The Beverly Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It
includes the historic structures located from the Beverly Cemetery south along Main Street
to just past Files Creek, as well as a few structures on Water Street and Walnut Street. A
recent survey sponsored by the Beverly Historic Landmark Commission, funded by a CLG grant from the WV State Historic Preservation Office
has updated the information about these structures and others in Beverly, and the
information learned in that survey is included in this web site. Three additional sites
have individual listings on the National Register: the Blackman-Bosworth Store; Butcher
Hill (Ward House); and outside of Beverly, Rich Mountain Battlefield.
Much of the existing and historic architecture in Beverly is residential in
character. The
overall ambiance of the town is one of a residential community. There is a small section of concentrated
development around the original courthouse square containing some commercial buildings.
The distinctive characteristics which define a building’s style are especially important to preserve, and should receive special consideration in planning for maintenance or rehabilitation. For more information on preservation recommendations for Beverly, as well as a Bibliography of further resources, see the Beverly Design Guidelines.
Residential styles
Cabins
Many of the earliest buildings in Beverly were log cabins. These were either one- or two-story rectangular
houses with few windows or openings. Technically, these cabins are included in the
designation Pre-Railroad Folk Houses. The
houses built during this period spanned the long interval between the earliest permanent
settlements of the 17th century and the growth of the railroads as an efficient
national transportation network in the last half of the 19th
century. Throughout these two hundred years,
many modest dwellings were, of necessity, constructed of local materials without stylistic
embellishment. Because the eastern half of the country was covered with virgin forests,
wooden folk building became the rule here. As sawmills became more accessible in the area,
the log construction was replaced by post and beam structures, or by frame buildings. In most cases, the log cabins that survived very
long were added to, and the exterior and interior surfaces covered over, as the family
became more established.
A few of these cabins still exist as parts of larger homes,
including sections of the Collett House, the Peter Buckey House, the Rowan House, and the
Butcher House. The Stalnaker Cabin, which has been moved from south of Beverly, is being
restored as an example of a log cabin.
I-House
Another very common example of Folk Houses is the I-House. This
style, two rooms wide and one room deep, is a traditional British folk form. They are usually two-stories high, with a central
entrance and hall, and a gable roof. It is
most commonly either 3-bay (window, door, window) across the front, or 5-bay (2 windows,
door, 2 windows). As seen from the front,
these houses are basically symmetrical. Most
of these houses in the Beverly vicinity are built of wood frame construction, but a few
are of brick. Often they would have a one or
two story L extension at right angles in the rear, either as an original cabin that was
added on to, as an integral part of the original construction, or as a later addition. I-houses in Beverly and vicinity (they were also
common as farmhouses) still exist dating from the early 19th
century through the early 20th century.
Some houses that were originally I-houses have been added on to
either at one end or at the back, making the original configuration less obvious today. Chimney placement can help to indicate the age of
the house, as the early 19th century houses tended to have outside end chimneys on either
end, while later houses would more likely have interior chimneys. Earlier homes were also more likely to have
windows with 6 or more panes, or lights, in each sash, while later houses would have
fewer, larger, lights. The larger and more
affluent houses of this type may be considered to be of Federal style of architecture, or
may have some Federal style ornamentation such as shutters or doors with sidelights or
fanlights.
Federal Style
This is a residential style that usually contains a side gable or
front gable entrance; two stories tall, with a simple exterior appearance. Openings, doors and windows are generally
symmetrical on the facade. Windows may be six
over six or nine over nine or other variations on multiple panes. There is a shallow overhang of the roof, sometimes
with corbeled brick or other detailing at the top of the wall. Gable rakes are usually the same plane as the
wall. The entrance may have a fanlight or sidelights.
Tri-Gable L
By the late 19th or
early 20th century, it became more common to build houses that were not
symmetrical in their front appearance. This style descended from Greek Revival-styled
houses and became common in rural areas. In
this style, an additional side-gabled wing was added at right angles to the gable-front
plan to give a compound, gable-front-and-wing shape. These are
called a tri-gable L for the three gables. A
shed-roofed porch was typically placed within the L made by the two wings. These homes were usually wood frame, often with
ornamental trim or scrollwork and possibly bay windows.
Princess or Queen
Anne Style
This highly ornamented, asymmetrical building style was popular
from 1880 through 1910. These usually wood framed buildings often had a front-facing gable
dominating the asymmetrical facade and frequently a tower. This style is characterized by
steeply pitched roof of irregular shape featuring a combination of hipped and gable roofs,
wall texture variations including patterned shingles, with German, clapboard, or shingle
siding, and cutaway bay windows, and other devices to avoid a smooth-walled appearance.
There is much wood ornamentation at the eaves, the porches, around the windows and doors,
and at the crest of the roof. A partial or full-width one-story porch often extended along
one or both sidewalls.
Elaborate versions of this style -- often architect-designed --
were called “Queen Anne,” while less elaborate houses utilizing some of the same
elements are known as “Princess Anne.”
In Beverly, the Humbolt Yokum House, the Cunningham House, and
the Ward House are Queen Anne.
Bungalow or Craftsman
Style
A number of Beverly houses from 1905 through 1940 are of a
bungalow style. These are likely to be one or
1 ½ story, with low-pitched, gabled roof (occasionally hipped). Identifying features of
this style are wide, unenclosed eave overhang with brackets or roof rafters usually
exposed and decorative (false) beams or braces commonly added under gables. Many had
dormers, either gable or shed roofed. The broad and prominent porches were a feature of
the house, with porch roofs sometimes integral to the roofline instead of added on.
Supporting the porch roof were usually square, tapered, or squat columns or pedestals
frequently extending to ground level without a break at the level of the porch floor. Many
had raised first floors, with a “heavy” appearing foundation level, of brick,
stone or molded concrete block. Many windows were novelty shapes with odd numbered
vertical divisions in the upper sash.
Commercial and Public
Buildings
Many early commercial buildings were of similar styles to the
houses. Some were simple rectangular
buildings, with either the side or gable end facing the street, but more massive than the
houses. They were typically two stories built
of either wood frame or brick. Most would be called Commercial Style, as a descriptor of
simple commercial architecture that does not follow clear and definitive architectural
styling patterns of a known period.
An unusual feature found in several early Beverly commercial
buildings and houses are windows with 9 lights above 6 lights.
The later commercial buildings often feature large plate glass
windows with flat transoms on the first floor entry level and rectangular, single pane,
double hung, sash windows with an unenriched window
frame, sill and lintel. Roofs are flat or
with low-pitched lines and features a small cornice with little detailing or decoration,
if one still remains.
Many of the commercial buildings built from the 1890’s
through the 1920’s had a “false front” facade with a front parapet wall
with a gable or false gable peak in the center. Some
were covered with stamped metal siding instead of wood siding.