Nomination Form
This combination commercial and residential building is perhaps the area’s last remaining example of a type once prevalent in towns along the much-traveled Great Road to Kentucky and Tennessee. The Williams-Brown House-Store related to its street-front site by having the galleries incorporated into the volume of the building and entered from the footpath through arches in the side walls. Dating ca. 1845-52, the building was constructed and first occupied by William C. Williams, who was also one of the builders of Salem’s first courthouse. It later passed to the Brown family who owned it until 1963. Threatened with demolition, the building was moved in 1987 a short distance west to a city park, but was again situated fronting the former Great Road (U.S. Route 11). Williams-Brown House-Store is now a museum of local history operated by the Salem Historical Society.
Many properties listed in the registers are private dwellings and are not open to the public, however many are visible from the public right-of-way. Please be respectful of owner privacy.
Abbreviations:
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark
Programs
DHR has secured permanent legal protection for over 700 historic places - including 15,000 acres of battlefield lands
DHR has erected 2,532 highway markers in every county and city across Virginia
DHR has registered more than 3,317 individual resources and 613 historic districts
DHR has engaged over 450 students in 3 highway marker contests
DHR has stimulated more than $4.2 billion dollars in private investments related to historic tax credit incentives, revitalizing communities of all sizes throughout Virginia
