Gerrardstown Historic District

The Gerrardstown Historic District, located in the southwestern portion of Berkeley County, West Virginia is considered significant because of its role as a trade and commercial town on Mountain Road, believed to be a one-time Indian path that connected the Valley Road (running North-South in the Shenandoah Valley) to Back Creek Valley and points west. Mountain Road crosses North Mountain at Mills Gap, approximately 1.5 miles west of Gerrardstown.

Baptist settlers arrived at the headwaters of Mill Creek at the present site of Gerrardstown in the early 1740s. During the French and Indian War, Braddock's defeat in 1755 left the region virtually undefended. Indian attacks, the locally most noteworthy being the massacre of the Kelley family, just west of the Gerrardstown Historic District, forced these settlers to drop back to the safety of the well-settled lands east of the Blue Ridge. The Reverend John Gerrard (also spelled Gerard, Garrad, Gerard) returned to the Gerrardstown area with a congregation of Baptists following the end of the war. In 1770 Rev. John Gerrard bought 89 acres along Mill Creek from Henry Switzer.

David Gerrard bought the 89 acres from his father and on the 19th of June, 1784 laid out the lots to form the village of Middletown (now Gerrardstown). The plan, as was common at the time, called for a lottery and laid out "forty lots of land, each lot joining a street sixty feet wide now laid through the plantation where the said David Gerrard now lives, each lot being one hundred feet joining said street and two hundred feet back (the) lots are to join an alley back of 12 feet wide, also said David Garrard is to allow a cross street of 50 feet wide with alley to water..". Subscribers paid three pounds for a lottery ticket. Anyone drawing a lot was to construct a house "not less than twenty feet front, which house is to be a shingled roof and stone or brick chimney." Further, subscribers had two years from the date of the lottery to construct a house. An additional 20 lots, running along the cross street (now known as Virginia Line Road), were laid out by 1787.

Many of the original subscribers did in fact build houses within the specified 2 year period and the town began to prosper. By the early 19th century the town included 2 taverns, 4 general stores, 2 tanneries, 2 blacksmiths, a wagonmaker, and a harness maker's shop. Many of these businesses catered to the needs of travelers heading west along Mountain Road, and to the surrounding farming community. Churches also brought people into town from the outlying area, even if only for one day a week. Presbyterian records of the early membership reflect that most of the people on the roster were not living in the town proper. Five denominations built churches here in the course of Gerrardstown's history; Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, Southern Methodist, and Lutheran. Three churches still stand today.

Gerrardstown's prosperity began to decline as transportation emphasis shifted from small roads to the burgeoning railroads. Wheat production, once the mainstay of Shenandoah Valley agriculture, was displaced by rail shipments of wheat from the Midwest and contributed to a decline during the last half of the nineteenth century in the agricultural economy.
Perhaps the most significant aspect of the District is the broad spectrum of architectural styles that are represented within its bounds and the simple fact that they have survived, in some cases over two hundred years, without any major changes. The styles range from early settler dwellings from the mid-1700s through and including a bungalow of the 1930s. The Gerrardstown Historic District is worthy of recognition not only because of the early and genuinely historic structures within its bounds but because of the broad representative nature of these buildings as well.

Because of the historical shift in transportation and the decline in the Valley's farming economy, Gerrardstown entered the 20th century with little pressure for change. It is because of this that the town exists today as a fine collection of 18th and 19th-century buildings, clustered within a relatively small area, and with few modern intrusions. Although several homes have been modified with asphalt shingles, aluminum or vinyl siding, and replacement windows, and a few mobile trailers have been placed within the district, the town still consists mainly of wooden clapboard-covered log homes intermixed with occasional limestone, sandstone, or brick residences. Many properties still include smokehouses, storage buildings, hand-dug wells, cisterns, and outhouses. In addition, since Gerrardstown is still surrounded by open fields and orchards, the town still maintains an early 19th-century ambiance. No commercial development has yet occurred within the district, making Gerrardstown one of the most undisturbed and intact of Berkeley County's Historic Districts.

There are excellent examples of early settler dwellings, still standing, in both log and stone. Although currently in a state of disrepair, the Daniels House on the Dr. George William Daniels property fronting on a curve of Mill Creek and just above one of the town's largest springs, is a splendid example of early log construction. Early settler dwellings of stone, a building medium carried by the Scotch-Irish from their homeland, are well represented by the virtually intact example of the Gerrard-Hayes House, 1743. This restored home of rubble-laid limestone construction was long thought to be the home of John Gerrard; however, information uncovered during research for this project has proved otherwise. An early home that combines both of these construction practices is the Samuel Ellis House on the corner of Mountain Road and Union Corner Road. Although currently in need of restoration, it is an outstanding blend of the two styles of construction. The earliest portion, fronting on Union Corner Road, is a well-proportioned, three-bay, two-story log section with a finely constructed limestone flounder attached to the rear.

The majority of the houses in the Gerrardstown Historic District are those that have grown and changed as a reflection of the town's growth and prosperity. The original dwellings were added to in a variety of materials and styles. As the area was tamed and free time became less scarce, as large families required additional room, and as human nature had to satisfy the need to flaunt its new-found prosperity, houses grew, were updated, and somewhat citified. This progressive prosperity is well illustrated in the history of the Malin-Wilson House. Originally constructed of log in 1795, it was not only doubled in size by a stone addition in 1838 but also modernized and formalized into the fine Greek Revival home we see today. On the roadside only, a coat of stucco united both the stone and log wings, larger windows were installed and an off-center, flat-roofed classi- cal temple porch was added. Finally in about 1888 a framed, double-porched kitchen addition was tacked onto the rear to form an "L"-shaped plan.

The Victorian era is also well represented within the confines of the district. The Gerrard-Coe House c. 1850, is a large brick "I" house with a highly decorative porch featuring paired posts on piers with scrolled tops and eves supported by exceptionally detailed brackets. The Dr. George William Daniels House is a folk example of the Second Empire Victorian Style with its mansard roof and centered gable front. Queen Anne's influences can be recognized in the Hollis House c. 1900 with its three-part bay windows, Tuscan-columned porch, and steeply pitched roof. Rich in Victorian embellishments, yet of an older form, is the Dr. J.P. Carter House featuring elaborate shingle work, bracketed porch posts, and bay windows. A nicely proportioned Greek Revival gabled temple porch should also be noted off the rear addition.

The McBride house 1930, is the latest contributing building in the district. The dwelling is a clear and unaltered example of the bungalow style.

Two of the district's churches are contributing structures; the Presbyterian built in 1893, and the Southern Methodist Episcopal Church built in 1883, are both constructed of brick in the Gothic Revival style with Gothic arched windows and doors. Un- fortunately three churches have been razed but are nonetheless worth mentioning. The first church in the Gerrardstown area, preceding the town by some fifty years, was the Mill Creek Baptist Church. No pictures have survived the church but early accounts record the fact that the congregation was forced to relocate downstream due to the proximity of the tanyards on the adjacent Gerrard-Hayes property. A monument to these first settlers and an overgrown cemetery are all that remain at the site, except for the few surviving gravestones of John Hayes and members of the John Gray family.

The Presbyterian "Middletown Meeting House" was demolished in 1893 to make way for the existing Presbyterian church. It had been constructed of brick in 1793 and represented the merger of the Cool Spring Congregation and a group from the Tuscarora Congregation. Many of the original lottery winners of Middletown subscribed for the church's construction. The Lutheran Church, constructed in 1818 and razed in 1982, was said to be an excellent example of simple, early-frame meeting house construction. Dwindling patronage resulted in the building being converted into a dwelling which ultimately led to its untimely destruction. Despite the loss of the building, the Lutheran Cemetery and Monument provide the west side of the district with a welcome open space.

Despite efforts of late to preserve Gerrardstown, the district may not leave the 20th century without significant change. Housing developments are encroaching from several directions, leading to a significant increase in automobile traffic through the town. Two resort communities located on the west side of North Mountain, Glenwood Forest and Deerwood, have evolved into full-time residential communities. The Department of Highways counted an average of 3,000 vehicles passing through Gerrardstown daily in 1988. A proposed ski resort on North Mountain, near Mills Gap is expected to significantly increase the traffic through town. Lastly, a commercial center is planned for the center of Gerrardstown, at the corner of WV Route 51 and Virginia Line Road. Plans to tear down the existing Gerrardstown Corner Store and to move the Casper Stump House to accommodate the commercial center will significantly affect the character of the town. Hopefully, a renewed interest in the town's special architectural features, implementation of the County's comprehensive plan, and the adoption of zoning will help to avoid wholesale disruption of Gerrardstown in the future.