The early 19th-century Museum Building near the Fincastle courthouse project was demolished Thursday, after Botetourt County and Fincastle representatives and builders advised that the building was not in stable enough condition to be moved safely, agreeing to build a replica instead.
Planning for Botetourt County’s new circuit courthouse originally involved relocating the historic building, which was in the way of construction.
The property once housed the law office of James Breckenridge, a veteran of the Revolutionary War and War of 1812, a member of the Virginia House of Delegates and a U.S. congressman. After an expansion, the building also served as part of the Western Hotel complex in the 1840s and 1850s, which was a “frontier stop-off” for those traveling West, former Botetourt County Circuit Judge Malfourd “Bo” Trumbo said.
But in late June, project managers told the board of supervisors that the building was in poor shape to be moved, with one comparing the plan to moving a “sandcastle.”
The formal demolition request from Deputy County Administrator David Moorman to Fincastle Planning Commission Chair Scott Critzer, dated July 22, reads, “Following a thorough assessment of the building by independent structural engineers and historic preservation and restoration masons, the County has been advised that the brick of which the building is constructed is not structurally sound, rendering the building impractical to preserve and relocate, as planned.”
On July 22, the board of supervisors voted unanimously to support an agreement to construct replicas of the Breckenridge Law Office and Western Hotel, after multiple discussions with representatives from both localities, architectural consultants, residents and others.
Agenda documents from the July 22 meeting stated that delay penalties levied onto the county by contractors for the circuit courthouse project could reach $110,000 per month, were deliberations on the former law office building to continue.
The Fincastle Planning Commission voted unanimously July 30 to approve the demolition permit that the county had submitted.
“Once we got everyone in a room it became pretty evident that the best option was to do what we have done, and that is to repurpose as much of the building materials and important elements as we could,” Fincastle Mayor Mary Bess Smith said in an interview. “We want to preserve the legacy of the Breckenridge family and the history associated with those structures.”
Both replicas will be free-standing in the historic square in Fincastle, where the Western Hotel replica will sit adjacent to the law office replica. The two historic sites were originally two separate buildings, later joined as one, agenda documents said.
The design and construction will be managed separately from the circuit courthouse project. The county will pay for construction of the replicas with funding from line items set aside to move and relocate the old building in the original contract, Smith said. She said the total cost of the project is unknown at this point, but that the project should be “well within” that original budget that the county will pay.
The construction of the replicas should use materials that are representative of the original buildings, and salvaged pieces should be used in the new construction, the agreement approved by the county says.
Smith said before the building was torn down on Thursday, the Botetourt County Historical Society was able to salvage some items and materials, including mantels, murals from the walls, and in what was the second floor of the Western Hotel, heart pine wood flooring.
