Love House

When house-hunter Dr. R.W. Love and builder T.W. Lakin came to terms on February 10, 1906, they agreed not just on the costs but on the aesthetics of this “substantial” house with features “pleasant to the eye.”

As specified, the house was to have two layers of interior plaster, two coats of paint (inside and out), wallpaper (which Love would select himself), neat and substantial porches with ornamentations pleasant to the eye, and a stairway that was neatly and substantially constructed with an easy rising.

For this, Love paid $1,500 with $300 down, $200 in 60 days, $400 to retire Lakin’s debt for the land, and the remaining $600 in two equal payments over two years.

Dr. Love and his wife, Scottish emigrants who moved to Moorefield to set up a family medical practice, by all accounts were pleased with the outcome. They lived in the house for more than 50 years, raising four children, one of whom also became a doctor and practiced medicine in Moorefield for many years.

While this Late Victorian house has been modernized in some respects, including vinyl siding, significant features have been preserved; including the porches, the dark wood paneling in the foyer, the variable width pine and oak flooring, the staircase, the hand-carved banister, four fireplace mantels (two fireplaces have been covered), and a corner china cabinet.

Open courtesy of Pendleton Community Bank and Micheline Williams.
Address: 224 N Main St, Moorefield