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Believed to be built in the
1790s, this federal style house is named after one of its early
inhabitants, Thomas Blow, who owned the property from
1798-1800. In 1770, Mr. Andrew Mackie purchased a vacant lot 52
(now 352 S. Church Street) for £5 or roughly $17-20 by using
18th Century Virginia exchange rates. In 1800, a deed of trust
listed the assessed property value at $400, thus clearly
indicating the construction of a house since Mr. Mackie’s
purchase. From this we can undoubtedly deduce the house was
built no earlier than 1770 and no later than 1800—most likely
Mr. Mackie built the house in the 1790s. Given the unequivocal
evidence of an existing house from the 1800 deed of trust, the
house has conservatively carried the name “Thomas Blow” and the
year 1800.
The original 1790s
house consisted of two parlors and a staircase on the first floor
and one chamber on the second floor; below was a standing-height
cellar that is believed to have sheltered two house slaves. A
detached kitchen sat behind the house, though no discernable
foundation may be found today. Key features include heart pine
floors of planks 22’ long and over 1” thick, fireplaces in all rooms
(including the cellar), wood-pinned mortise-tenon ceiling and floor
joists, and 12” square hand-hewn beams supporting the house over a
three-wide brick foundation. Although wainscoting adorns the front
parlor and chair railing stretches throughout the house, there is no
cornice molding on the 10’ ceilings. From 1822 to 1827, Mrs. Fannie
Boykin, the widow of Revolutionary War notable Major Francis M.
Boykin (who served with General Washington and Patrick Henry and
from whom Fort Boykin is named), owned the residence.
Although the
house’s size was respectable for the 1790s, in 1827-1837 the Widow
Boykin’s daughter, Ann Marshall, and her husband, Mr. Watson P.
Jordan, nearly doubled its size by adding a first-floor
hall/staircase, upstairs chamber, and likely a back porch on the
west side of the house. Inside the addition, the builders carefully
crafted the foyer and staircase wainscoting to match the original
parlor wainscoting, while outside they kept the key Federal elements
of the house but updated it to the then-popular Greek Revival by
adding a columned portico.
Late 1800s and
early 1900s alterations and additions include transforming the back
porch into a bedroom chamber and adding an indoor bathroom and
attached kitchen. Between 1910-1919, an indoor columned archway was
built to separate the front parlor from the foyer. Finally in 2005,
a sensitively designed addition was added to the west side,
providing a first-floor master bedroom chamber and bathroom and an
upstairs bedroom chamber. Its current gray cladding resembles an
earlier color scheme, but past colors include yellow, white, and
olive clapboards with white, forest green and even black trim!
Recent discoveries
include early 19th Century children’s clay marbles in the original
upstairs chamber floor and outdoor excavations unearthed Federal
period pottery shards, 19th Century Majolica fragments, and
Victorian glass bottles and octagonal ink well.
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