A Guide to Historical Salem

A Guide to Historic Salem -- Volume 4, Number 1 -- Spring 1998

Quilt Exhibit & Raffle at Salem Museum
Salem Has Its Own Historic Registry
Salem Landmarks Listed
An Editorial
Monterey Considered for National Registry
National Registry Lists Ten Salem Sites
Two Brothers and their Mansions
Is This the Oldest Building in Salem?

Quilt Exhibit & Raffle at Salem Museum

By Mary Hill

Just in time for March-our nation's official "Quilting Month"-the Salem Museum is opening a new exhibit to celebrate quiltmaking's long-standing history and its endurance as a contemporary art form. Featuring the work of 11 Virginia women, "Pieces of Virginia: The Quilters Art" will be on display at the Museum through Saturday, June 6.

An exhibition conceived by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, "Pieces of Virginia" represents 11 quilters from across Virginia, including two from Roanoke guilds. Each artist offered a different rendering of three common quilting patterns-the feathered star, the drunkards path, and the log cabin. The exhibit shows the range of artistic interpretation involved in quilting. In a modern reinvention of the traditional log cabin pattern, for example, one quilter framed an open window with a cat peeking from behind billowing curtains. Another saw the drunkards path, traditionally a maze-like design, as three bats flying under a full moon. The results were imaginative, astonishingly intricate and colorful," says Eileen Mott, the exhibition's curator. "[They] genuinely show the unrecognized creative and artistic talents of Virginia's quiltmakers."

In conjunction with the exhibit, an 1840s piecework friendship quilt to be raffled by the Salem Historical Society will be hung for viewing in the museum gallery. The antique quilt, which was donated to the Salem Historical Society in order to raise funds for landscaping, features 16 signed square frames showing floral and symbolic images, including a cross, an anchor, and several memorial wreaths. Contributing the quilt were Mr. & Mrs. Joe Clouser, Mrs. James P. Woods, Jr., Mr. & Mrs. James P. Woods, III, and an anonymous donor. A second place prize, "Under the Mistletoe" by P. Buckley Moss, was donated by Graphics, Etc. Raffle tickets are currently on sale for $1 each at the Salem Museum, Brooks-Byrd Pharmacy, Salem Bookworks, Graphics Etc., Salem Market Antiques, Virginia Showcase Antiques, and other area locations. You may purchase tickets through the mail (5 minimum) by sending a check with your name, address, and phone number to the Salem Historical Society, 801 East Main Street, Salem, VA 24153. All proceeds will go toward a beautification fund for the museum grounds. The winning tickets will be drawn at an open reception at the Museum on May 1, at 4 p.m.

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Salem Has Its Own Historic Registry
Society Picked 38 Structures In 1970s-80s

Salem has its own registry of historic places -- a list of 38 old homes and other structures, each carrying an eight-inch circular plaque proclaiming it as a "Salem Virginia Landmark."

The landmarks were selected in the 1970s and 1980s by a group calling itself the "Save Old Salem Committee," which later evolved into the Salem Historical Society. The selected structures include eight that have been designated for the Virginia and National Registry of Historic Places and the Virginia Registry of Historic Landmarks. (See article Page 6.).

But many more were selected, including nearly thirty of Salem's oldest and architecturally most interesting homes that have never made the national or state registries. Most are 100 years old or more. Most are private homes of Salem families, with a history of additions and changes and previous owners.

Although it is impossible to certify categorically which building is oldest, that honor probably goes either to Preston Place (see separate article this page) or the Post House, built in 1812, now a part of St. Paul's Episcopal Church.

Dr. Warren Moorman, a leader of "Save Old Salem," said the structures were selected on the basis of seven criteria: age, historic importance, architectural significance, importance because of location, length of occupancy by same family or business, beauty, and/or special merit. Professor W.L. Whitwell of Hollins College helped develop the criteria.

The Save Old Salem Committee was organized in 1970 at a time when many old buildings, including the Williams-Brown House on Main Street, were threatened. Roanoke lawyer James H. Fulghum Jr., who had lived as a small boy in the Williams-Brown House, played a leading role in forming the committee.

At the organization's first meeting in March, 1970, Fulghum pointed out there were then only a half dozen buildings pre-dating the Civil War left on Main Street. "If these were whooping cranes instead of buildings, conservationists would rise up by the thousands," he said. "It's obvious that once a bulding is destroyed, it is just as extinct as a species, and just impossible to replace."

The group formed a Nominating Committee headed by Mildred Chapman and G. Bennett Myers. Members included C. E. Webber and Drs. Moorman and W. T. Norris. About 50 nominations were received, and 27 were selected in March, 1972, for the initial awards. All were homes (that is, they began life as homes, at least) except The Salem Presbyterian Church, the county courthouse, the Academy School, and Ft. Lewis Baptist Church. Periodic additional selections since then have increased the number to 38.

Grace Smythe designed the medallion, featuring the Salem logo -- a standing dove, its wings out-stretched with sprig in its beak -- and the society had the plaques cast in aluminum.

The first plaques were presented Sunday, June 26, 1977, at church services at Ft. Lewis Baptist Church and St. Paul's Episcopal Church for the Post House. Other plaques, about 25, were presented at the locations later in the day.

In later years, the group periodically has issued lists of old homes and other structures, including those approved to receive plaques and others. One listed 51 buildings. They also have approved others for plaques.

However, three homes that were approved for plaques later were torn down. They are, or were, Bittersweet at 408 E. Main St., Intervale at the end of Midland Road, and the Ordinary House at 318 E. Main.

The eventual number of existing structures approved for plaques stands at 38.

Unlike acceptance for the national and state registries, the Salem designation does not encumber the property owner's freedom to dispose of the property. It is, Dr. Moorman wrote to the designated property owners in 1977, "a way of recognizing and saying thank you for your interest in something of which the community is proud."

Here is a thumbnail sketch of those structures, very generally (but by no means precisely) in order of age, as best age can be determined:

1. Preston Place: See article, photo, Page 1.

2. The Post House, 42 E Main, one of Salem's oldest buildings, served as a clearing house and way station for mail in the early nineteenth century. According to a history of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, which now owns it, the house was built in 1812 by Jacob Stevens. Architectural historian W. L. Whitwell dates it about 1820. In 1864, Stevens' son, Jacob H. B. Stevens, sold it to a Col. Green B. Board. In ensuing years, and a number of families occupied it, reportedly including the family of Mrs. W. Frank Chapman Sr., who was born there. It also housed a millinery shop and tea room/restaurant at various times. The porch on Main Street, a twentieth century addition, infringes onto the sidewalk, an infringement that is allowed because of the historic nature of the building. The church bought the property in 1952.

3. Johnston-Tinsley House, 617 W. Main. Papers found in the home indicate it was built in 1840 by John W. Johnston on a portion of an 800-acre tract sold to his father in 1818 from what appears to be Salem's oldest land patent, and descendants occupied the home until the 1980's. They included Helen Galloway Johnston, one of Johnston's six children, and her husband, William H. Tinsley. One of their children, Lillian Tinsley Brown (1900-1983), lived in the home until about 1980. She and nearly all of the other members of the Johnston and Tinsley families who have lived in the home are buried in a private cemetery on the hill just behind the home. The home was sold in 1984 to Barry and Lynn Lester, and Mrs. Lester is the current occupant. The home is made of bricks made by slaves on the premises and still has the original wide plank pine flooring

4. Mount Airy, ca. 1845; see article, photo p. 12

5. Belle Aire, 1849, see article, photo p 12.

6. Duncan House, 202 N. Broad. Dan H. Phlegar, the owner, says he was told this house was built in 1852. The 1873 map of Salem lists it in the name of Miss B. D. Coles. It was purchased by Archer Gills Duncan about the turn of the century. His daughter, Mary B. Duncan, one of the few early women graduates of Roanoke College in 1901, lived here many years during an outstanding career as a teacher in both Roanoke and Salem schools, until her retirement in 1953. A single woman, Ms. Duncan left the home to four families jointly. Ms. Susan B. French bought it from the group in 1968, and Phlegar bought it after Ms. French, who was a cousin, died in 1993. The house is a typical I-form with central hall and staircase, two rooms, up and down, on each side and kitchen in the rear. Mr. and Mrs. Phlegar are renting the house to students until they decide precisely what to do with it.

7. Pleasant Grove, 4377 W Main, was built in 1853 for Joseph Deyerle. Roughly cube-shaped, the house is a four-over-four Georgian eighteenth century derivation, with four chimneys, two on each end of the house. Its six Ionic columns represent some of the finest Greek Revival detail in the Roanoke Valley, the work of Gustavus Sedon (1820-93), a well-known German woodcarver. who helped in the construction of many of the area's finer homes of the period. Sedon's journal indicates Deyerle was charged 50 cents each for the home's four carved mantelpieces. The home in Glenvar is mow occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Cabell G. Layne and owned by them and her brother, Thomas F. Beason.

8. Monterey, 110 High St. See article, photo Page 2.

9. The Elms, 608 E. Main, was the home of William McCauley, author of the massive "History of Roanoke County, Salem and Roanoke City." The house appears to date from the early 1850s. The walls of the original home were of log, covered externally with clapboard and internally with plaster. Nathaniel Burwell sold it in 1852 to John W. and Mary Day. Peter Shirey bought it in 1856 from the Days and a year later sold it to his son-in-law, McCauley, who not long before had married Shirey's daughter Margaret Jane. William and "Maggie" raised ten children in the home while William served as Clerk of the County and Circuit Courts. In that position, he collected and saved historical data, which he compiled into his authoritative history. Dr. J. William McCauley, a son of William and Maggie, and a minister, built an addition to the home's east side, and others additions followed. At least 18 children have been born in this house. One of McCauley's grandchildren, Dorothy McCauley Butler, her husband and family, now live in the old homeplace.

10. Wells House, 342 High St. This unique home was built in 1854 by S. Carson Wells, one of about six students who moved to Salem in 1847 from the Virginia Collegiate Institute in Augusta County when it moved to Salem to become Roanoke College. He rose to become a leading member of the college faculty and citizen of Salem until his death in 1900. One of his sons, Pitzer Wells, lived in the home for a long time; he was confined to a wheelchair for years in his later life. The home later belonged to Mrs. Fred Prosser who made it into two apartments. Mr. & Mrs. Fielding L. Logan, Jr. purchased it later and converted it back into a single residence. With its iron fence around the front, it is an outstanding example of the beautiful old homes that have graced High St. for over 100 years. The home is now owned and occupied by Mr. and Mrs. David L. Foster.

11. Oak Grove, 5061 Bruceton Rd. SW. This home, at the end of Bruceton Road south of Salem in Roanoke County, was built in 1854. It was constructed of bricks made on the place, by Gustavus A. Sedon, a German cabinetmaker who came to Virginia, married a local woman and did much of the work on many fine old homes in the area, as well as Hollins College. It remained in that family for 110 years, until 1964, when Frank Martin bought it. He sold it to Mr. and Mrs. Lester Collier, who sold it to Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Smith, the current occupants, in 1981. The building features four large rooms in the original house, each with a fireplace, wide pine board floors and bricks molded by the slaves of the Deyerle family. Currently, the house, at the end of Briceton Road Family south of Salem in Roanoke County, is occupied by Sidney Smith and family.

12. Fort Lewis Baptist Church, 4215 W. Main. This church building was built in 1854-55 with slave labor. Although greatly expanded, its exterior looks today much as it did when built. An earlier church building for the congregation had been built around 1824 in the vicinity of today's East Hill Cemetery. Originally, the current building had a doorway on the right side leading to the balcony where black members of the church came to worship, a custom later discontinued. As late as 1920, curtains divided the original single room of the building into classes for Sunday School. The building was heated by two coal stoves, and long single benches filled the room from side to side; instead of a center aisle, a long wooden strip reaching from front to back divided the benches, with men sitting on one side and women on the other. The front churchyard had a wooden stile used by ladies to mount their horses. The baptismal pool was the creek bed across the side road and the nearby Roanoke River. In 1949, the two-story educational plant on the east side of the building was constructed, and another 10,000 square feet of rooms was added in 1964.

13. Stearns House, 335 High Street. Built around 1855, this lovely home, made of brick said to have been made on the place, features unique craftsmanship, including six-sided columns on the front porch supporting a roof with a checkered design that somewhat matches the glass in and about the front door. The center hall, with a room on either side having a fireplace, includes a staircase with impressive scroll work and trim. Zebulon Boon sold the property in 1869, when it had about 5 acres of land, to J.B. Bransford. In 1887, the property was sold to John L. Stearnes, and it has remained in that family since. Dr. Stearnes' granddaughter, Constance Austin, lived in the home many years, and since her death in 1985 it has been owned and occupied by her grandson and his wife, Joe and Ellen Austin.

14. Stonewall, 429 Cleveland Ave., was built in 1855 by Capt. James H. Peck, who served during the Civil War under Stonewall Jackson. Returning after the war, he named the home for his former commander, and the area around his home became known as Stonewall or "Stonewall Forest." Peck sold the home to Helen H. Halton of Pueblo, Colo., about 1894, and Mrs. Halton, sold it to Dr. D. R. Carpenter in 1920. The Carpenters restored it substantially before selling it to Richard and Betty Peery who owned it in 1970. At some point, a wing of the building burned. The current owners, Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Dov, who bought it in 1994, have added a wing and done additional restoration. A smoke house is in the rear. The original flooring is in the living room, dining room and master bedroom. The brick portion of the house is about four courses thick. As this issue went to press, the home was being offered for sale.

15. Griffin House, 12 Union St. The Early Republic brick building at rear of this house, one of oldest structures in Salem, originally served as a residence but became a slave quarters when the larger house was constructed about 1853. There are stories that the house served earlier as a factory that produced chewing tobacco. In 1878, Abraham Deyerle and his wife Dolly, then residents of Georgia, sold this property to Claudia B. Griffin for $2,350. She and her husband, Judge Wingfield Griffin (1845-1930), a Confederate veteran who served as Judge of the County Court from 1874 until 1891, apparently then remodeled the building into one of Salem's finest houses. After World War II, Mrs. Howard Butts and Mrs. Billy Northcross Ellis founded North Cross School here. It currently is owned by Joel Spencer. The Georgian style house has six fireplaces. The walls are handmade brick, and the woodwork is impressive.

16. Painter House, 424 High St. The original part of this house, apparently a four room frame, was constructed in 1857 by Robert H. Holland, a Salem civic leader. After short ownerships by Holland and two others, Peter Schickel, a Lutheran pastor, bought it in 1870. On his death in 1884, the property passed to his daughter, Laura, the wife of F. V. N. Painter, a Roanoke College professor. The Painters, who occupied the property for 42 years and raised seven children in it, expanded it during the 1880s and 1890s, with additions and the wrap-around porch giving it its Victorian appearance, with seven rooms downstairs and six up. Six of the Painter's seven children graduated from Roanoke College, including their daughter Ruth, who married the Lincoln scholar James G. Randal and who became, herself, a Lincoln scholar of some distinction. Nine families have occupied the home since the Painters, including the current owners and occupants, Mr. and Mrs. T. C. Rohrbach.

17. Old Episcopal Rectory, 301 W. Main St. This home apparently was built about the time of the Civil War, although the exact year is in doubt. In 1888, John W. Younger, who may have been the builder, and his wife sold the property to Anna C. Logan, and she sold it in 1893 to the "Protestant Episcopal Church" to be used as a rectory, giving the building its name. In 1905, St. Paul's Episcopal Church sold it to Louise A. Pulliam, and about a year later the Pulliams sold it back to the Logan family, Georgine W. Logan, where it remained for many years. The current owners and occupants, Mr. and Mrs. Thayer Morrison, bought it from the Logan estate in 1979. Built in a T shape with the kitchen far to back, the wood frame home has a center hallway with large rooms on either side. The home includes coal fireplaces in the front rooms and an open dining room with windows on both sides.

18. Gale House, 4909 Cave Spring Ln. SW (Roanoke). This beautiful home in Cave Spring, although not in Salem, was built in by Dr. Joseph A. Gale, a Confederate veteran who came to Cave Spring after the Civil War. The original home was an I-plan with two rooms up and two downstairs. In 1881, Dr. Gale, who had maintained a clinic in the home, became the chief surgeon for the Norfolk & Western Railway and moved his family to Big Lick. In cooperation with his son Dr. Sparrel Gale (who was born in the house) and Dr. Joseph Newton Lewis, Dr. Gale founded Lewis-Gale Hospital in 1911. A Dr. White bought the house from the Gales and lived there about fifty years. In 1981 it was purchased by Mr. and Mrs. Paul Higginbotham, who restored it and built a two-story addition and a swimming pool. The Higginbothams sold the home to Mr. and Mrs. Terry A. Phelps. current owners, in 1994.

19. Fair View, 228 Richfield Ave. was built in 1866-7 on a hill overlooking Salem. It is made of dark brick, in the Valley of Virginia I-form, ornamented with Italianate brackets, ornate window lintels and elaborate carved work around the front porch and eves. The house was built by John H. Palmer, a transplanted northerner who married Columbia Chapman (who lived in nearby Monterey). The house eventually passed to their daughter, Annie, and then, on her death, to her husband, Dr. George Kolmar, who had roomed at the home while attending Roanoke College. Dr. Kolmar later married his nurse, Emma Cook, and they raised three children in the home. After his death in 1954, the home was sold in 1961 to Harvey and Muriel Bredlow, who raised two daughters there, and in 1992 to Lon and Virginia Savage, the current occupants. The two-acre property includes several additions and a large barn/carriage house in the rear, the second floor of which has been converted into a loft apartment.

20. Rice House, 223 N. Broad. Built in 1867 by Salem attorney D. B. Strouse with handmade bricks laid 18 inches thick, this striking home features high ceilings, wide arches, and four full baths, a commanding foyer, drawing room, library, guest room, dining room and kitchen, and, most striking of all, a two-story front porch with double set of Corinthian columns. The house still has the original fireplace in each room, including all six bedrooms. The bricks, like those on the Evans house next door, were kilned across the street, and some interior walls also are brick. The porch, according to the family, is not the original. Strouse's son Clarence saw a porch like this one on a trip to Chicago and was able to convince the owner to lend him the architectural plans, with which he replaced the old porch on the Salem home. The home remained in the Strouse family for the first 100 years. After Mrs. Lily Strouse Rice died at age 91 in 1963, the home passed to Mr. & Mrs. Howard Rice, third generation to own and occupy it. Richard and Jenny Proctor, current occupants, bought the home in 1973.

21. Windsor, 210 Richfield Ave. This lovely home originally faced Burwell Street and has a richly ornamented one-story porch and entrance on that side. Now, you enter via the long curved driveway rising from Richfield Avenue, fronted with an iron grate fence, to what was formerly the side or back part of the house. An early Salem map shows the home, built in 1866-68, was the property of D. Gibson Armstrong. It was later sold to a Capt. S. F. Simmons. M. G. McClung, Salem lawyer and newspaper editor, owned the home at the turn of the century but, the story goes, moved his family to a smaller home on Union Street (see No. 22 below) because too many relatives visited him there. The home was built in the old farm house tradition of a T shape, with many of the same characteristics and materials as the old Palmer House next door. Mr. and Mrs. T. A. Carter, Jr., purchased it in 1957 from the estate of I. G. White and have lived there since. They renovated a building in the back yard for an office, with a large fireplace and picture window looking over back of property.

22. Gazebo at Lake Spring Park. This gazebo, or bandstand, stood in the front yard of the original Roanoke County Courthouse that was built in 1841. When the old courthouse was razed to make way for a new one in 1909, the gazebo, at the request of the Salem Silver Cornet Band, was moved to Spring Lake. The Confederate monument replaced it in 1910. The oldest photos of the old courthouse, with horses and buggies and crowds around it on "court day," show the old bandstand apparently in the 1870s period. After its move to Spring Lake, the gazebo was repaired and painted and has sheltered bands for innumerable summertime concerts over the years. At one point the gazebo was in the middle of a pond and people paddled to it in boats. The gazebo was made a Salem landmark in 1979.

23. Duval-Oakey House, 206 Calhoun St. This striking Victorian brick home was built about 1880 by W. D. F. Duval, well-known Salem hotel proprietor and businessman, as his home. Duval was also the builder in 1871 of a well-known three-story brick hotel a block away on the crest of Main Street hill, initially named Duval House that later became the Fort Lewis Hotel before it was demolished in 1974. The Oakey family bought this home in about 1915 and occupied it many years. Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Murphy, who bought it in 1989, report the building once housed an ice cream parlor as well as a clock merchant and antique dealers who rented some of the rooms, and it also was vacant for an undetermined period. The home boasts seven fireplaces and floors of white oak. The Murphys live in the home and operate "Ornamentally Speaking," a Christmas ornaments shop, in it.

24. Allemong House, 405 Pennsylvania Ave.. This huge Victorian home was built in 1889 during Salem's boom years by one of the movers and shakers of that period, J. W. F. Allemong, president of the Salem Improvement Company and also president of Salem Machine Works and Comas Cigarette Machine Co. Allemong also built the similar home next door at 415 Pennsylvania for his son, J. E. Allemong. W. R. Kime, bought the property in about 1906, two years after J.W.F. Allemong's death, and the Kime family lived here for the next 38 years. Frank L. Wright bought it in 1948, and the current owner and occupant, Steven M. Reynolds, bought it from the Wright estate in 1985. The home, features two small balconies outside a second floor sitting room. Inlaid fans decorate the cornices culminating in teardrops at the corners, with a great deal of ginberbread surrounding the front porch. High on the outside is a sunburst repeated in other areas, and etched glass panels flank the restored front door.

25. O.D. Oakey House, 212 N. Broad St.. Built in 1889, this Victorian home is a variation on the Valley of Virginia two-story I-house. It features a charming three-level semioctagonal tower, gables, textured shingles, brackets, cutouts, spindles and turrets. It was built by O. D. Oakey, owner of a hardware supply company, co-owner of the town's main hotel, a member of Town Council, manager of a newly developed telephone company and operator of Camden Iron Works. Legend is that Oakey bought one of Salem's first automobiles and built Salem's first garage, which remains behind the house today. The home stayed in the Oakey family into the late 1920s and reportedly served as a rooming house at some later point. Charles and Margaret Shenberger renovated the home in the 1970s, and Tom and Carolyn King, who bought it from the Shenbergers, added porches in the rear in 1988.

26. Queen Anne House, 103 Union St. At the southwest corner of Union and Calhoun Streets, this example of the Queen Anne style of architecture was built in the 1886-1890 period. Dr. R. M. Wiley, the owner in 1902, sold it that year to M. G. McClung, lawyer and editor of the Salem Sentinel. The story goes that McClung wanted a smaller home than "Windsor," his erstwhile home on Richfield Avenue which seemed to attract too many relatives (see "Windsor" above No. 16). The Union Street house features numerous fan type decorations and spindles, especially around the porch. The cupola over the front bay window embodies a small second story balcony, which, while artistic, was probably little used. The front door is carved with Greek- and Roman-style urns and garlands. The home is now owned and occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Woodford "Mac" Green.

27. Creston, 917 Lynchburg Turnpike. The 1891 map of Salem shows Creston as a house and property of more than 20 acres in the triangle formed by the juncture of the Lynchburg Turnpike and East Main Street. The current owner, Mrs. A. B. Larson, says she understands it was built in the 1820s. It apparently was owned in 1891 by a Captain Ferguson, and its history is tied closely to the Ferguson family. James Chalmers, Salem's first mayor and a president of Farmers National Bank at the time, owned it in 1893 when he sold it to Mrs. Mary C. Ferguson, wife of W. A. Ferguson and mother of Chalmers Ferguson (who was to buy it back from her in 1903). Douglas Bunting sold the property in 1935 to Louise L. Apperson (widow), who sold it in 1954 to Sarah R. St. John. Mrs. Larson, a cousin of Ms. St. John, has occupied the home since 1974. It has seven working fireplaces, home-kilned bricks, original window panes, Bruton English style window casements and lintels, and a slate roof.

28. Chandler House, 355 N. Broad. The owners of this charming home, Mr. and Mrs. W. Rivers Claytor, believe it was selected as a landmark because of the unique corkscrew-shaped stairway, somewhat like one at Monticello; however, even they do not have a full history of the house. Mrs. Claytor says they have heard it was built in about 1890 by "a brigadier general from Queen Victoria's army," but they have no further information about him. They also do not know the Chandler name by which the house is designated. The home has had minor alterations, and the Claytors have added a carefully-selected siding to match the original wood, but otherwise it looks much as it did a century ago. Previous owners known to the Claytors include a family named Hardwick, who owned it during World War II, and Mr. and Mrs. Henry Brandt, from whom the Claytors purchased it in about 1980. The Claytors are quite modest about their home, pleased that it was selected as a landmark but not entirely certain why.

29. Butts House, 102 Market Street. James Fulghum was able to gather some information on this interesting old house, but one wishes there were more. Its old, dark red bricks are apparently hand made. That, its placement so close to the corner of Market and Clay Streets, and its architecture -- the chimneys at either end of the building and the heavy lintels above the windows -- would seem to place this house well back into the nineteenth century. Fulghum's research showed the home was sold in 1907 by Robert C. Holland to W. R. and Roma Johnson, who sold it to E. G. Butts in 1929, who lived there 25 or more years. It later was owned by Dr. H. U. Butts. Stories about the house are that it served as one of Salem's early post offices; W. B. Persinger lived in it home several years; and at an earlier time it served as rental property. These fragments of history unfortunately do not come together into a whole very well. At present, the house is owned by John Gregory, an attorney, who rents it to students.

30. Judge Hansbrough House, 115 Union St. This fine Victorian home was built by Judge Livingston Hansbrough for his bride-to-be, Louise Logan, in 1903. It was built for entertaining, according to Mrs. Margaret Preston, the current owner. "If they were not partying at 115 Union Street they were partying at the Schickel home on College and Boulevard (now Oakey's Funeral home)," she said. Judge Hansbrough enjoyed his home with Louise and three children fifteen years. After his death, Mrs. Louise Hansbrough married Senator Harvey B. Apperson, a lover of horses, and he built a home in the country on a road later named Apperson Drive. They sold 115 Union Street to S. V. Preston and his wife in 1922. Baudin Preston inherited the home in 1944, and it is still owned by his widow, Mrs. Preston. The frame home, with porch and three gables in front, has 11-foot ceilings, ten fireplaces, and a striking walnut arched doorway leading from the front foyer to the curved staircase in the rear.

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Salem Landmarks Listed
This list was prepared for publication in Vol. 4, No. 1, of Historic Salem, but was not published for lack of space. Because of its brevity, however, it may be useful to some.

1. Preston Place, 1936 West Main St.

2. Post House, 42 East Main St.

3. Johnston-Tinsley House, 617 W. Main St.

4. Mount Airy, VA Medical Center

5. Belle Aire, 3820 Belle Aire Circle (County)

6. Duncan House, 202 N. Broad St.

7. Pleasant Grove, 4377 W. Main St. )

8. Monterey, 110 High St.

9. The Elms, 608 E. Main St.

10. Wells House, 342 High St.

11. Oak Grove, 5061 Bruceton Rd. SW

12. Fort Lewis Baptist Church, 4215 W. Main St.

13. Stearns House, 335 High St.

14. Stonewall, 429 Cleveland Ave.

15. Griffin/New Castle, 12 Union St.

16. Painter House, 424 High St.

17. Old Episcopal Rectory, 301 W. Main

18. Gale House, 4909 Cave Spring Ln. SW

19. Fair View, 228 Richfield Ave.

20. Rice House, 223 N. Broad St.

21. Windsor, 210 Richfield Ave.

22. Gazebo at Lake Spring

23. Duval-Oakey House, 206 Calhoun St.

24. Allemong House, 405 Pennsylvania Ave.

25. O.D. Oakey House, 212 N. Broad St.

26. Queen Anne House, 103 Union St.

27. Creston House, 917 Lynchburg Tpk.

28. Chandler House, 335 N. Broad St.

29. Butts House, 102 N. Market St.

30. Hansbrough House, 115 Union St.

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An Editorial
Let's Expand the List

This issue of Historic Salem, with twelve pages for the first time (compared to our usual eight), describes 38 structures that have been selected for Salem's own registry of historic landmarks. It is, to our knowledge, the first time all have been described in a single publication.

It is hoped that this information will stimulate continuing interest not only in these fine old buildings but also in others that could just as well be -- and probably should be -- among them. And it is also hoped the publication will stimulate preservation and restoration of as many such buildings as possible.

These homes and other structures were selected in the 1970s and 1980s by a progressive group of citizens who called themselves the "Save Old Salem" Committee, and our community is a better one because of them.

The buildings and their histories tell a history of Salem. They tell of arrivals and departures, of families new and old; of births and deaths; of citizens' achievements and citizens' frustrations; of new developments in government, business, industry, education, religion, family life, customs, and much more. . They tell of change.

At the same time, they should not be accepted without question. Generally, the histories published here are based on readily available information that was rather hastily assembled from well-known sources in recent weeks. Because there are 38 of them, original research on each was not feasible. Perhaps the most valuable source of information was a series of splendid articles about old Salem homes written by Roanoke attorney James Fulghum, the primary founder of Save Old Salem, in the early 1970s and published in the Salem Times-Register at that time. Some of the histories are based on extensive private, and even professional, research done in the past. But others are based on anecdotal information only.

But the list is not represented as comprehensive. Many deserving buildings were not nominated for consideration, and only about half those nominated were accepted. A glaring omission is that of the First Baptist Church sanctuary, the oldest African American church in Salem, built by former slaves shortly after the Civil War. Had that building been declared a historic Salem landmark 20 years ago, one wonders if it would be in such danger of loss today.

It is time to crank this program up again and add some names to that list.

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Monterey Considered for National Registry

An application has been filed to have "Monterey," the famous old home on the hill behind the Roanoke County Courthouse, placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The application was filed by Mrs. Katherine A. Burke, owner, with the assistance of the Salem Historical Society. The application seeks to place both the home and its outbuildings on the state and national registries. That includes the so-called "Burke's Cabin," the story-and-a-half "tan yard house" near the corner of Thompson Memorial Boulevard and Clay Street, which was cited in 1996 as one of the ten most endangered historic sites in the Roanoke Valley.

A decision is expected in April ??? If approved, the "Monterey" property would become Salem's eleventh entry on the national register and automatically also would be entered on the Virginia Register of Historic Landmarks.

The two-story brick house, designed with Greek Revival exterior detail, was built of bricks made on the premises in about 1853, for prominent Salem businessman Powell H. Huff .

Salem hostler Henry H. Chapman (1793-1863) acquired it in 1862, and in 1864 the house and 2.5 acres were sold to Chapman's daughter Columbia Ann Palmer, in the settlement of Chapman's estate. In 1871, Mrs. Palmer, who lived in the home for a time with her husband, John H. Palmer, sold it to Mrs. L. L. Monteiro. In 1885 it was acquired by Sarah H. McFarland, who, with a sister, developed it into an exclusive turn-of-the-century summer resort. In 1920 the property was sold to Ella Price, and she and her husband, M. S. Price, leased rooms for use as the Kappa Alpha fraternity house. In 1925, the Prices sold Monterey to Mr. and Mrs. Charles Allen Albert, who remodeled it, and the property was deeded in 1947 to their daughter, Mrs. Burke, who lives there today.

Architecturally, its tripartite facade and cruciform plan may be unique in the Roanoke Valley, according to the application. The plan seems more akin to a classical Greek Revival style found more often in the north and in Virginia's larger cities than in Southwest Virginia.

The home features 12 rooms and a two-story entrance hall. A three-run stair rises from the entrance hall to a balcony with access to the upstairs bedrooms. Parlors also open off the entrance hall, and the west parlor has a late nineteenth century marbled slate mantel with an arched fireplace opening.

The house is depicted in Edward Beyer's famous painting of Salem, done shortly after the house was completed.

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National Registry Lists Ten Salem Sites
Salem has ten entries on the National and Virginia Registers of Historic Places -- two church buildings, three public buildings, three old homes, a college complex, and the historic district of downtown Salem.

All were selected between 1972 and 1996. The Williams-Brown House-Store was the first to be selected, in 1972. The Salem Camp Meeting Association at Third and Colorado Streets was last in 1996.

The sites range in age from the Roanoke College administrative building, constructed in 1847 and thought to be the oldest, to the former Salem Post Office, which, like the Camp Meeting Association buildings, was constructed in the 1920s. Three of the nine buildings on the registry were built in the twentieth century.

Here are the historic places, listed generally in order of age:

1. Williams-Brown House-Store, 801 E. Main St. One of Salem's most famous buildings, the Williams-Brown House-Store was built about 1845 as a residence and general store on Main Street and Craig Avenue, a part of the "Great Road West," by William C. Williams. Born in England in 1775, Williams found his way to Salem where he established himself as a leading builder, merchant, hotel keeper and family man (he and his wife had 14 children). He was best known as the builder of Roanoke County's first courthouse. He died in 1852 at age 77. In the estate settlement, the building was purchased by J.R.C. Brown Sr., whose son was husband of one of Williams' daughters and also administrator of the estate, and it remained in the Brown family for more than a century, until 1963. In the 1930s, the Kappa Alpha fraternity at Roanoke College rented the building as a chapter house, and a decade later it was used as apartments. After years of abandonment, William Watts donated the property to the Salem Historical Society, which moved the building to its current site in Longwood Park. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. After extensive renovations, it opened as The Salem Museum in June 1992. Professor W. L. Whitwell and Lee W. Winborne describe it as a rare surviving example of mid-nineteenth century commercial vernacular architecture in Salem and, as such, an extremely important building.. As such, it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971, the first Salem building to gain that honor.

2. Roanoke College's Administration Building and Bittle Hall. The Administration building was built in 1847, five years after the college moved to Salem, making it the oldest building on the campus. By 1854, the additions of west and east wings were completed, and the third floor was added in 1902. The building now houses administrative offices including those of the President and Dean of Students. Bittle Memorial Hall, named for the Rev. David F. Bittle, founder and first president of the college, was built in 1878 and served as the college library for 83 years. The early Gothic Revival style building, like the Administration Building, was placed on the National Registry in 1972.

3. Salem Presbyterian Church, Main at Market. Within twenty years after its organization, Salem's Presbyterian congregation outgrew its original church building on Academy Street and erected this building in 1851-2 with bricks fired on premises. The Greek Revival structure, an important Salem landmark, incorporates Ionic columns, paneled Doric pilasters, distinctive detailing around the doors, and especially the center doorcase (which, along with the columns, may be the work of contemporary carpenter Gustavus Sedon). The spire of the original tower, with three sections, was replaced twice, most recently in 1926 when the present canopy and lantern were constructed. The main building looks much as it did in the 1800s. The front porch is one of best places in the Roanoke Valley to see nineteenth century brickwork with its various colors, surfaces, and unusual white-lined mortar joints. Placed on the National Register in 1974.

4. The Old Manse, 530 E. Main. Built in 1847 by John Day, blacksmith, this building was sold in 1854 to the Salem Presbyterian Church as a home for its first full-time minister. It continued as a parsonage until 1939, when Dr. Leroy Gresham retired and built his own home (which is now the Roanoke College President's home on Market Street). Two years later, Fielding L. and Jean M. Logan bought it and restored it. Their improvements include a garden terrace surrounded by a serpentine brick wall, designed by the late Stanley Abbott. After two other owners, it was purchased in 1968 by the current occupants, Mrs. Charlotte Griffith and her daughter and son-in-law, and now serves as sewing store, "Stitchin' Station," and a bed-and-breakfast. Placed on the National Register in 1992.

5. Evans-Webber House, 213 Broad St. A lavish example of Second French Empire architecture, this house was built in 1882 by John Evans, a Salem civic leader, as a wedding present to his French wife, according to family tradition. The house features a steep mansard roof combined with various Neo-Renaissance motifs: bracketed cornices, rich use of moldings and gingerbread and the shape of pediments over the windows and columns and pilasters on the front porch. The house has 13-foot ceilings and cast-iron windowsills. James and Stella Reinhard, the current owners, made significant renovations in 1995, including opening up the interior of the impressive tower. Placed on the National Register in 1972.

6. Academy Street School, 121 Academy St. at Clay These two buildings, of Italian style of Flemish bond construction, served public school students for most of a century, ending in 1977. The Primary School, on right in photo, was constructed in 1890 and used for lower grades; the second school was added in 1895 for upper levels. Older school once had a Second Empire mansard tower, which housed the fire escape, according to students. The older building's unusual floor plan had classrooms opening on an octagonal central hall, which is retained. Called Academy Court, the two buildings now house apartment/condominiums. Placed on the National Register in 1981.

7. Former Roanoke County Courthouse, Main at College, now a part of Roanoke College, was erected in 1909. H. H. Hudgins was the architect, using American interpretation of French Second Empire style, with four massive Ionic columns and eagle-topped cupola overhead containing a four-faced "town clock." Dr. F.V.N. Painter, in a "Dedication Ode," described the new building as a "massive fane of law, that borrows grace from Grecian art." The building sits on the site of the county's first courthouse, a two-story, red brick, white-columned structure built in 1838-41 where authority was given to construct a "whipping post to be placed in the east side of the courthouse and in the rear of the fence." The original courthouse lasted until 1909, when the floors and walls were found to be decaying so badly that the building was razed and replaced. This one, too, lasted about 70 years as a courthouse, until 1980, when Roanoke County built its present courthouse immediately to the east of this building. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987. Purchased by Roanoke College in 1987, the building, following extensive renovation in 1996, now houses 14 classrooms, two seminar rooms and 45 faculty offices and study lounges.

8. Old Salem Post Office, 301 East Main. Constructed in 1923 in a program that introduced great architecture to many towns across the nation, this was Salem's first federally owned postal building. It closed as a post office in 1985, when the new Salem Post Office opened several blocks west on Main Street, and in 1988 Salem physician Dr. Richard Fisher bought it from the Postal Service. He had it refurbished, maintaining the look and feel of the old post office. The building is one-and-one-half story, five-bay, brick Georgian Revival style post office with central entrance, pedimented Doric door surround, recessed arched panels, deep cornice with baluster-accented parapet, and shallow recessed mansard roof with gabled skylight. Placed on the National Register in 1992.

9. Salem Camp Meeting Association, 202 E. 3d St. People have assembled in the two buildings of this association, a 1922 tabernacle and a dormitory built a few years later, to praise God and participate in old-time country religion for more than 70 years. The principal building replaced a barn-like wooden building, known as the Tabernacle built in 1901 by Confederate veteran and industrialist Demetrius Bittle Strouse (ca 1830-1915) for evangelical meetings. The Camp Meeting Association is an outgrowth of the Southwest Virginia Holiness Association, a mid-nineteenth century of Methodism. The movement reinforced traditional rural values through the "distinctly rural form of the camp meeting," the organization stated in seeking acceptance in the national registry. The Southwest Virginia Holiness Association officially changed its name to the Salem Camp Meeting Association in 1953, in part to dissociate itself from Pentecostalism, "a radical version of the Holiness Movement that gained popularity in Appalachia during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries," the organization has said. Dr. Richard H. Fisher, who earlier had gotten Salem's old post office placed on the national registry, was instrumental in getting these buildings placed on the registry in 1996.

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Two Brothers and their Mansions
The Pitzer brothers were men of substance, and their homes showed it in pre-Civil War Roanoke County. In fact, their homes still show it today, 150 years later.

They were Madison and Jeremiah Pitzer, sons of Bernard and Julia Kyle Pitzer of Botetourt. Madison was born in about 1800, Jeremiah some 14 or 15 years later. They were well connected from the start: kin to President Madison, other relatives with land on the upper James, etc. Madison married a great granddaughter of General Andrew Lewis. Both positioned themselves to take maximum advantage of business opportunities in the developing Roanoke Valley area. By the time Roanoke County was carved out of Botetourt in 1838, both owned a considerable amount of land property.

In about 1845, Jeremiah built a large T-shaped mansion, which he named "Edge Hill" and which was later renamed "Mount Airy," on the plateau overlooking the Roanoke River and Masons Creek. It commanded -- and still does -- a magnificent view of the river and mountains to the west. Mount Airy is now a part of the VA Medical Center.

Madison built his mansion, named "Belle Aire," in 1849, also on a bluff, perhaps a half mile away overlooking the river from the other side. Belle Aire is now 3820 Belle Aire Circle, off Route 419 behind Lewis Gale Hospital in Roanoke County. It is on the national and state registries of historic places.

Madison owned as many s 3,000 acres at one point; Jeremiah owned only several hundred acres, but his land commanded a higher price. Madison had more than 30 slaves; Jeremiah perhaps a dozen. They say the brothers not only enjoyed their homes; they enjoyed looking out across the valley to each other's homes.

In addition to farming, the family operated a mill by the river, and it also did well. When the Virginia & Tennessee Railroad (now the Norfolk Southern) came in 1852, the track was built along the river that ran between the brothers' properties. Both profited handsomely until the Civil War.

But after the war, the Pitzer fortunes tumbled.

Following litigation, B. S. Webb acquired Jeremiah's property in 1888. The property changed hands rapidly after that: to J. Pringle Jones to Sidney J. Tabor to Roscoe J. Wright. to David W. Flickwir and finally to John M. Parrott in 1921. In 1933, with the Depression in full swing, the Veterans Administration purchased it from the Parrott Estate, and the hospital was constructed.

Madison, an active Presbyterian, built a sturdy home. Belle Aire was L-shaped with fluted Doric columns on the front facade reflecting the Greek Revival style. The well-known nineteenth century craftsman Gustavus Sedon, who worked on many of the area's finest homes of that day, did some of the woodwork.

Madison died in 1861 in Lewisburg, W.Va., while visiting his sons in the Confederate Army there. His wife died in 1865. Following the war, their heirs continued to live in the mansion. In 1896, Sarah Pitzer McFarland conveyed the house to Margaret L. Brown, and the property later came into the Griggs family. The late Dr. Roger Dubose and his wife purchased the home and restored it, living there until 1957. After her husband's death, Mrs. Dubose sold it to the Richard Whitney family, the present owners.

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Is This the Oldest Building in Salem?
Is "Preston Place" Salem's oldest home?

There is pretty convincing evidence that the house at 1936 West Main Street -- in the midst of a strip mall between a restaurant and a motel, across from a WalMart Supercenter, a U-Haul outlet and a muffler store -- .has been there for more than 200 years. If so, that makes it a strong contender as Salem's oldest building.

In fact, if any readers believe there is an older Salem building, the Salem Historical Society would be interested in hearing about it.

There is even evidence that Davy Crockett, the famous Tennessee frontiersman, spent the night in Preston Place in the late 18th century when he was a boy.

Much of this evidence was brought to light a decade ago by Leah Russell, now Registrar and Associate Dean of Roanoke College, as part of her work toward a master's degree from Hollins.

Ms. Russell reported that, according to a deed book in the Botetourt County courthouse in Fincastle, the property on which Preston Place now stands was owned by John Love prior to 1788. It was in that year that he sold it to John Cole, a blacksmith. Further, an enumeration from 1785 in Botetourt lists John Love as owner of property on which there were one dwelling and one outbuilding. Further, according to the same deed book, the property which Love sold to Cole included 278 acres on the north side of the Roanoke River -- where Preston Place now stands.

Although they do not prove the home's age, these records, plus supporting stories, have convinced Dean Russell that Preston Place, indeed, dates from before 1788. In her extensive research, she said recently, "I kept coming up with things" that strengthened that belief.

The Davy Crockett visit is one such story. It comes from his autobiography in which Crockett wrote that, in 1798, at the age of 12, during a trip to Tennessee he spent the night "at the house of a Mr. John Cole on Roanoke."

According to another story, descendants of John Love visited the house some years ago after having seen an old family photograph of the brick dwelling which they claimed was built by John Love.

And, according to still another, descendants of John Cole visited from Missouri and found a note carved in the wood of the front porch railing: "George caught a fish this long" (with the length carved). They said George was John Cole's son.

Dean Russell traced the property forward from the Love-Cole ownership. Following his purchase of the property, Cole acquired additional acreage and in 1821 sold 735 acres, including the parcel in question, to John Johnson (a.k.a. Johnston). Around 1836, Johnston conveyed it to William Johnston (a.k.a. Johnson). It passed on William's death to his wife and their eight children, and parcels of the property were exchanged within the family in the ensuing years. Finally, in the years 1872-79, Charles I. Preston purchased several parcels, including the home in 1879.

On Preston's death in 1894, the property passed to his widow, Mary Persinger Preston. After several other transfers, it went to Mary Preston Clark, a daughter of Mary and Charles, in December, 1945. Mrs. Clark left the property to her daughter, Dr. Esther Clark Brown, who currently lives in the home with her husband, Ray Brown.

The house is mostly of brick, with additions. The original dwelling included four rooms in the I-form, with staircase in the center hallway. A second staircase connects several rooms in a small wing on the right rear. A fireplace is found in each room of the house. Floors and woodwork are pine.

The house abounds with stories. One, told by Mary Preston Clark before she died, is that her sister, Lou Preston Reed, scratched her name "Lou" and the year "1879" in the glass in a front parlor window when she became engaged. The words remain scratched in the window today.

"A house this old cannot get by without a ghost story," Dean Russell writes, and she provides one: "Supposedly, William Johnston died in the upstairs left front bedroom of the house. People who have slept in the room maintain that Mr. Johnston occasionally visits at night, evidenced by a moving rocking chair and the sound of a male humming."

Despite its 20th century surroundings, Dean Russell concludes, Preston Place "remains a rustic, yet peaceful example of southern heritage."

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