Harrisonburg Downtown Historic District

457 S Main St

Fravel House, Late 19th c.

FrameContributes to the historic character of the district

1850–1899
18001850190019502000

From the National Register nomination

Victorian/Craftsman two-story frame house with weatherboard siding on the first story and textured stucco above. Under the asphalt-shingled hip roof is a cornice with paired sawn brackets (possibly original) and 1920s geometrical wood ornament. The one-story front porch has square wood columns on a solid stone wall. The front entry has a transom, sidelights, and a glass-panel door, and it is contained in a slightly projecting center bay with a remodeled circular vent in the gable and paired 4/4 windows in the second story. Windows have flattened-peaked lintels, and there is a one-story cantilevered rectangular-plan bay window on the south side. To the rear is a one-story shed wing. The house does not appear on the 1885 Lake map. It was built as a duplex but was converted into a single-family residence in the 1920s. M. M. Pankey lived here in 1955. (Hering and Wilson Sanborn map index)

Also on the lot

  • Garage, 1920s

    One-story tile block garage with a shed roof with stepped side parapets, a lower gabled tile block rear wing, and five tongue-and-groove garage bays onto the alley. The 1930 Sanborn map may indicate that the south bay originally functioned as an office.

  • Lindsey Funeral Home Garden, Late 20th c. (noncontributing)

    Ornamental colonial garden creates a formal entrance and exit to parking areas associated with the nearby Lindsey Funeral Home (473 S. Main). The two symmetrical gardens flank a driveway entrance and are bordered by stretcher-bond brick walls with molded brick copings and concave-curved top profiles. The walls are interspersed with taller brick piers with pyramidal caps; the corner piers have gray granite plaques inscribed "Lindsey." Brick walks lead into the garden and around fountains with circular curbs constructed of header bricks. The ornamental metal gate across the entrance has an LFH monogram plaque.

People

  • M. M. Pankey lived here in 1955