The Wilderness Road Regional Museum is located in historic Newbern, Virginia. Newbern, located in Pulaski County, had its official beginning March 3, 1810, when Adam Hance laid off 28 lots fronting on the Wilderness Road. Because of its early significance, Newbern was placed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
The Wilderness Road Regional Museum is located in historic Newbern, Virginia. Newbern, located in Pulaski County, had its official beginning March 3, 1810, when Adam Hance laid off 28 lots fronting on the Wilderness Road. Because of its early significance, Newbern was placed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
The earliest building restrictions drafted by Adam Hance required each purchaser of a lot to build "a hewn log house at least one and a half stories high, with a shingled roof, brick or stone chimney, seams filled with lime mortar, two glass windows with twelve lights each." These were the minimum requirements set forth.
Henry Hance built such a house in 1810 on lot No.2 of the 28 lots, and now is the eastern portion of the Wilderness Road Regional Museum. (In 1812 Hance became the postmaster of Newbern and later operated a tavern in his log house.) In 1816 a weatherboarded house was built on Lot No. 4 by Adam Hance, the father of Henry, and this, today, is the western portion of the Museum.
By 1851 the dog trot which connected the two domestic units was replaced by the present Giles room. Henry's log house and father Adam's weatherboarded house, combined with the additions, resulted in the 100 foot length building of today.
In 1837, Virginia, the only child of Henry and Sarah Hance, married Jabin B. Alexander from Monroe County, West Virginia, and the house had been the home of Hance's and Alexander's until the 1970's. It was acquired by the New River Historical Society for a Museum on April 16, 1980.
Early tools, buildings, civil war artifacts as well as special collections.
Library located upstairs for southwestern Virginia genealogy research. Many historical documents from early Montgomery and Pulaski County.
Owned and operated by the New River Historical Society
Access: General Public
Appointment required: True