Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 9, 1993 TAG: 9305100353
SECTION: DISCOVER PAGE: 54 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
T.J. Boyd Museum, Tazewell Street, across from the Wytheville Municipal Building. Open Sunday afternoons during the summer. Named after Col. Thomas J. Boyd, a lawyer, mayor, surveyor, hotel manager, councilman, state legislator and honored with the title "Father of Wytheville" by council on his death. The museum contains some of his surveying equipment, Civil War artifacts, antique fire equipment, a moonshine still and other antiques.
Rock House Museum, Monroe and Tazewell streets. Built about 1820. Purchased by Dr. John Haller, Wytheville's first physician. Used as a hospital for Confederate soldiers. A registered historical site owned by the town and furnished with period pieces, it is an example of Pennsylvania-style architecture.
Churches: Wytheville Baptist Church, 200 Church St., organized in 1883, has original spring well that made Wytheville famous in 1800s for its pure and wholesome waters. Wytheville Presbyterian Church, 285 Church St., founded 1823. Saint Paul Methodist Church, 330 Church St., present building built in 1885.
McGavock-Turner House, 280 Church St., built about 1825 by McGavock family whose anvcestors were among the first Wythe County setvtlers. Abbie McGavock, largely responsible for esvtablishing Saint John's Episcopal Church, conducted a school for young ladies at the house.
Barnett Funeral Home, 325 Church St., originally one of three large homes that belonged to the Trinkle family, built in the late 19th century by Clarence Trinkle. Antebellum-style architecture. Wytheville native E. Lee Trinkle served as governor.
The Pines, 450 Church St., built in 1872 for Wythe County Sheriff Peter Gallagher, who served with the Wythe Greys of the Stonewall Brigade and was wounded at the Battle of Cloyd's Mountain. Later owned by Circuit Judge and Virginia Attorney General Samuel W. Williams.
Blair House, 480 Church St., built in 1871 by Frank S. Blair, later a state attorney general. Operated by Harriett W. Dew as a private girls' school, and Bettie Heuser as a summer boarding house.
Rich Brothers House, 115 Withers Rd., built in 1873 by brothers who were undertakers and furniture and cabinet builders.
Plumer College, Withers Road. Founded in 1882 as Wytheville Female College, later Plumer Memorial Female College. It became a day school for men and boarding school for women in 1897. Now used for apartments.
The Aspens, 340 E. Washington St., built starting about 1858 by Gen. William Terry, a militia lieutenant sent to Harper's Ferry during John Brown's insurrection, later with the Wythe Greys, twice elected to Congress.
Rock Hall, 225 Franklin St., built in 1860 in part of the town laid out by Thomas J. Boyd in two-acre lots.
Ribble House, 280 Franklin St., built around 1915 for a doctor in the style of the period.
Old School House, 170 Franklin St. Originally a five-room Abigail Jouet McGavock School built in 1840. Enlarged during the 1880s into current Victorian house.
Virginia Rubush Home, 201 Franklin St., built before the Civil War and formerly the home of a Confederate surgeon.
Courthouse Bell, given by Gen. Alexander Smyth, an officer in the War of 1812, first delegate from Wythe County to General Assembly and served in Congress. The bell, on display in the circuit court addition to the 1902 courthouse at Spring and 4th Streets, was captured from the British on Lake Erie.
Main Street, famous for its width as designed for the future by Thomas J. Boyd in the early 1840s. A giant pencil marking the location of Wytheville Office Supply has been a trademark on the street since 1960.
Edith Bolling Wilson Birthplace, 145 E. Main St. She was the second wife of President Woodrow Wilson and, during his illness, played an active role in the presidency.
by CNB