A Trip thru Tazewell County
August 2002

Sanders House in Bluefield, Virginia

There are quite a few pictures on this page, so it may take awhile to load. The pictures are worth it, though!

This house used to be surrounded by nothing but land and mountains. The last person to live in it was the man who ran the farm. Since then, when Wal-Mart moved in and bought the land in the valley for a supercenter, they gave the house back to the county. It is being restored as a museum and offices for local historical societies. The third floor gabled windows peek into a large hallway that runs the length of the house. The young son of one of the owners used it as a playroom. Servants' quarters are off the hallway on either side.

The house was built around 1880, and the addition on the back with the porch was added in 1911. The servant's quarters were on the third floor, accessible via the back stairway.

The house had an indoor laundry room filled with washtubs (above right picture, 1st window on left on first floor) that was bigger than bedrooms in the servants' quarters. The window next to it housed the farm offices.

The porch was part of the 1911 addition. The first floor room backed by the trellis on the left was the "cooking kitchen," because it was separated from the rest of the house.

The two-story smoke house will be turned into a railroad museum (notice the trackside light to the left of the building, it works!). The springhouse is the stone building next door. Inside is a huge, round wedge of wood from a tree with thousands of knife marks in it. Across the fence behind the smokehouse are rumoured to be graves belonging to slaves of the family who built the house, but there is no visable sign of those.

The grain house (left) and tutor's apartment (right) will be turned into other museum or tourism offices.

Amazingly, the original woodwork on the front staircase is still in tact. No hideous paint jobs to remove. The stairs are still solid despite over 100 years of wear and tear!

The tree (above left) is original and probably predates the house. The center picture is the icebox, combination fridge/freezer. It used chemicals to stay cold and is still operational. The tub is in the "master bath" off a bedroom. It is between the bedroom and a nursery, which were all part of the 1911 addition. There is a fireplace in every room of the house and no two fireplaces are the same.

The house and immediate grounds are all that is left of the original farm in the valley. The house is now surrounded by highways, with a huge shopping center next door, and a Burger King within shouting distance just behind the smoke house.

Links to More Info on the Sanders House

Saving our railroad relics by Carol Hart @ roanoke.com

House with a past deserves a future by Carol Hart @ roanoke.com

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