61 S Main St

From the National Register nomination

Classical Revival four-story building with a stretcher-bond buff brick facade and a shed roof. At the top is a dentil and egg-and-dart metal cornice. In the fourth story are three pair of round-arch 1/1 windows under double arches with molded terra-cotta trim. The third-story windows have gauged jack arches with terra-cotta trim. The first and second stories have been reworked. Joseph P. Houck (d. 1908) began the business in 1879 and in 1910 his son Joseph T. Houck carried furniture, carpets, and leather goods. The elder Houck had this building erected about 1900. (A four-story building first appears here on the 1902 Sanborn map.) In the early 20th century the building featured large street-level display cases with curved glass corners. Second-story display cases in the form of bay windows, also with curved glass corners, were filled with merchandise such as metal bed frames and carpets. William Butrow later operated the store. The Virginia National Bank purchased the building in 1945 and according to Ann McCleary it added the gray granite facing on the first story at that time. (Rockingham County: Its Past and Present; Suter and Lyon, Images of America: Harrisonburg, 42-43)