Clary's Mountain Historic District
Hammond's Mill Rd., Hedgesville, WVThe Clary's Mountain Historic District meets National Register Criterion C and is significant for architecture. Evaluating the fabric of the district under this Criterion, the district's thirteen buildings-- principally the five major properties in the district--represent formally-designed architecture reflecting styles popular during the period of significance, which begins in 1879, the date of construction of the district's earliest building (the Thomas Payne House; Resource No. 1), and ends c. 1930, corresponding to the approximate date of construction of the latest of the district's historic resources (the garage associated with the Lee Lingamfelter House; Resource No. 8).
The National Register Criterion C significance of the Clary's Mountain Historic District is established by the presence in the district of buildings which reflect vernacular traditions and formal styles of architecture popular during the forty-five-year period of significance. Among these styles are the Italianate, Gothic Revival, Neo-Classical Revival, and American Foursquare, specific examples of which are discussed in Section 7.
The unincorporated settlement known as Clary's Mountain is the result of the subdivision of properties of several families from the Hedgesville area. The earliest of these occurred in 1876 with Jacob Miller's purchase of the 331-acre Myers farm between Hedgesville and North Mountain Depot (on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad less than one mile east of the nominated area; Fig. 1). Thomas Payne purchased property on the south side of the road and in 1879 erected a modest three-bay home (Resource No. 1; Photo 5), the oldest property in the district. In 1893, Frederick County, Maryland native James B. Clary, purchased Jacob Miller's property and soon thereafter erected a two-story Italianate vernacular home (Resource No. 5) which he christened "Needmore." James Buchanan Clary (1856-1932) was born in Woodville, Maryland. After moving to this area he built his home at the foot of North Mountain and operated a lumberyard and general store in the North Mountain area, remain- ing here until moving to Martinsburg to retire in 1919. He died at Martinsburg in 1932 and his obituary noted, "fifty-three years ago [1889] he was married to Miss Bettie E. Thomas of Buckeystown, Maryland and three years later he moved to the Hedgesville section of Berkeley County."
Later subdivisions resulted in smaller residential tracts and a modest settlement was born at the foot of the Potato Hill section of North Mountain. The homes in the district also include Dr. D. R. Ross' c. 1885 late Italianate residence (Resource No. 10) which is perched on a hilltop overlooking the district. At the time of his death, Dr. Daniel Reed Ross (1842-1924) was described as a "venerable physician [and] a native of New York State but had lived in Berkeley County for the past fifty years."5 Early in the twentieth century three other substantial homes were added in the district. These include the residences of Dr. E. A. Ward (612 Hammond's Mill Road; Resource No. 3; c. 1905), Lee Lingamfelter (1862-1916) [611 Hammond's Mill Road; Resource No. 7; 1901], and Harry Moler (601 Hammond's Mill Road; Resource No. 12; 1920, later sold to George W. Kilmer and referred to as the Moler-Kilmer House). These homes were erected both by prosperous Hedgesville-area farmers and by two local physicians.
The character of the Clary's Mountain settlement never developed beyond that of a rural hamlet. The nearest population center, small though it was, existed at the village of Hedgesville, located immediately to the southwest. Hedgesville provided the residents of Clary's Mountain with institutional and commercial services including churches, schools, and retail outlets. Train service was accessible at the aforementioned North Mountain Depot and the county seat at Martinsburg lay five miles to the southeast. This fact notwithstanding, the tiny hamlet of Clary's Mountain is significant for its collection of highly decorated domestic architecture, sited in an otherwise architecturally unsophisticated section of Berkeley County. All properties in the district contribute to its character by dating from within the 1879-1930 period of significance and by retaining the essential form and appearance that they possessed during the period of significance. The district retains indisputable architectural integrity.
Comparing the Clary's Mountain Historic District to others in the area, the various districts in Martinsburg, the county seat, are of a considerably grander scale than is that at Clary's Mountain. In addition, the Martinsburg districts include commercial as well as residential and mixed-use districts and properties executed both in brick and wood; the Clary's Mountain district is purely residential and, except for one dependency, is built purely of wood. Two additional National Register district nominations were prepared concomitantly with that of Clary's Mountain and bear comparison with the Clary's Mountain Historic District. The Spring Mills Historic District contains four buildings and two sites and is located a few miles east of Clary's Mountain Historic District. At Spring Mills are an 1830s church and cemetery, a 1920s religious residence, and a late-eighteenth-century historic grist mill and associated miller's house. The Tabler's Station Historic District is south of Martinsburg and along the former Cumberland Valley Railroad. It lies on a flat tract and is clustered primarily along Tabler's Station Road, including homes, a twentieth-century manufacturing facility, and one historic church. All of the districts retain a significant level of architectural integrity, although Clary's Mountain and Spring Mills are the most architecturally cohesive of the three.
Viewing Clary's Mountain Historic District in the context of other similar resources in Berke- ley County, the several Martinsburg districts are considerably larger than Clary's Mountain district-including the Downtown Martinsburg Historic District. The Martinsburg districts exhibit a broader and more diverse concentration of formally-designed architecture, commercial, industrial, and domestic alike. The Harlan Spring Historic District, southeast of Clary's Mountain but also in northern Berkeley County, is a rural district focused upon a family farmstead. The Hedgesville Historic District, immediately adjacent to the Clary's Mountain Historic District to the east, dates from the 1830s and is a compact village containing a number of log homes, a lodge hall, some commercial architecture, and two churches. The Clary's Mountain district, conversely, is a rural settlement characterized by a more formally-derived architecture whose character approaches that of a late nineteenth-century upper-class residential enclave populated by physicians and business leaders.
Summarizing, Clary's Mountain Historic District is a small, rural Berkeley County historic district, exclusively residential in character, and containing five substantial houses and their associated dependencies. The district retains architectural integrity, including examples of styles of design that were popular during its c.1879-1930 period of significance.
Bibliography
Kearfott, J. Baker. "Berkeley County, West Virginia." [map] Martinsburg, W.Va.: J. Baker Kearfott, 1894.
Wood, Don C. An Architectural and Pictorial History of Berkeley County, Vol V. Martinsburg, W. Va.: Berkeley County Historical Society,
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 2004.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.