Detailed Description

Setting/Landscape

Located in the western part of Loudoun County, Virginia in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Round Hill stands on the north side of Harry Byrd Memorial Highway (Route 7), just west of the town of Purcellville. Main Street (Route 719) and Loudoun Street (Route 7 Business) form Round Hill's two major north-south and east-west oriented arteries. Minor streets extend from these two main roads in a grid-like pattern, but rarely connect to create continuous blocks. The incorporated town consists of the area between Mystic Lane and Evening Star Drive from west to east and from just below Greenwood Drive in the north to the Harry Byrd Highway overpass in the south. The proposed potential historic district boundary encompasses Round Hill's core area, but excludes the newer developments in the northwest section of town along Longstreet Avenue and Mosby Court.

Round Hill is primarily composed of residential buildings, with a handful of commercial buildings clustered at the town's center. The few commercial buildings are sited similarly. They stand directly on the street or sidewalk without setbacks, whereas most of the town's residential buildings are generally set back between 20 and 50 feet from the roadways. Sidewalks exist in the central residential areas, along Main, Locust, and Loudoun Streets. Concrete retaining walls and entrance posts front several properties on East Loudoun Street, including those of the Round Hill Baptist Church and the Round Hill Methodist Church. Wood picket and decorative iron or wire fencing edges many of the residential properties in town.

Building Techniques and Materials

Because of the region's abundance of both timber and stone, Round Hill's early buildings reflect traditional stone and wooden construction techniques and forms. Several early stone buildings and at least one remnant of a log house stand within the potential district boundary. Well into the 20th century, even after concrete became readily available, stone remained the most common foundation material used in Round Hill. The holdover of traditional building materials and techniques reflect the strength of vernacular building traditions in the area.

Round Hill's major growth period coincided with the creation of a railroad link between Washington, DC and the town in the late 19th century. In the 1870s, a rise in mill-produced, standardized lumber and a national railroad transportation network meant that manufacturers could easily transport construction materials to far-off markets. This began a widespread transformation of the building industry. In the last quarter of the 19th century, balloon frame construction (a form of house framing that is made up of light, two-inch by four-inch boards held together by nails) rapidly replaced heavy-timber framing as the standard building technique. (2) Most of Round Hill' s buildings that postdate 1890 utilize balloon-framing techniques.

The late- 19th century building industry transformations also affected the styles and forms of architecture across the nation and in Round Hill. As diverse building materials became more readily available, house styles evolved to incorporate newly possible forms and details. In Round Hill, the result was a partial abandonment of traditional house forms, and the adoption of more ornate and organic forms and styles that included many examples of late Victorian styles.

Residential Architecture

The oldest, identifiable residential building in Round Hill is the 2-story, stone house that is located at 29 East Loudoun Street at the eastern edge of town. Known locally as the Potts House and reputedly built circa 1775, the house has been altered significantly and now consists of several distinct stone sections. The building's most notable features are its two-story porch, massive exterior end chimney, and the stone quoins at the building's northwest comer. Another reputed 18th-century house stands at Round Hill's south end at 39 New Cut Road. Known as Sagamore Hall, the core of this substantial, circa-1900, Colonial Revival frame house consists of a late

18th century log and stone residence. Both of these homes were likely associated with farms that predated the formation of Round Hill.

Another early house in Round Hill relates to the mid-19th century formation of a commercial center at this point on the Leesburg-Snicker's Gap Turnpike. Portions of the house built for Guilford Gregg, proprietor of the first store along the turnpike in this area, stands on a hill 300 feet north of West Loudoun Street (the former store and post office still stands at 20 East Loudoun Street). Reputedly built in 1851, all that remains on the exterior is a massive stone chimney at the rear of the house. In the late 19th century, a sizable frame Victorian addition enlarged and reconfigured the house.

The majority of the residential buildings in Round Hill reflect the popular house styles of the Victorian and Late Victorian periods. Along Main and Loudoun Streets, the houses display typical components of the Italianate, Gothic Revival, Queen Anne, and Late Victorian styles. On the secondary streets, such as Locust and Mulberry, there is a greater usage of a more modest, vernacular (traditional) I-house form, along with later home styles and forms such as the bungalow and the foursquare with Late Victorian and Craftsman detailing.

An excellent late example of a local, Italianate-style house stands at 22 Main Street. Built in 1886 by local builder Barney Noland for William Milhollen and his wife Laura, the 2-story, frame house was purchased for $2,000 by Dr. James E. Copeland in 1891. Copeland, who served as Round Hill's local physician between the 1870s and 1925, named the house "Hillcrest." It features several notable Italianate features that include its heavy, segmentally arched window lintels, a low-pitched side gable roof, and a classically derived, double-height portico.

Examples of Gothic Revival influences can also be seen in Round Hill, most notably at the house at 11 Main Street. This modest, 2-story frame cottage displays a mix of Late Victorian-era styles. The Gothic Revival influence is expressed in its slightly protruding central section that is topped by a steeply pitched front gable.

The Queen Anne style is well represented in Round Hill. Queen Anne houses are characterized by their complex and asymmetric forms, ornate woodwork and trim details, and by the variety of projecting elements that include bay windows, dormers, and overlapping and crossed roof gables. The style appears to have come fairly late to the town -- the prime examples date to the 1890s and early 1900s. Queen Anne Victorian houses dominate the streetscapes of East and West Loudoun Street, Main Street, and New Cut Road. The location of the more elaborate houses on these main roads indicates that the wealthier residents selected higher profile sites to build their homes. Good representatives of the Queen Anne style include the Hammerly House at 15 West Loudoun Street (circa 1897), the Everhart/Shields House at 10 New Cut Road (circa 1890), and the 2-1/2-story, frame house at 21 West Loudoun Street (circa 1900).

While there are a number of fully realized, Queen Anne style buildings in Round Hill, they are far outnumbered by the more modest, Victorian-era houses that typify the town's domestic architecture between 1890 and 1920. Often referred to as Late Victorian in style or as vernacular Victorian buildings, these residences illustrate the continued use of traditional building forms, but also incorporate modest Victorian-style ornamentation. Examples range greatly in size and shape; however, they share a number of traits including their plain rectilinear forms, frame construction, and modest ornamentation. Ornamentation is generally confined to the house's porches and eaves, and often employs a mix of styles.

The most frequent house form seen throughout Round Hill is the "I-house" form, which consists of a 2-story, side-gable plan that is only one room deep and incorporates a central hall with rooms flanking it on either side. This very traditional building type was built repeatedly throughout Round Hill, but was ornamented in different ways depending on the current fashions. Late Victorian I-houses in Round Hill include: Harve Field's house at 18 East Loudoun Street (circa 1900), Harmon Lodge at 41 Main Street (1876), Comer Hall at 19 East Loudoun Street (circa 1890), 9 West Loudoun Street (circa 1900), and several houses on Mulberry Street between Bridge and Main streets.

Later Victorian houses in Round Hill incorporate classical and Colonial inspired details such as pediments, classical-order columns, and cornice returns. Sometimes referred to as the "free-classic" mode of the Late Victorian era, these houses reflect the stylistic transition from the high, Queen Anne Victorian to a more classically influenced mode that was named the Colonial Revival style because it grew out of a renewed interest in America's past and its colonial architecture. In the Late Victorian-era, the Colonial Revival began to influence the ornamentation of what were still essentially Victorian structures. Classical detailing, more restrained ornament, and a tendency to greater symmetry characterized these early Colonial Revival house designs.

The transitional Colonial Revival style can be seen in several Round Hill residences, including at the Thompson/Elser House at 8 East Loudoun Street (1903) and at Castle Hall (11 East Loudoun Street, 1903). The Thompson/Elser House employs the Palladian style window and plain Tuscan style porch columns; both elements that are closely linked to the Colonial Revival mode. Castle Hall features classically inspired pediments and Composite-order porch columns that reflect the influence of the early Colonial Revival style. However, both houses still exhibit the typical asymmetric forms and relatively ornate detailing that were characteristic of high Victorian residences.

After 1920, several other architectural styles became popular in Round Hill. Among these was the Craftsman Style Bungalow, an extremely popular house type that facilitated home ownership among middle and working class people in the United States. Bungalows were inexpensive to build and easy to maintain. A typical bungalow stands one- to one-and-a-half stories in height, has a compact, rectilinear footprint, and features a full-width front porch, wide eaves, and a low-slung profile. There are a number of examples standing in Round Hill, including several on South Locust Street. The 1-½ story frame house at 4 South Locust Street displays typical bungalow features, including its low-pitch, side-gable, standing-seam metal roof and central front, shed dormer. It features a full-width, front porch supported by tapering wood posts. The 1-1/2 story, Craftsman-style house at 6 South Locust Street is characterized by its front-facing gambrel roof, three-bay-wide front porch, and hipped side dormers.

Another inexpensive house type that became popular in the United States during the 1910s and 1920s was the American Four-square form. Four-squares are two-stories tall, have a generally cubic form, and incorporate a four-room over four-room plan. They also often incorporated hipped or pyramidal roof forms, full-width front porches, and off-center, front entrances. Pyramidal roofs require more complex framing to construct, but they could be built with shorter rafters than conventional gable roofs, therefore making them less expensive overall to construct. In Round Hill, the houses at 9 and 18 North Locust Street are good examples of four-square forms with pyramidal roofs. They both clearly illustrate the unadorned form of a foursquare house.

During the 1880s through the 1930s, many of the larger homes in Round Hill served as boarding houses that took in vacationers during the summer months of the year. Some of these were purpose-built to serve as inns. The largest and most elaborate example stands at 30 West Loudoun Street. Built in 1892-1893 for William D. Kuhlmann, and operated by Madeline and Annie Schooley Kuhlmann, the Kuhlmann House features a symmetrical facade punctuated by three front pediments and framed by 2-story, semi-octagonal projecting bays. An elaborately trimmed, 2-story porch extends across the front between the projecting bays. A wide expanse of lawn extends between the house and the road. Many other houses throughout the potential district also operated as boarding houses. These include the Nichols House at 40 Main Street, the Hammerly House at 15 West Loudoun Street, the Chamblin Boarding House at 1 East Loudoun Street, and the Beard Boarding House at 14 Main Street.

From an early date, Round Hill has had a significant African American population. In 1881, an African American congregation built the first church in Round Hill, the Mt. Zion Baptist Church at 28 Main Street. The community also supported a black fraternal organization, the Order of Galilean Fishermen. As in most southern towns, because African Americans were not permitted to purchase land in white neighborhoods, a racially segregated African American neighborhood developed along Cedar and Bridge streets in Round Hill. Composed of approximately a dozen buildings that stand just south of the railroad right of way, the community included several vernacular I-houses that were built between circa 1880 and circa 1920, and a former church (now a residence at 18 Bridge Street) that served a short-lived (1893-1899) African Methodist Episcopal congregation.

Religious Architecture

Three historic churches that range in date from 1881 to 1905 stand within the potential historic district boundary. All are examples of the Victorian Gothic Revival architecture. The congregation of Mount Zion Baptist Church purchased their land from local builder Barney Noland in 1881. The original church consisted of a one-room building. Although expanded over the years, the church remains intact. It is a historically significant example of a substantial church built by an African American congregation in the late 19th century.

Built in 1889, the one-story frame, front-gable Round Hill Methodist Church at 11 West Loudoun Street displays neo-gothic features that include pointed arch or lancet windows and a steeply pitched belfry tower. Built in 1905, the Round Hill Baptist Church stands at 7 West Loudoun Street and is a one-story frame, cross-gable building. It also features neo-gothic details such as the lancet-shaped stained glass windows that line the sanctuary and an open belfry tower topped by a conical spire.

Commercial/Industrial Architecture

Round Hill's historic commercial buildings are located in clusters around the intersections of Main and Mulberry Streets and Main and Loudoun Streets. Most of the commercial buildings face the street with minimal setbacks. The town's commercial buildings, like its residential architecture, mainly reflect the popular styles of the Victorian era. Round Hill's commercial resources include one- and two-story freestanding structures of both frame and masonry construction.

The construction of the first commercial structure in what would become Round Hill marked the beginning of the area as a center of local trade. Located at 20 East Loudoun Street, the stone store built for Guilford Gregg in 1851 served for many years as the commercial center of Round Hill. In 1858, the U.S. Postal Department established a post office there with Gregg as the first postmaster. During its 150-year history, the building has reputedly served as a school, meeting hall, saloon, a carriage stop, and a residence. Before it was remodeled into a residence, the main entrance faced the turnpike (East Loudoun Street) and featured a one-story, frame porch across its front. Other than the addition of windows on the second story gable end of the building and a one-story, stone addition on the north, the store retains its original exterior form.

Another early commercial building stands at 20 Main Street. Originally erected as a store, the second floor of this stone and frame, front-gable structure housed Dr. James Copeland's medical practice between 1890 and 1925. The first floor served as a general store, pharmacy, and, for three years, as the town's first bank, the Citizens Bank of Round Hill (1907-1910). The building displays typical features of rural store buildings, including a two-story, front-gable form, a front porch, and enlarged shop windows.

Examples of Round Hill's Victorian commercial architecture stand at 6 West Loudoun Street, and at 8, 19, and 23 Main Street. Erected circa 1872 and expanded in 1888, the two-story frame store at 23 Main Street was purchased in 1883 by George T. Ford. Ford and his son Charles operated a general store in the building until 1954. George Ford served as a state senator in Virginia's General Assembly and was elected as Round Hill's first mayor in 1900. Recently restored, the two-story, frame Victorian-style store now serves as Round Hill's town hall. The building retains most of its original exterior features, including its ornamental, bracketed cornice, full-width front porch, and oversize storefront windows.

The two-story, frame industrial building at 6 West Loudoun Street was erected in 1886 as the Howell Brothers Furniture Factory and has served a variety of purposes over the years, including as a carriage and harness shop, a tin shop, a grocery, and, between 1911 and 1912, as the town's temporary schoolhouse. Today, the building houses the Round Hill Arts Center. Other intact examples of commercial buildings in Round Hill include the store at 19 Main Street (circa 1890 with 1904 additions, now Round Hill Grocery), Thompson's General Store (1902, now the Round Hill Market) at 8 Main Street, and Patterson's Pharmacy at 1 West Loudoun Street (1907).

Round Hill also retains one of the most elaborately ornamented and most intact Victorian train passenger depots on the former W&OD line. Built in 1902 and located at 35 Main Street, the depot replaced an earlier station that had been destroyed by fire. The frame, 1 1/2-story Round Hill passenger depot displays several Victorian elements including wide cave overhangs and brackets, projecting bays, dormer windows, and a flared-hip roof. The building's windows, doors, and dormers are highlighted by Stick Style wood trim. Round Hill was one of only two towns along the rail line that had a separate freight depot building that remains largely intact at 34 Main Street.

The simple, one-story frame building stands on the west side of Main Street across from the passenger terminal and features a gable roof with wide eaves. It was originally clad with board-and-batten type vertical board siding, but is currently stuccoed.

An industrial building that is unique in town for its size, material and its architectural character, is the three-story, brick building that stands just south of the passenger depot at 33 Main Street. Built in 1911-1912 of brick with a parapet roof, the building is now used as a residence, but it originally served as the railroad's powerhouse after the line was electrified in 1912.

1 Dates of construction, historic owners and historic uses in this description are derived from several secondary sources including: a walking tour brochure developed by the town titled "A Stroll Through History in Round Hill," n.d.; local geographer Eugene Scheel's article titled "Round Hill Dates to Early Records," Loudoun Times-Mirror 31 July 1980 and the Town of Round Hill's website [accessed May 8, 2003] at http://www.roundhillva.org/about/index.html.

2 Virginia and Lee McAlester, A Field Guide to American Houses (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000) pp. 34-38.