I promised you details on this house that I found on the side of the interstate so here it is! Bear with me. It’s got quite a history!
This land started with a log tavern. It was a hostel for travelers, but had quite a reputation in the area. The innkeeper was known to take advantage of folks and was even known to rob and murder those who came to stay. This was confirmed in the 1890s when get this, 21 bodies were discovered in a cave on the property. Eeeek!
The current federal style house (eventually transformed to greek revival) was built in 1842 by John Montgomery Preston and his wife Maria. John wanted to rid the area of the horrible reputation that the property had so he built this one “as a tavern or stage coach inn along the Wilderness Road.” Family tradition states that Mrs. Preston wanted the house built further from the river and on a hill and she was not pleased at the location where her husband built it. Because of its location, she would have nothing to do with the house. It served travelers for 22 years until in 1864 John’s son inherited it and converted it into his private residence. That same year during the Civil War, it was also used as General Stoneman’s federal troop headquarters.
The home once housed oodles of handwritten letters of correspondence from the Revolutionary War including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Patrick Henry. They were all sold to the Library of Congress.
Novelist and artist, Lucy Herndon Crockett bought the home in 1947 and lived there until her death in 2002. Lucy lived here with her mother Nell and was quite the character. She wrote 8 novels and also illustrated them. She served in WWII with the Red Cross until she retired to this home. As she got older she became somewhat paranoid and was put on house arrest here for “threatening behavior” toward John F. Kennedy.
After her death, the home became abandoned and just sits here abandoned. I hope that one day someone restores it. There’s so much life left here!
