East Martinsburg Historic District

The East Martinsburg Historic District is essentially an 1849-60s area with intense turn-of-the-century development, and at least one surviving house from the early 19th century. East Martinsburg seems to have grown with the railroads, Catholic Church, and arrivals of waves of German and Irish settlers. Parts of the district were called, at various times, Rome or Catholic Hill. The district includes areas known as Buena Vista, Chevally City, St. Vincent, Hooge's Addition, Small's Addition, Carver's Addition, Mohler's Addition, Strinesville, and East Strinesville.

Along the north-south streets in the southern part of the district houses were initially built to the east while along the east-west streets both sides were developed. From these vantage points as these streets climbed the hill to appropriately named High Street, residents looked over Tuscarora Creek, the railroad with its stations and shops, downtown Martinsburg and, depending on their relation to the top of the hill, each other.

The most extensive Martinsburg concentrations of pre-Civil War buildings essentially unaltered Greek Revival dwellings - especially of
are along Eulalia, East Liberty, Centre, East Burke, and High, all well-developed before 1861.

This flowering of the Greek Revival is buttressed by domestic Gothic Revival and Victorian Gothic dwellings, along with Stick Style, Romanesque, Classical Revival, Queen Anne, and the Period House.

Two late 19th-century schools, 1874 and 1897, two early 20th-century fire stations, and combined residential/commercial usage along N. Queen give the area a superb architectural depth.

The district differs greatly from the downtown area in its street patterns and plan. The old city, that is downtown, has a grid street pattern. East Martinsburg sometimes dows. In fact, the district has several grid street patterns, often at jaunty angles to each other. Sometimes the street is more relaxed and topographically dictated than the grid allows. East Martinsburg was the province of 19th-century community makers, each intent on creating community and personal images. Differing street plans gave Chevally City and St. Vincent somewhat different characters though sadly many of the differences have been straightened out. Tobin an earlier name for East Liberts - veers sharply at Third where it enters Chevally City from St. Vincent, and High must jog almost its full width to cross Burke. Williamsport Avenue -- a name now relegated to a minor street while the real avenue is Called North Queen, a street that actually runs at an angle to cut across the area at an angle so that oddly shaped lots are commonplace. It is also commonplace for streets to begin and end abruptly. Hooge, the site of a major school and the centerpiece of Hogge's Addition, a pre-1870 development, would seem should be a prime street, yet it is just four blocks long, struggling through unpaved alleys for its last two blocks. The area is in sharp contrast to the planned 18th-century downtown city. This East Martins- burg collection of id-19th century towns, is as delightfully diverse in its street plan as in its architecture. When the history of the areas is developed this diversity will take on even greater meaning.

Meanwhile, the Fast Martins burg district respects and revels in the topographic diversity of the city, offering varied building sites and community ideas, numerous variations on the popular styles, and astounding vistas of the rest of the city.