Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, July 18, 1995 TAG: 9507180059
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: AMSTERDAM LENGTH: Long
Bill Taylor viewed the old building off Roanoke Street as a potential obstacle to the land deal of his dreams.
Lisa Farmer said saving it was a labor of love.
"I love history," she said.
On Monday, as a restoration crew stripped away the building's vinyl, wood and plaster veneer, speculation grew that it could well have been built by 18th-century settlers.
Botetourt County court records show it once was owned by Michael Cloyd, one of Amsterdam's founding fathers, who paid taxes on a dwelling house with a clay chimney in 1783.
"This thing is happening so fast, I haven't had a chance to find out everything," Farmer said. "It is very emotional. I hope [Cloyd] is up there somewhere looking down and smiling because it won't be destroyed."
The drama surrounding the house began several weeks ago when Taylor started trying to trade his Amsterdam land off U.S. 220 for land with a fishing pond, something he has always dreamed of.
"I've always wanted a fishing pond,"he said.
The other landowner didn't want the building, so Taylor started shopping around for someone to clear the property.
"We just thought it was an old house," Taylor said. "We were going to do away with it."
Taylor contacted a former business associate, who contacted Tim Robinson, a restoration expert from Culpeper.
Robinson drove down to look at the house.
"I can usually tell just by looking if there is a log frame underneath the siding," Robinson said.
The house had many of the tell-tale signs: The windows were deeply recessed into the exterior walls; wood sagged ever so slightly into the rock foundation.
Robinson struck a deal with Taylor to remove the house. Robinson paid $100 to solidify the contract.
At that point, Robinson knew he already had a potential buyer in South Carolina. But he said he prefers to leave a cabin he finds in the area where it was built.
As he went to Fincastle to research the cabin's history, his business associate, Barbara Robinson, walked into Cabin Creek, a gift shop Farmer owns. (Tim Robinson and Barbara Robinson are not related.)
The women started talking about the cabin, and Farmer said she was interested. She always wanted a cabin for her gift shop, which specializes in early American household goods.
The next day she made a deal with Tim Robinson. She would pay $25,000 to have the cabin dismantled, moved about 21/2 miles north on U.S. 220 and restored on property she owns.
She hopes that interested people will chip in so she can have the cabin fully restored. She hopes to have re-enactments of Colonial life in the cabin in keeping with its history.
That history could well have preceded the Revolutionary War. Michael Cloyd's family came to Botetourt County in 1745 from Newcastle, Pa. In 1764, Indians raided his father's house and killed his brother and his mother.
County records show that Cloyd was a surveyor and land owner. He also provided supplies to American forces in the Revolutionary War.
In 1794, he and George Stover started the town of Amsterdam. There were 66 blocks, each containing three lots.
Cloyd owned Lot No. 120, which court records say is the lot now owned by Taylor. And there are other indications that the old house could have been built while Cloyd was the owner.
Court records show that Cloyd sold the lot in 1805.
A furnace plate found Monday in one of the cabin's fireplaces was dated to 1788, five years after Cloyd started paying taxes on his house in Amsterdam.
Robinson, the restoration expert, said there is other evidence that the house was built before 1800:
Chestnut and oak logs used in the walls were notched and trimmed with broadaxes rather than saws, which were used in houses built after 1830. Wood was joined with nails hand-forged from iron block by Colonial carpenters. Glass panes found in the house resemble panes that were made by pressing hot glass between wooden blocks to flatten it.
Robinson said the chinking between the logs is a mixture of lime and fox fur, which made it pack tighter for a better seal. The cabin's floors contain hand-hewn heart-of-pine wood, which would be cost-prohibitive for modern builders.
Robinson said the old house had obviously undergone several renovations.
Rooms upstairs were divided in the mid-1800s, when James Shuey and his family lived there, Robinson believes.
He bases that opinion on square nails in the molding and wall studs; such nails started appearing after 1830. Rafters in the ceiling are blackened, indicating that at one time there was one big room upstairs heated by a fireplace.
The windows contain evidence that Shuey kept slaves. Etched in one pane is an announcement of a marriage under the name of Master James Shuey. The name of Master James is etched in another window in the house.
Robinson said more clues will appear as the house continues to be dismantled for the rest of the week.
On Wednesday, a crane will be brought in to start removing the logs. By week's end, the cabin will be moved and stored.
Farmer worries about what would have happened if Robinson had not come along.
She worries that the pace of development along U.S. 220 is outstripping the ability to protect historical sites.
"We're getting all these new things," she said. "We need to take care of our past."
Robinson agrees.
"We are in the center of our country's early history," he said. "In order to preserve this history, we need to preserve these buildings. If we don't preserve these buildings, there will be no need for someone like me 50 to 100 years from now."
by CNB