Mount Pleasant (1812)
Teresa & Ingemar Westphall
292 Hite Lane
Strasburg Heritage Homes Tour had the pleasure of visiting Mt. Pleasant in 2013, when it was the home of Caroline Stalnaker. This year we will have that pleasure again, but now under the ownership of Teresa and Ingemar Westphall. After having fallen in love with it sight unseen, on a real estate web site, while serving in the Air Force on Okinawa (He is now stationed at the Pentagon.), Ingemar made up his mind that Mt. Pleasant would become the couple's home and purchased it in 2019. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places and Virginia Historic Landmark Register, Mt. Pleasant was built in 1812 by Capt. Isaac Bowman who served in the Ohio campaign of the Revolutionary War with George Rogers Clark. Born at nearby Harmony Hall, Bowman was a cousin of Isaac Hite Jr., builder of Belle Grove Plantation. Built of handmade brick in the Federal style, Mt. Pleasant features a wide central hallway with doors at both ends that allowed cool night breezes to flow through after warm summer days. To the right of the south entry is a formal dining room with a fireplace and the original Federal style mantel and pillared surround which leads to a second room of equal size and another fireplace of the same style. Across the hall and further to the north is the large parlor with a fireplace at the end and original built-in cupboards on either side. Upstairs are four roomy bedrooms, each with its own fireplace and a variety of styles of cupboards and built-in recesses. All of the woodwork is original as are most of the floors, the lumber for which was sawn from trees on the farm by itinerant carpenters who were former Hessian soldiers fighting in the Revolutionary War. The ceilings on the first floor are 12 feet tall, while those on the second floor are 10 feet tall. The wrought-iron, "elbow latch" hardware on all of the doors was made by the Mt. Pleasant blacksmith at the time of construction. Each of the eight fireplaces features a different style of hand-carved molding and most have chimney cupboards on either side. The Westphalls have replaced the windows in the house with double-paned mullioned ones, keeping as close to the form of the original windows as possible. A new heating and cooling system as well as a laundry room have also been added, and they are in the process of redecorating in the historical style of the era of the home. It is Ingemar's dream to begin farming Mt. Pleasant when he retires from the Air Force, restoring its long history as a productive contributor to the heritage of Strasburg and the Shenandoah Valley.