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1. SUBJECT:

Thomas Harrison Home.

2. LOCATION:

West Bruce Street, opposite Methodist Church, Rockingham County, Harrisonburg, Virginia.

3. DATE:

1753.

4. OWNERS:

1739 Thomas Harrison and wife, Sarah. Was in the hands of their heirs until 1875 when it was purchased by General John E. Roller. When he died in 1900 it became the property of his daughter Mrs. George Grattan, the present owner.

5. DESCRIPTION:

This house is built of natural limestone, very plain. It has a basement and also a spring under the house. It has a slate roof and one chimney. There is one large room and two small ones with a large fireplace, a large plain mantel. The walls are plain painted. The floors are plain wide boards. The hardware is old time hand made. The house has been remodeled, but has not been spoiled.

6. HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE:

On December 18, 1739, as old records show, four hundred acres of land were surveyed for Thomas Harrison on "a North Branch of the Shenandoah, called Cooks Creek, in the east fork of said Creek." And on the next day two hundred and fifty acres more were laid off for the same man, on the same stream.

Blacks Run is the stream referred to. It is the east Fork of Cook’s Creek and Thomas Harrison later became the founder of Harrisonburg. On paper Thomas Harrison in 1739 was in Augusta County for the Counties of Augusta and Frederick. They had been provided for by the Virginia assembly in 1738, but no courts were set up for Augusta until 1745, so actually for business and for records Thomas Harrison and others for this locality were in Orange County until 1745. Thomas Harrison probably located on his land here in 1739 or soon after. At any rates he was living here in 1753. In that year a colony of Moravians, moving from Pennsylvania to North Carolina, recorded in their journal that they reached Thomas Harrison’s late at night, pitched their tent near his house, bought food for their horses and were treated in a very friendly manner. A number of stone houses in different parts of the Shenandoah Valley were erected about this date. For a number of years before 1900 General John E. Roller had his law office in this house. It is no doubt the oldest house in Harrisonburg, and stood here perhaps for thirty years before there was any town.

In 1779 the Justices met and held court in this house. In 1784 when Washington passed through the County he stopped at this house. It is also understood that Stonewall Jackson stopped here a number of times.

7. ART:

Photograph.

8. SOURCES OF INFORMATION: