The John O. Sale House in Ashland, Virginia was built in 1858. He only owned the home a couple of years before it switched hands a few times. Eventually coming into the hands of a lady named Sarah Elmira Royster Shelton. She made renovations to the home about 1871 adding the mansard roof and full front porch.
Little fun fact about Sarah – She had grown up living next door to Edgar Allan Poe and there was talk about marriage between the two, but it never panned out and they both went their own ways. It’s said that Poe’s lost Lenore that he had written about may have been her.
