157 N Main St

From the National Register nomination

Classical Revival three-story painted brick building with a slate (or asbestos shingle) hip-and-deck roof. The roof has pedimented dormers with vertical beaded tongue-and-groove in the pediments, and circular ventilation dormers. The front elevation is stretcher-bond pressed brick with second and third-story 1/1 windows with gauged jack arches with terra-cotta moldings. The first story has a ca. 1980 modernization with simulation stucco panels, a recessed entry, and a steel balcony. The American-bond brick side elevations have 1/1 windows, bricked-up high first-story store windows, and a limestone foundation. James Kavanaugh went into the hotel business in Harrisonburg in 1874, purchasing the Virginia Hotel that once stood on the south side of this building and reopening it as the Kavanaugh Hotel. His son James M. Kavanaugh managed the hotel during the 20th century. William M. Bucher & Son were the contractors for the ca. 1912 annex as well as the original building. The annex, which was architecturally coordinated with the main building, originally contained a garage (presumably in the basement) and it had a second-story glassed-in bridge connection to the original building. In 1918 it contained a dry goods store and a grocery on the first floor. Richmond architect Charles M. Robinson made additions and alterations to the hotel about 1920, but whether these involved the annex is unknown. About 1980 the building was remodeled by Irvin Nash as the Loewner Apartments. (Rockingham County: Its Past and Present, Wells and Dalton, Virginia Architects, 53, 381)