Heritage Weekend Tile 1990

Mountainview Farm sits overlooking the Capon River, a little over a mile north of Wardensville. Hugh Hughs received the property from Lord Fairfax and bequeathed the property to his son in 1793. It is though that the I-house was probably built by Hughs.

An interesting aspect of the house is the stair step effect in the interior created by the three different sections that make up the house. The main part of the house, being the I-house, has a central hallway extending through it from the front porch to the back porch. Logs under the sim of the I-house are 36 feet long, having a 13.5 inch diameter; and the chimneys are original unlined, cut fieldstone.

The central section of the farmhouse is a Fram construction and the third part a two-story log cabin. It is thought that the log cabin is probably the oldest part of the house, having originally bee built at the based of the ridge, west of the main house. At some point it was probably torn down and rebuilt in its present location.

After having inherited the house from his father, the younger Hughs later sold the property to the Littlers, who kept it for two generations. It was sold around 1830 to the Hopewells. Then in 1880, the farm was sold to Benjamin McKeever, David Heishman's great-grandfather, and has remained in the family for 118 years.

One of the curiosities of the home is a hiding place in the present dining room. As Union soldiers were duding through the Capon Valley, one of the Hopewell sons (A Confederate soldier), hid there for several days while he was recuperating from a wound.

At the end of the lane, within view of the highway, Mountainview Farro stats representing "yesterday's) typical farm in the capon Valley.

Located approximately 1.2 miles north of Wardensville on SR 259.