The Thurman House,

could it be 622 Harrison's Twin?

ThurmanHouse.jpg (31220 bytes)

In Asbury Christian's Lynchburg and its People, there is a small, low-quality photograph (above) of a structure called the "Thurman House" at 508 Harrison Street. This house, which was demolished in 1919, was one block up, and on the same side, of Harrison street as the Dicks-Elliott House at 622 Harrison.

A Works Progress Administration (WPA) description of the house follows:

  1. Date: About 1787

  2. Owners: Earliest deed found- January 1, 1854. Allen J. black to William A. Stitzer. In 1840 William A. Stitzer sold it to W.H. Hughes. April 20, 1899, Hughes sold it to Walter R. Murphy. The Murphy heirs still own the site.

  3. Description: At 508 Harrison Street was the small house, built of rock, brick, and mortar, in which Allen Granberry Thurman, was born. The present owners of the property describe it as having a hall on side with one large room on each floor and a fireplace in each room, including the attic; the one chimney was built of rock. [My interpretation of the low-quality above photo is different from the above description. I have highlighted what I believe to be the fenestration on the front facade below]. There was a kitchen in the yard. There is no building on the site since the original house was demolished.

  4. Historical Significance: The old house was torn down in 1919; the Lynchburg "News" of May 6th says it was the second oldest house then in the city, and it was built in 1789, about the same time as the old Masonic Hall, later the Forsberg home, was built...[the document goes on to talk about Thurman's political career in Ohio. Says that Thurman was born in that house on November 13, 1813]

 

Comparison of Thurman House and Dicks-Elliott House 

ThurmanElliottCompare.jpg (28443 bytes)    ThurmanElliottCompare2.jpg (32235 bytes)

  • Above left: A side-by-side comparison of the two houses.

  • Above right: A side-by-side comparison of the two houses showing my interpretation of the fenestration pattern on the front facade of the Thurman House. This shows a striking similarity to that of the Dicks-Elliott House, except that the fireplace was reported to have been made of stone (very rare for this area) and that it is on the right side of the house.

Absolutely nothing conclusive can come from the above information at this time.

However, taking some bold liberties, I can make the following case:

  • The similarity of the two structures, and their proximity to each other (both on Achilles Douglas's land) indicate that they were at least built by the same person, if not at the same time.

  • While I'm not sure if I believe that the Thurman House was built in 1789, written documentation does state that Thurman was born in that house in 1813, which suggests that the house (and possibly the Dicks-Elliott House) was built before 1813.

  • The Thurman House appears to be neatly oriented towards Harrison Street, as is the Dicks-Elliott House. This, combined with the orientation of the c.1787 Lynch Farm House* at the corner of Harrison and First Streets, suggests that some sort of streets were laid out in that area before the land was officially incorporated into the Town of Lynchburg in 1814.

*For more information on the difficulties of researching the origins of a Quaker-owned property before it was incorporated into the City of Lynchburg, read "The Lynch House: Unfolding an Historical Mystery at 619 First Street" by Nancy Jamerson Weiland and Lee Marmon in the Fall/Winter 1991/1992 issue of Lynch's Ferry Magazine (published by the Lynchburg Historical Foundation and Warwick House Publishing).