Strasburg Christian Church

On High Street, Strasburg, VA

It's really cold here! I was able to photograph the church from the comfort of the car but I had to get out to get a picture of the walking tour sign across the street.

Historic Strasburg, Stop #8

"The Christian Church (United Disciples of Christ) was organized in 1856. Services were held in a school house at the corner of Holliday and High Streets or in homes. The first part of the church was erected in 1872 and remodeled in the Romanesque Revival style in 1912.

In 1872 James Sonner built the house at 187 High Street for his family. He is considered to be the master builder of Victorian homes in Strasburg. Notice the unique decorative details he used on the house. For many years this was the home of Jack Crawford, a distinguished resident and renowned collector of Indian artifacts.

Fort Street, heading south from High Street, is the old road that led to the Shenandoah River. Before a one lane bridge was constructed in 1914, travelers crossing the river used the "town ford" at the end of this road or the "river bend ford" about one mile upstream or "Jack's ford," one mile downstream. After the bridge on South Holliday Street opened in 1970, the old bridge was torn down.

The Federal style house at 201 High Street, known as Academy Hall, was built in the 1820's. The room on the west side was an early school.

Strasburg's Public Schools occupied the property to the right of Academy Hall. Peter Stover, founder of Strasburg, and his son Christian donated the lot to the town for educational facilities. From 1804 until 1992 classes were held in various buildings in the complex. The building you see today was built in 1926 to replace the Strasburg Academy, which held classrooms and the Town Hall. A fire in 1968 and the construction of larger schools at new locations brought school days to an end on High Street. It is hard to imagine that this quiet setting was once filled with the sounds of children, buses, and bells.

On this side of the street, at 192 High Street, is another house built by James Sonner. It served as a parsonage for nine ministers of St. Paul Lutheran Church from 1884 until 1981. Small reminders such as the stained glass window at the front door remain.

The residence at 144 High Street was built in 1884. All of the walls, interior and exterior are constructed of brick. The mansard roof is a distinctive feature of Second Empire architecture. This was the home of W. H. Ellifrits, Shenandoah County's House of Delegates Representative from 1960 to 1964."

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What Would I Miss about Strasburg?

If you had to leave forever the city from which you usually post, what would you miss most? That's the question posed by City Daily Photo's Theme Day for February.

Since my mailing address is Strasburg, Virginia, I've selected some local photos to illustrate my answer. If I moved away, I would miss:

1. The mountain scenery
2. The sense of history
3. The (usually) quiet streets.

Strasburg is nestled beside the North Fork of the Shenandoah, at a point where the river cut a path around the north end of the Massanutten Range. 

Strasburg was chartered in 1761, but native people lived in the area as long as 10,000 years ago.  The biggest stories in it's written history date to the 1860's when the Civil War raged through here. 

Even though Strasburg is the largest town in Shenandoah County, it is quiet compared to the towns of Northern Virginia. 

A Short Visit to Strasburg

Downtown Strasburg, VA

We spent a few hours in Strasburg so Frank could get a haircut and we could have lunch. Strasburg is in northern Shenandoah County.

The third photo shows the public library. A plaque on the building tells about the house:

In this house, George G. Crawford, M.D. (1876-1949) practiced medicine, and with his wife, Anne Preston (1880-1966) reared their family. This house is given to the people of Strasburg in their memory and in memory of Ellen C. Hatmaker (1904-1982).

All who have lived, visited and worked in this house remember it with affection.

A Train Goes to Strasburg

When I was young and lived in Alexandria, a neighbor worked for the railroad. He regularly rode the train to Strasburg, where he also had a residence. But few trains go to Strasburg now, and none of them carry passengers. There is one train that still goes there several times a week, usually in the middle of the night. I hear it rumbling past, blowing it's lonesome whistle to warn traffic. If I'm still up, I sometimes look out to see the lights as it passes on the other side of the lake. It's a short train and passes by quickly.

One day in September I was surprised to hear it pass by during the daytime. I happened to be going to Strasburg shortly after that so I drove down a side road in town and saw it stopped beside one of the factories.

Here we see the train passing our neighborhood that day. It's not a very clear photo because I grabbed the camera and snapped a picture through the window.

The final shot is an October scene. It shows the railroad bridge across the North Fork of the Shenandoah. 

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Strasburg Signs, Fences, Trees, and Tracks.

This Week in Strasburg, Virginia.

Sharing with Signs.

Yesterday I stopped in the Strasburg Town Park to see if there were still colorful leaves on the trees.  Yes!

Temperatures have been unseasonably cold this week and some leaves have fallen, but there is still plenty of fine color if you look for it.

The park has rail fences and a view of the Massanutten Mountains, as well as ball fields, a playground, swimming in summer, and river access.

The town's Radio Shack is having a going-out-of-business sale. Even after merging with another business, it found it impossible to thrive, especially since video rentals lost customers to newer technology. There is still a Radio Shack in Woodstock, though. For those who aren't familiar with Radio Shack, they sell electronic parts, batteries, and cell phones.

A train still runs to Strasburg, and I took photos of the tracks from the Route 55 overpass just outside of town.

Rural Strasburg Scenes

Shenandoah County, Virginia.

There are actually farms within the town limits of Strasburg. Here a horse grazes with Riverview Cemetery in the background.

Next we see fence rails casting long shadows in the town park.

If you enter Strasburg from exit 298 on I-81, you'll probably notice the mountain views. You can pull into the parking lot for Burger King or Denny's and take a good look.

I took the final photo outside of town although the area still has a Strasburg address. I am fortunate to live in a pretty area!

Sharing with Fences Around the World and Thankful Thursday.

Hotel Strasburg

Strasburg, Virginia

We've had dinner several times at the Hotel Strasburg. When Frank's sister was here, we took her there and just a couple of weeks later we met my sister there. The food is good enough and the atmosphere is nice. The decor is Victorian without being too dark or heavy.

Link: Hotel Strasburg

Strasburg's Third Mural

The bright colors are startling when you first come across this new mural in Strasburg. The historic town has an old-time feel which is changing as new art practically vibrates off the walls! A fourth mural is planned by the Staufferstadt Artist Residency, a local art project.

I took the picture above today and this vertical shot on July 9th.  Artist Nick D'Auria was still working on the painting, which is near the town hall on East King Street. He signs his work NDA.

The artist alluded to the town's history by picturing retired pastor Ralph Crabill and his late father Charles Crabill, who was once the town's police chief. Many families in Strasburg have been here for generations.

See also: Mural #1 in Strasburg.
To see mural #2, go to this post and scroll down.

For a linkup showing murals from around the world, see Monday Murals.

Farms and Town, Strasburg

Views from Locust Grove Road near Strasburg

Mosaic Monday / Barns

Strasburg’s New Mural

The ram is the town high school's mascot.

Strasburg is a nice town. Busy US-11 runs through it, but traffic is usually not too bad because nearby I-81 carries most of the truck traffic.

Murals / Blue Monday

Belle Grove Exhibit

We went to Belle Grove yesterday. It was the last day to view an exhibit of Strasburg* pottery, which turned out to be displayed like furnishings, lined up on shelves in a few of the restored rooms. Interpretive signs were lacking, but we were given brochures which gave a history of Strasburg pottery plus a list showing the size and maker of each piece. The majority of pieces were made by Eberly or Bell.

Belle Grove will be closed for the winter now, except for holiday-theme tours on December 4-6 and December 21-23, 2009.

*Strasburg is only a few miles from Belle Grove, which has a Middletown address. The brochure tells us that the earliest potters in the area were "Native American Indians," followed by European immigrants and their descendants including:

• Brother Theoney
• Peter Grim
• Adam Keister
• Samuel and Solomon Bell
• J. Eberly & Sons

See C. Sonner's site for more on Strasburg history.

Engine 208 at Cedar Creek

Cedar Creek Battlefield was a busy place on Saturday as events leading up to the Great Train Raid took place. The "Raid" was taking place the next day, symbolically recreating Stonewall Jackson's feat of moving a significant number of railroad cars from Martinsburg to Strasburg over the Valley Pike. There were no tracks between those points in 1861 and Jackson wanted to move the equipment for use by the Confederate army.

The locomotive shown here is a carefully-constructed replica built to 90% of original size by Strasburg craftsmen.

A Civil War Trails marker in Strasburg tells the story:

In the summer of 1861, Confederate Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson’s forces captured large quantities of Baltimore and Ohio Railroad rolling stock near Harper’s Ferry, 40 miles north. To reach the Manassas Gap Railroad line in Strasburg, the equipment had to be pulled by horses and mules up the Valley Turnpike from Martinsburg. Fourteen locomotives and almost a hundred cars were brought here and then used throughout the Confederacy.

Strasburg's Elusive Skyline

It's Theme Day for City Daily Photo and this month's theme is "My City's Skyline." 

This was a tough theme for me. I live close to two large towns and neither of them have a skyline that is easy to view because of trees and hills. Here I'm looking at Strasburg, Virginia, since that's where my mailing address is, although I actually reside in a different county.

The twilight view of Strasburg's water tower is one that I've shown three times on this blog, but the only thing it tells you about the town is that we have a water tower and we're near the mountains. You can see this view from the Food Lion parking lot on Hupp's Hill.

If you look back at the town from one of the hills across Cedar Creek, you see the outskirts of town that stretch out toward the interstate highway. 

The best views I've found that are reachable by car are on the hill at Stoney Pointe.  However, you can't see the historic center of town because it is obscured by trees. 

A factory is on the left. Near the center is the water tower.

Looking north from Daniel Court at Stoney Pointe you see houses.

I also drove up by the water tower and looked back toward Stoney Pointe. The historic district is below us but it's behind the trees. The hill that I'm standing on here was the location of General Banks' fort during the Civil War. To the right we see the end of the Massanutten Range.

When you drive through Strasburg, it appears to be a quaint little town, but from the hills you see it is spread out and there are many houses. The 2010 population was around 6,400. 

St. Paul Lutheran Church in Strasburg

This church sits on on Washington Street, part way up the hill that was once the site of Banks's Fort.

Across the street there is a sign telling the history of the immediate area. Historic Strasburg Stop #5 tells that there used to be a railroad depot above the church cemetery. Some passengers transferred from there to "horse-drawn coaches for the trip to the Capon Spring Hotel in West Virginia."

The sign also provides some church history.

"Strasburg's first church, the Lutheran Church, was a log structure built across the street in the late 1760's. For many years it was the town's only chapel, so other congregations held services here. In the early years, local laymen, such as Simon Harr, often ministered to the Lutheran congregation. County records show he performed 368 marriages between 1781 and 1796. He was also the schoolmaster for the school in Strasburg. For about 25 years, beginning in the early 1800's, the church employed two ministers at a time: one gave the sermon in German and the other in English.

 The log church was replaced by a brick structure in 1844 and dedicated at St. Paul's Lutheran Church. During the Civil War the church was ruined. The pulpit, pews, pipe organ, doors and windows were destroyed. By 1864 all that remained was the shell. After the war, the church filed a claim with the Federal government for compensation. The Lutheran Synod donated $200 and reconstruction of the sanctuary began in 1867. The church was extensively rebuilt in 1892 and the bell tower was completed in 1893. Additions were made in the 1920's and the west wing was added in 1954. The latest renovations were made in 1986 when the narthex was enlarged and the altar was moved from the north side of the building of the south side."

Marker: Civil War Strasburg

This Civil War Trails marker stands by the Strasburg Museum near the railroad tracks. Here's an excerpt:

"In the summer of 1861, Confederate Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson’s forces captured large quantities of Baltimore and Ohio Railroad rolling stock near Harper’s Ferry, 40 miles north. To reach the Manassas Gap Railroad line in Strasburg, the equipment had to be pulled by horses and mules up the Valley Turnpike from Martinsburg. Fourteen locomotives and almost a hundred cars were brought here and then used throughout the Confederacy.

Signal Knob, the northern end of Massanutten Mountain, can be seen in the distance from here. During the war, it served as an observation and signaling station from which the Confederates observed Union positions and directed the opening attack of the Battle of Cedar Creek on October 19, 1864. "

The marker also discusses the pottery industry in Strasburg. Read the rest of the text on HMDB.org.