144 N Liberty St

From the National Register nomination

Two-story painted brick house that was probably detailed in the Federal style originally. The house has a metal-sheathed gable roof with beaded rakeboards in the south gable and a single square attic window in each gable. Slightly projecting exterior chimneys with stepped shoulders rise on each gable. The front section of the house has a dogtooth brick cornice; the original or early two-story rear ell has a molded brick cornice. The ell is constructed of American-bond brick; the front section may also be American-bond. Most windows are 1/1 or 6/6. The first-story front windows were replaced with picture windows prior to 1951. The center front entry has a replacement door and a weatherboarded-over transom but it retains a molded wood lintel. The ell formerly had an integral two-tier porch on its south side. Two one-story cinder block additions were made after 1951. David S. Hones presumably built this house soon after he acquired the lot in 1833. In 1867 it was purchased by Alfred Sprinkle, and the Sprinkle family owned it until 1889. There is a tradition that artillery was made in the house (during the Civil War?) and that it was once used as a boarding house. Shenandoah Valley Band Instruments Service Inc., established by Willard Dovel, acquired the house in 1951 and remains in it.