above) and paneled (below)— painted in upstairs-downstairs colors. And, in a bold departure from the traditional Southern center hall, Bottomley created a pinwheel floorplan that opens from a circular foyer with a three-story cantilevered staircase.
