Clio Logo
Built by General Thomas H. Dennis in 1884, this home displays the style of Italianate architecture. The asymmetrical facade features projecting eaves supported by corbels, elaborate columnn capitols, bay windows, and a porte-cochere or carriage port. The wide central hall opens into large high-ceilinged rooms whose tall windows extend to floor levels. The handsome doors are made of solid walnut.

This house was built by General Thomas H. and Jennie Johnston Dennis in 1884, and they lived in the house the rest of their lives. General Dennis served as a private in the Confederate Army during the Civil War.  He attended Washington College (now Washington and Lee University) and the University of Virginia Law School.  He was an attorney, owner-editor of the Greenbrier Independent newspaper, speaker of the House of Delegates, and Superintendent of Schools. He was a Major General Commander in  the Division of WV United Confederate Veterans.

Gen. Dennis (1846-1933) was a proponent of public education.  In 1870 he wrote, "There may be some doubt as to whether the Free School system is the best to educate the masses, but as we have this system, secured in the fundamental law, there can be no doubt that we ought to have such Schools as will secure to the people the full benefits of the School tax paid by them."

Jennie Johnson Dennis (1854-1926) was from Monroe County and in her obituary it was written she was "prominent in the religious and social life of the community."

Mr. Frank Anschutz purchased the house about 1926.


Rice, Otis K., A History of Greenbrier County. Lewisburg, WV: Greenbrier Historical Society, 1986.

Woods Dayton, Ruth. Lewisburg Landmarks. Charleston, WV: Education Foundation, Inc., 1957.

Bunn Donnally, Morgan. The People of the Old Stone Cemetery: The Burials. Self-published, 2017.