412 S Main St

From the National Register nomination

Queen Anne two-and-a-half-story residence of painted stretcher-bond brick with a complex intersecting gable roof sheathed with imbricated slate shingles. The dominant feature is a three-story octagonal tower at the northwest front corner, capped by a tall octagonal spire with flared eaves. The gables are ornamented with sawtooth vergeboards and cross-bracing with turned pendants (and formerly finial spikes). A two-story bay window graces the principal front gable end, with a larger first story and a smaller second story and elaborate bracketed cornices (the second story was formerly crowned by a balustrade). The one-story wraparound porch features chamfered posts with sawn brackets, turned balusters, a bracketed cornice, and a slightly projecting entry bay with a small gable containing sawn arabesques. Windows are typically hood-molded and 1/1 sash and they have a variety of head forms: round-arch, lancet, and square-headed. The front entry has a paneled door and sidelights and an elliptical fanlight with leaded glass. The hood moldings often have decorative crestings. To the rear extends a two-and-a-half-story wing dating wholly or in part to a 1987-88 rehabilitation. The house has a large front yard with landscaped borders and a small rear parking lot. Historic photos indicate the house woodwork was once enlivened by a polychrome paint scheme. In the National Register nomination for the house, architectural historian Richard Cote states that the Joshua Wilton House "ranks among the Valley's most notable examples of Victorian domestic architecture." The house was built in 1890 (some accounts give 1888 or 1891) for the Canadian-born Joshua Wilton, who moved to Harrisonburg in 1865 and established a foundry with Philo Bradley. In 1868 Wilton began a hardware business, which was housed in an elaborately detailed Italianate-inspired three-story building on the south side of Court Square. Wilton was involved in many aspects of the commercial and civic life of Harrisonburg including a term as president of the First National Bank of Harrisonburg when that institution erected its landmark five-story building on Court Square in 1903-04 (57 S. Main). A 1928 obituary lauded Wilton as "one of the factors in the upbuilding of this community since the Civil War." The house remained in Wilton family ownership until 1987 when it was acquired by O. D. Shank. In later years it was used as the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity house and it was rehabilitated as apartments by owner Roland L. Macher ca. 1980. In 1987-88 Craig and Roberta Moore rehabilitated the house as a bed and breakfast, adding a rear kitchen in the process. Now Wilton House B&B. (Cote, "Joshua Wilton House;" Loth, Virginia Landmarks Register, 224; Caldwell and Terrell, "Wilton House;" Joshua Wilton House Inn and Restaurant website; Daily News-Record, December 17, 1987; Suter and Lyon, Images of America: Harrisonburg, 75)