92 N Liberty St

From the National Register nomination

Two-story duplex of painted stretcher-bond brick with a hip roof with modern metal sheathing. The house stands on a limestone foundation and has a corbeled cornice. Other features include 9/9 windows with fake shutters, modern wood panel doors in the two historic front entries, and beaded window trim. To the rear are two or three two-story additions of stretcher-bond brick or brick veneer construction and massing that harmonizes with the original house. There are also two one-story frame shed additions, the one on the south side with novelty weatherboard siding. Research by the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Historical Society suggests the house was built about 1856 for wagonmaker Jacob Rohr, but several sources point to a different scenario. The 1886, 1891 and 1897 Sanborn maps show a relatively small two-story house here, possibly of frame or log construction. A historic photo on page 77 of Suter and Lyon's pictorial history may show this earlier dwelling. The 1902 map shows a larger house divided symmetrically into two dwellings and built of brick, attributes of the present building. The county jail was built next door in 1895 and the present house may have been built for use by the sheriff. One sheriff, Walter C. Switzer, opened Harrisonburg's first telephone exchange in the house in the early 20th century. (Caldwell, "Journey into the Past," 29; Suter and Lyon, Images of America: Harrisonburg, 77, 83)