Mount Atlas, State Route 731 vicinity, Waterfall, Prince William County, Virginia

Significance: The two-story, wood-frame house is said to have been constructed ca. 1790 by Peter Whiting. The two-room floor plan was expanded with an addition for a loom house built at the west end of the south elevation. A porch along the west end of the north elevation was built after 1910.

Oral history suggests the second floor was added when the loom house was built. Likely the house faced south and the entry into the heated room (hall) to the east was the front door. There is interior access from the hall into a chamber/parlor to the west.

Presently the stair occupies the northwest corner of the building in this chamber or parlor space and is adjacent to the door opening from the porch. A partition wall across the south creates a stair hall and a private space behind.

Of the original floor plan, an exterior end chimney on the east side elevation warmed the interior of the larger room. The dentil molding and cornice are thought to be original features, although the weatherboards were replaced when the twentieth- century porch was built.

A sketch of the site plan notes a cemetery to the north, and east, of the house as well as a smokehouse off the southeast corner of the dwelling. The road initially ran to the east of the complex but the approach is now from the west.
Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N1071
Survey number: HABS VA-831
Building/structure dates: ca. 1790 Initial Construction
Building/structure dates: after 1910 Subsequent Work
National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 89001799