Peter Burr / William Burr Houses

Peter Burr, also, William Burr Houses. West Virginia 9. , On the east side of WV 9 is one of the oldest standing frame (post and beam) buildings in West Virginia. It was constructed in three sections, with the oldest, 1½-story eastern section dating between 1751 and 1755. The voids between the studs that frame the house were infilled with brick and mortar, then plastered, and covered with clapboards. Elements on the earliest portion of the building, such as the steeply pitched (medieval form) saltbox roof, small windows, and tall massive chimney, reflect New England building traditions brought to Virginia with its builder, Peter Burr I, who arrived from Connecticut around 1748., After constructing the home, Peter Burr I returned to New England, where he died in 1777. His son, Peter Burr II, resided there instead, raising a family of 13 children by two successive wives. Though of prominent background, with family ties to the first president of Princeton University and the third vice president of the United States, Peter Burr held no public office, but remained a yeoman farmer throughout his life. To accommodate a growing family, he added the (western) log addition to the house in the 1760s. It was not until circa 1804, under different ownership, that the log and earlier frame sections were connected by a beam and board middle addition. Following Peter Burr's death in 1793, the house was inherited by his son, Peter III, who sold it out of the family before emigrating to Ohio in 1798. The 1886 purchase by John McGarry, a descendent of Peter Burr, brought the house back under Burr family control., The Peter Burr house is listed in the National Register of Historic Places as the home of a prominent early settler in the region and as a rare surviving example of early settlement-period post and beam architecture. In 1976, the house was designated a Jefferson County Historic Landmark, for being one of the oldest extant structures in the State of West Virginia. The Landmarks Commission acquired the house and began restoration efforts in 1998., Opposite the Peter Burr House, on the west side of WV 9, is the William Burr House, located on the property that Peter Burr II bequeathed to his son, William, in 1793. The house was constructed in 1809 in the Greek Revival style. Later it was owned by West Virginia State Senator Milton Burr, from 1919 to 1922. Burr was important to the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution concerning women's suffrage.