Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 6, 1993 TAG: 9303060235
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DUBLIN LENGTH: Medium
TOWN HISTORIC DISTRICT GETS PLAQUE THURSDAY
Representatives of the town will get a Virginia Historic Landmark plaque Thursday afternoon, marking formal state recognition of the Dublin Historic District.Mayor Walter B. Keister and Town Manager Gary C. Elander will receive the plaque from Hugh C. Miller, director of the state Department of Historic Resources in Richmond.
"We are delighted to present this Virginia landmark plaque to the Town of Dublin," Miller said. "The town is an important resource for Southwest Virginia and richly deserves this formal recognition by the commonwealth."
The district was listed on the Virginia Landmarks Register last June. The National Register listing came in October.
The Pulaski County town grew up around a railway depot. It served as military headquarters for the Confederacy's Western Virginia Department in the Civil War.
Much of its original architecture was destroyed in that war. Union troops forced Confederate soldiers out of Dublin and burned the depot along with other buildings and some private homes.
A new depot was built in 1866 along with some new houses and commercial buildings. In burned in 1912 and was replaced by Norfolk & Western Railroad the following year.
The Sutton House, Dublin's earliest surviving building, is a two-story brick house with a two-tier Greek Revival portico. The earliest surviving commercial structure is a two-story general merchandise store, built in 1871 by a farmer named James Darst.
Commercial architecture from the 1880-1910 period includes the Saint Clair, Henry Clay Lodge, Bank of Pulaski County and Brillheart buildings.
The asymmetrical Gothic Revival-style McCorkle House is one of Dublin's more sophisticated-looking buildings. More simple structures are typified by the one-story frame Harkrader House.
Residential construction in the second decade of this century was characterized by larger dwellings with complex plans and ornamental landscaping elements such as wrought-iron fences or stone retaining walls.
Dublin's current municipal building was a brick commercial building in the 1920s with a cut-away corner drive-through feature. It was originally a combination service station, office building and bus stop.
Most of Dublin's modern development took place along new streets that serve either the former rear portions of early lots or additions outside of Dublin's historic commercial and residential core. So the town's overall growth has not affected the district's integrity and continuity.