A large, late Greek Revival plantation house, Varina sits on land settled by John Rolfe in 1610. The site, still a substantial farm of 2,000 acres, was also the location of the county's earliest courthouse. The house is a substantial fivebay, two-story, hip-roofed structure with tall chimneys and a bracketed cornice. Attached at the east end are a single-story and a two-story wing. Originally a one-story tetrastyle portico with Ionic columns faced the riverfront. This has been partially reerected on the west facade. On the land approach was a similar portico, but it also has been replaced with a porch entirely different in design. In 1864, Union general Benjamin Butler made the house his headquarters. Scars in the exterior brick prove that it was in the line of fire from river gunboats during the Civil War.