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HOUSEtorical LbNA #68066

Owner:Adoptable
Plant date:Jan 30, 2015
Location: 212 South Main Street
City:Harrisonburg
County:Rockingham
State:Virginia
Boxes:1
Planted by:Hardesty-Higgins
Found by: mobots
Last found:Jul 4, 2017
Status:FFFa
Last edited:Jan 30, 2015
HOUSEtorical

Clues

HOUSEtorical Letterbox

This letterbox is in downtown Harrisonburg, VA

1. Begin at the Joshua Wilton House at 412 South Main Street. Joshua Wilton, who opened a hardware store on Court Square in 1868, built this brick, 25-room Victorian design house in 1888. Wilton came to Harrisonburg from Canada in 1865 and established a foundry. The structure contained multi-family housing and served as a fraternity house for a while before it was converted in 1988 to its current use as a fine restaurant and inn. The house reflects the Gothic Revival style, with two gables and a tower with a pointed roof.
2. Walk North to the Smith House located at 311 South Main Street. This is one of the only houses downtown to have been put on wheels and moved across a parking lot. The Smith House was built in 1867 on part of the original Thomas Harrison land purchase. This Victorian-style house has been a home to many prominent community members, and is named after a former inhabitant, Mr. Victor Smith, a long-time Commissioner of Revenue for the city. After its donation and move from beside the Daily News Record Office, the house is now home to the Arts Council of the Valley.
3. Next door to the Smith House is the Warren-Sipe House located at 301 South Main Street. The Virginia Quilt Museum, designated as the official Quilt Museum of the Commonwealth, makes this historical house its home. The museum’s permanent collection includes about 150 old contemporary quilts, the oldest of which dates to 1810. The house was built around 1855 by E.T.H Warren, a lawyer who died in the Civil War as a colonel with the 10th regiment of Virginia’s volunteer infantry. The house was once used as a temporary courthouse and jail. The George Sipe family made the house their home starting in 1894. The city bought the building in the 1950’s for its parks and recreation department before donating the house to the museum.
4. The Thomas Harrison House located at 30 West Bruce Street is the oldest building in Harrisonburg. This stone structure was completed around 1750 by Thomas Harrison, the city’s founder, who moved here from Long Island, New York in 1737, drawn by a group of springs. The house itself was built over a small spring. Although not operated as an inn, the house served as a place of shelter and hospitality for early travelers through the Shenandoah Valley. In recent years the house has been used for offices.
5. Your last stop on this HOUSEtorical tour is the Hardesty-Higgins House located at 212 South Main Street. This brick structure, which dates to about 1848, is thought to be the second-oldest house in downtown Harrisonburg. Isaac Hardesty, a pharmacist who became the first mayor in 1849, lived here, where he also had his business. Hardesty bought the structure from Dr. Peter Higgins, who started construction around 1830 but could not complete the house. The building, which the city has renovated for a Visitor’s Venter, museum, offices and other uses, more recently was The Virginia Craft House showroom for a furniture reproduction company. In early years, Samuel Pollock ran an inn here.
6. Walk to the back of the Hardesty-Higgins House Visitor Center entrance. The letterbox is on the left side, beside the fence. Feel free to come inside and check out our Rocktown Gift Shoppe, as well as our visitor services where you can find a lot of great information about things to do in the area.