Wolf Hills Cave House

Wolf Hills Cave House. . Legend has it that in 1760 Daniel Boone and his dogs were attacked by a pack of wolves while he was camped at a nearby spring. So, he named this area Wolf Hills. Later, maps of the region also referred to this place, which is now Abingdon, Virginia, as Wolf Hills. Hence, the wolf and “Wolf Hills” have become iconic symbols for Abingdon., According to the story the wolves that attacked Boone's party had their “lair” (den) in the cave which is locally known as Wolf Cave. The cave entrance is beneath the wood latticed building that is adjacent to Plumb Alley on the rear of this lot. The spring where Boone was said to have camped is a short distance to the southeast, near the intersection of Tanner Street and Troopers Alley., In 1857 Adam Hickman, an early Abingdon businessman who was in the tannery business making saddles and harnesses, built the four-story Greek Revival style white frame house located on this site. A special feature of this building, which is known as the “Cave House,” is its “icicle” trimmed bargeboard with carved acorns. The adjacent brick “Cave Cottage”, originally used for “servants” quarters, was built in 1856 using recycled handmade bricks from a house that had been built on the lot around 1837., Around 1857 the New Jerusalem church, also known as the Swedenborgian church, erected a church building on this lot, to the right (east) of the Cave House. After the Civil War, and during the “Reconstruction Period,” the church building was used for a time as offices for the Freedman's Bureau, an agency of the U.S. War Department. This agency united families, legalized marriages, and provided education, food, clothing, job placement, legal and other services to former slaves. This building was removed in 1910., In 1949 Alice Brown Hilton, wife of British author James Hilton, acquired the property and shortly thereafter gave it to Robert Porterfield, the founder of the Barter Theatre. James Hilton's writings included Lost Horizon, Random Harvest and Goodbye Mr. Chips. The novel Lost Horizon is about a mythical Himalayan/Tibetan like country whose inhabitants possessed great wisdom and knowledge and aged slowly. In the novel this realm was known as “Shangri La,” which has become a term for an earthly utopia-like paradise., For several years the Cave House property was used to house Barter Theatre actors and, for a while, an “after theater” café known as “Chez Robert”. The cave, and a spring in the cave, was used as the “refrigerator” for storage of the café's perishable foods., The Barter Theatre, the State Theatre of Virginia, is one of the longest-running repertory theaters in the United States. Many famous actors developed their careers at the Barter, including Academy Award winners Gregory Peck, Ned Beatty, Patricia O'Neal and Earnest Borgnine. Borgnine lived in the Cave Cottage for about 2 years., The Hiltons were longtime friends of Robert Porterfield. Robert Porterfield and his wife, Mary Dudley Porterfield, are buried alongside James and Alice Hilton in nearby Knollkreg Cemetery., Captions (counterclockwise from top left) , . Daniel Boone , . Cave Cottage , . Barter Theatre , . Academy Award winners who had their start at Barter Theatre: Earnest Borgnine; Gregory Peck; Patricia Neal; Ned Beatty , . James Hilton and Robert Porterfield , . Wolf Cave