The Southwest Virginia Museum Historical State Park’s Rufus A. Ayers House faces West First Street in the Poplar Hill neighborhood of Big Stone Gap in Wise County. It was built in 1894–1895. The Commonwealth of Virginia acquired it in 1946 and opened it as a museum two years later. Two-and-a-half stories high and five bays wide, the house was constructed of brown sandstone on a limestone basement. It is essentially Queen Anne in style, although modifications to the roof and the loss of a wraparound veranda altered its original appearance early in the 20th century. Behind the house stands a two-story carriage house. The dwelling and landscaped grounds, enclosed by an original stone wall, occupy the crest of a terrace overlooking downtown Big Stone Gap.
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