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The West Virginia Encyclopedia
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The West Virginia Encyclopedia
The Peter Burr House near Bardane, Jefferson County, is an eight-room, two-story log, beam, and board building. This National Register of Historic Places site is one of fewer than a dozen structures in Jefferson County that survive from before 1760. It was constructed by Peter Burr, a prosperous Connecticut farmer, and occupied by his son, Peter II. Father and son were members of the prominent family that included Aaron Burr.
Constructed about 1751, the house is an extremely rare example of a very early family homestead and is considered to be the oldest standing wood frame structure in West Virginia. The methods used in the construction of the house are typical of those used in small family homes of this period, particularly in Burr’s native New England. These methods have their origins in yeoman home construction of the Elizabethan period in England.
The exterior of the Peter Burr House is of hand-riven clapboard. It uses heavy log uprights and beams, and the exposed parts are neatly finished. The outside walls are lined between the log beams with brick and mortar and then plastered. The chairboard, which is joined together with wooden pins, has a hand-trimmed beading around the edge. The flooring consists of smooth, wide boards, and these are nailed with wrought iron nails, as are the clapboard weatherboards.
Read the National Register of Historic Places nomination.
Written by William D. Theriault