The bank barn at Virginia’s Belle Grove Plantation is now the Beverley B. Shoemaker Welcome Center.
Nine years of dreaming and planning led to the restoration of a century-old barn at the historic Belle Grove Plantation near Middletown in Frederick County, Virginia, just off the historic Valley Pike (US-11).
But, this is more than a barn.
It’s now the Beverley B. Shoemaker Welcome Center—with a museum, gift shop and 150-person event space suited for dinners, gatherings and educational programs, says Kristen Laise, the executive director of the Belle Grove Plantation.
The timber-framed barn belonged to the Brumback family, which owned Belle Grove in the early 20th Century. This family, Laise says, is what helped save Belle Grove as a historic shrine, touched by the Battle of Cedar Creek during the Civil War in 1864. “And I really credit them as the first step in the preservation of our property,” says Laise.
The 1918 barn’s $1.2 million re-furbishing spanned less than a year; a dedication was held in April 2019.
“It is a bank barn,” Laise says. “So, on the lower-level, it was built into the bank. And the upper level is accessible by a staircase and lift.”
The story above appears in our November/December 2019 issue. For more subscribe today or log in to the digital edition with your active digital subscription. Thank you for your support!
