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NOTE
The Ward Family House, the most accomplished and richly-detailed Queen
Anne-style frame house in rural Watauga County, was erected about 1897 for
Thomas Lucky Ward (1858-1900), a member of the family whose ancestor, Benjamin
Ward, Sr., was one of the pioneer eighteenth-century settlers in the
mountainous area that became Watauga County in 1849. Over a period of three
years beginning in 1897, Thomas Lucky Ward erected the house on a tract of 200
acres, bounded by Cove Creek and the Watauga River, that he received from his
father in 1897 The house, built on the south side of the main road connecting
Boone, the county seat, with Elizabethton,...
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NOTE
The Ward Family House, the most accomplished and richly-detailed Queen
Anne-style frame house in rural Watauga County, was erected about 1897 for
Thomas Lucky Ward (1858-1900), a member of the family whose ancestor, Benjamin
Ward, Sr., was one of the pioneer eighteenth-century settlers in the
mountainous area that became Watauga County in 1849. Over a period of three
years beginning in 1897, Thomas Lucky Ward erected the house on a tract of 200
acres, bounded by Cove Creek and the Watauga River, that he received from his
father in 1897 The house, built on the south side of the main road connecting
Boone, the county seat, with Elizabethton, Tennessee, has been a landmark in
the picturesque mountain landscape for nearly a century Ward died in 1900,
shortly after completing the house, and it remained the home of his widow,
Margaret Catharine (Adams) Ward (1860-1941) and his descendants until 1955;
Ward's daughter Bessie Virginia (1898-1992) and her husband, Rufus Marion Ward
(1891-1961), a distant kinsman and also a descendant of Benjamin Ward, Sr.,
left the house for a smaller house on the farm, newly-built on the side of the
rerouted Boone to Elizabethton road (US 321). It was sold out of the family in 1974
Home is a national register of historic places
http://www.hpo.ncdcr.gov/nr/WT0050.pdf
Ward Family House
8018 Rominger Rd
Sugar Grove, Watauga Cty, NC 28679
Domestic home and Farm
Late Victorian/Queen Anne
Brick/Wood
ca 1897
The Ward Family House, a well-preserved richly-embellished late Victorian-style frame dwelling likely erected in the summer of 1897 for Thomas Lucky Ward, stands in the northwest corner of its small 3.128-acre quadrangle-shaped house lot in western Watauga County.
The house lot is the residual part of the 200-acre tract that Ward received from his father in 1897 that has remained with the house to the present.
The house faces northwest to Rominger Road and
uphill toward US 321 which intersects with Rominger Road a short distance to the northeast.
A low stone retaining wall separates the low-lying front lawn from the elevated gravel-covered parking area off the south side of Rominger Road.
When the house was built, Rominger Road was the main road connecting Boone, the county seat of Watauga County, with Elizabethton, the seat of Carter County, Tennessee.
In the early 1950s the road was rerouted to the north,
paved, and subsequently became US 321; Rominger Road remains a gravel-on-clay road.
The house stands in a rural agricultural landscape of rich bottom lands which rise gently uphill to woodlands and away from Cove Creek and the Watauga River
which originally formed the east and west boundaries of Thomas Lucky Ward's farm.
The house's historical and physical link with Cove Creek survived two partitions of the Ward lands, in 1917 and 1963; a line down the center of Cove Creek continues to form the southeast boundary of the house lot which comprises the nominated acreage.
The lot's northeast and southwest boundaries, partially fenced, stretch in parallel fashion to points in the center of Rominger Road where the lot's northwest boundary follows the center line of the road.
The house occupies the open, partially shaded lawn which comprises the northern one-third of the lot; the rear, southern two-thirds of the property is fenced,
grass-covered pasture which continues down to the bank of Cove Creek.
The house's original outbuildings are lost; however, the volunteer and planted late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century trees and shrubs preserve its historic setting.
A traditionally-styled wood gazebo, dating from the 1980s,
stands in the lawn to the southeast of the house.
A small board-and-batten covered frame barn, erected in the mid-1970s, stands along the fence line at
the southeast edge of the lot.
(For ease of description the house's front elevation, which faces to the northwest, will be described as the north elevation, the house's northeast side
elevation will be described as the east elevation, and so on.)
The ca. 1897 Ward Family House is the best preserved and most elaborately finished Queen Anne-style frame house in rural Watauga County.
Its two-story elevations are covered with novelty German siding and a wide string course, at the second-story level, composed of five rows of diamond-edge wood shingles.
Diamond-edge shingles are also used to sheath the series of ornamental gables which enliven the elevations and the cupola which rises in the center of the
house bet~veen asymmetrically placed brick chimneys with stucco panels.
Complex sawnwork spandrels occupy the apexes of the gables and similar sawnwork
ornaments the one-story front porch. The house is built on a general T-shape
plan. Its projecting gable ends on the north and east elevations are expanded
by five-sided projecting bays while the shallow projecting bay on the west
elevation has a single window centered in each level. The appearance of the
rear elevation is obscured on the first-story level by one-story additions
which extend to the south as an ell. The house was built on very low brick (or
stone) piers which are not visible except on the side elevations where the
ground drops gently; over time brick infill has been added under the original
block to form a perimeter foundation. The additions also stand on masonry
perimeter foundations. The house is covered with asphalt shingles. The window
openings contain either one-over-one, two-over-two, or four-over-four sash
windows in plain board surrounds. These openings are fitted with aluminum
storm windows.
The front, north facade of the house is its most elaborate elevation and has a
generally symmetrical three-part appearance achieved by the one-story porch and
the wall gable balancing the bay-fronted projecting gable in the west half of
the elevation. The three widest sides of the projecting bay are fitted with
windows at each level, and the string course of shingles carries between the
windows across the five faces of the bay. The bay is covered with a conical
hip roof which rises in the face of the gable end. The apex of this gable is
fitted with an elaborate molded sawnwork spandrel whose principal feature is a
lunette with radiating piercework. The form of this spandrel is repeated on
all of the house's gable ends and on the cupola; the only exception occurs on
the north face of the cupola where the lunette is expanded to a fully circular
shape as the crowning feature of the elevation. (There is no lunette spandrel
on the rear, south side of the cupola where the upper gable is sheathed with
boards.)
The east half of the front elevation is occupied by a shallow one-story
hip-roof porch. Turned columns with quadrant brackets, repeating the
appearance of the spandrels, are connected with a cutwork railing and a frieze
band of cutwork heart shapes. This porch treatment is a sympathetic
replacement of the original porch supports of like character, expanded by slat
lattice, appearing in a documentary photograph in which they are mostly covered
with ornamental vines. The porch has a poured cement floor and flush-sheathed
ceiling. A wood porch swing is positioned at its east end; the house's
partially glazed front door and screen door are positioned at the west end of
the porch where they open into the house's center, stair hall. The
second-story elevation has a pair of windows above the single window and door
on the first story. These windows are fitted with board-and-batten blinds,
probably added in the 1980s. Frieze boards at the top of the elevation, return
at the base of the shingle-faced gable. The square-in-plan cupola crowning the facade has a window centered in its north and south elevations; pegged four-panel doors are positioned in the center of the east and west elevations
of the cupola and they open onto small roof decks guarded by replacement
railings.
The west elevation of the Ward Family House's original two-story block has a
two-part division with the shallow projecting gable end occupying the south
half of the elevation Single window openings are centered on each level of
the north half of the elevation and on the two-story face of the gable end;
they hold four-aver-four sash and have board-and-batten blinds. The one-story
rear block of the house appears to date from at least two periods of
construction. The section immediately abutting the house, set on a painted
cement block foundation and covered with a shed roof which sheds to the south,
is sheathed with German siding and dates to the early twentieth century;
however, the horizontal replacement windows date to the 1980s. This section
contained the Ward family dining room. In the early 1980s, a small flat-roof
ell was added here, and a wood deck was built on its east side across the
center third of the house's overall south elevation. This ell room, built to
contain a hot tub, is on a stucco-covered masonry foundation and has sheathed
walls punctuated by tall vertical single-pane windows. There is an entrance
into the cellar under this addition on the house's rear elevation.
The east elevation of the
north half is occupied by
repeats the appearance of
the elevation is occupied
represents a weatherboard
window in its east face.
second-story elevation.
two-story house has a general two-part division. The
the projecting gable end and its five-sided bay which
the like feature on the facade The south half of
by a shallow one-story shed room (pantry) that
enclosure of a shed porch here; there is a small
There is a single sash window in the center of the
The rear elevation of the house has the general utilitarian and asymmetrical
appearance of farmhouses of the turn of the century. The east third of the
elevation is comprised of the shed end of the shed room and the two-story gable
end of the main block which contains the kitchen on the first story and a
bedroom above There are single sash windows in the center of each level The
approximate center third of the first-story elevation is occupied by the dining
room shed, service porch, and the 1980s open wood deck The 1980s one-story ell
forms the west third of the rear elevation. There is a simple shallow open
deck carrying across the west half of the second-story level; it rests on the
shed roof. A door opens onto it from the rear southwest corner
bedroom. There is an octagonal single-pane window to its east which
illuminates the landing on the stair.
The interior of the Ward Family House follows a center, stair hall plan and
retains nearly all of its original appearance and finish except for the kitchen
and the first-story rear southwest corner bedroom which were remodeled in the
early 1980s with barn-siding paneling to convey a faux rustic look for the
kitchen and new den The flooring in the two-story original block is either
maple or pine, the walls are sheathed with tongue-and-groove ceiling or flush
boards, and the ceilings have those same sheathings. The doors are mostly
four-panel with either plain board surrounds or frames made of
tongue-and-groove boards. There are two-panel closet doors which have a
mid-nineteenth century Greek Revival appearance; these occur mainly on closets
beside chimneys and are probably from the 1890s.
The front door opens into the center, stair hall; the stair is positioned in a
shallow recess at the back, south end of the hall and rises along its west wall
to an intermediate landing across the back of the hall and then continues
northward, in a shorter flight, along the east wall of the hall to the second
story. The flooring in the hall is maple; the walls and ceiling are sheathed
with tongue-and-groove ceiling ~{hich is painted except in the stairwell recess
where it has been left unpainted and has mellowed over a century to a rich
nutty-brown color. For most, if not all of the period when the house was
occupied by the Ward family, the tongue-and-groove walls and ceiling remained
unpainted; all of the second-story hall ceiling remains unpainted to the
present. Also for reasons that are unexplained, there was no railing on the
stair; the present, simple turned baluster railing was added in the 1970s or
1980s.
A door at the front west side of the hall opens into the present-day living
room (Ward family sitting room) which has a maple floor, a low baseboard, and
walls and ceiling of flush sheathing and tongue-and-groove ceiling. The
fireplace in the room's south wall has a brick hearth and a molded
post-and-lintel mantel with a two-part paneled frieze and projecting shelf.
The closet on the east side of the fireplace has a two-panel door. The doors
are enframed with plain boards while the windows have surrounds of
tongue-and-groove ceiling. Across the hall a door in its east wall opens into
the present-day dining room which was the Ward family's parlor. It also has a
maple floor and tongue-and-groove ceiling on the walls and ceiling; the door
and window surrounds repeat the pattern of the living room. There is no
baseboard in this room; however, it is encircled by a simple chair rail. The
post-and-lintel mantel here, similar in appearance to the one in the living
room, has a three-panel frieze. When the Ward family lived here there was no
door connecting their parlor to the kitchen in the southeast corner room.
Probably in the 1980s, a door was cut into the wall on the west side of the
chimney to connect the two rooms. Except for its original pine floors, the
kitchen has entirely new finishes on the walls and a series of built-in
cabinets. A doorway in its east ~{all opens into the open-shelf pantry that was
enclosed from the side porch; a small furnace room is partitioned of
off the
pantry's north end.
A door in the south end of the center, stair hall and a second one in the west
wall of the kitchen open into the rectangular room across the back of the house
that served as the Ward family dining room. Now it functions as an informal
passage and connects with the rear southwest corner bedroom in the main block,
a small bathroom partitioned in the 1980s at its west end, and the enclosed
service porch at the rear of the house which opens onto the deck. The passage
has a pine floor; however, its wall and ceiling finishes date from the 1980s.
Mrs. Ward's bedroom also retains its pine floor; however, the tongue-and-groove
walls were overlaid with barn siding when it was refitted as a den. The 1980s
ell addition is finished with modern materials.
The second story hall, with doors into each of the four bedrooms and a separate
enclosed staircase to the cupola, has carpet laid over its original pine floors
and unpainted tongue-and-groove ceiling on its wall and ceiling. The doors
into the bedrooms each have flat panels on the hall side and raised panels on
the bedroom side; they have unpainted pine plain board surrounds. The house
did not have a second-story bathroom until the 1970s or 1980s when a small
bathroom was enclosed on the west side of the hall; it also incorporates the
space from the west bedrooms on the east side of the chimney providing
fireplaces to those bedrooms. The bedrooms have carpet laid over their pine
floors. The walls and ceilings of these rooms are sheathed with either flush
boards, tongue-and-groove ceiling, or wallpaper over those original
sheathings. The front northwest corner bedroom has flush board sheathing and a
brick hearth; there was no apparent mantel in this room. A small closet to the
west (right) of the fireplace has a two-panel door. The walls and ceiling of
the northeast corner bedroom are sheathed with tongue-and-groove ceiling. The
post-and-lintel mantel in this room has a two-part frieze and it is similar to
the one in the living room; all the house's mantels probably came from the same
factory. Small closets are built into the east corners of the room to each
side of the bay window. The wallpapered southeast corner bedroom has a brick
hearth but no apparent mantel, an incompleteness of finish that often occurred
in back bedrooms of rural farmhouses. The closet to the east side of the
fireplace has a peggen two-panel door. The bedroom in the southwest corner is
also wallpapered and has no mantel. The closet on the west side of the chimney
has been enlarged and there is a door onto the deck.
An enclosed staircase, rising southward on the hall's east wall, provides
access to the cupola. It rises first to a small chamber, at the base of the
cupola, which is fully sheathed in tongue-and-groove ceiling. A two-panel door
opens into storage in the attic over the second story bedrooms. A separate
ladder-like stair rises from this chamber up to the cupola. The pine floor of
the cupola room is covered with carpet; the walls and ceiling are fully
sheathed with tongue-and-groove ceiling. Four-panel pegged doors are centered
in the north and south walls. The doors have flat panels on the exterior and
raised panels in the room; they and the room have surrounds made of
tongue-and-groove ceiling
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