Blair House: Local descendent works

to restore family homestead

By Scott Nicholson

The historic Blair Farm in Boone hopes to formally add “Historic” to its name.

Sharon Tolbert, five generations removed from her ancestor who settled the farm, is hoping to revive the property into both a livable space and an example of period architecture. The Blair Farm is located in the city limits on Deerfield Road, containing nine acres of the original 365-acre tract purchased by Henry Blair in 1835. Sharon, who now lives in Caldwell County, is working with her husband Byron Tolbert to restore the house as much as possible while retaining the elements that make it a rare example of early county history.

The Tolberts bought the property in September. It had not been inhabited for over 30 years, though relatives sometimes spent the summer there. The Tolberts’s goal is to maintain the property and the structures and seek ways to both preserve it and raise money to continue the work.

Sharon has a degree in historic restoration and preservation, and has had a passion for antiques her entire life. She had fond childhood memories of the farm from visiting her grandfather and grandmother, and the couple made changes in their retirement plans in order to take on the massive project.

“I’ve always wanted to have this house and preserve this house,” Sharon said. “I never let go of that dream. I wanted this place to be saved. This was one of the early houses here even before this was Watauga County. I love history so much it was just really important for me.”

The property is near where three forks of the New River join, and is the site of old Native American camps. The Cherokee, Shawnee, and other tribes used the region as communal hunting territory before the European settlers arrived, but Tolbert said archaeologists at Appalachian State University believe other people may have predated those tribes. Over the decades, Blair descendants and tenant workers have turned up over 200 arrowheads and small stone tool pieces as they plowed the fields. The couple has invited ASU researchers to take core samples of some areas of the farm where the soil has been undisturbed, such as under a rotted section of the porch and the floor of outbuildings. That might reveal a need for more intensive searching, especially if pottery fragments are found that can help identify the people who once camped there.

According to Sharon’s family stories, Blair was an accomplished cabinet maker, windmill maker, teacher and farmer. He served as Clerk of Court in 1850 and was also a store owner. The property has traditionally been used for crops and today still yields hay. The Blair House was built in 1844, a 10-room hall-parlor house with Victorian architectural elements. The structure has a metal roof, and an enclosed porch that was added in the 1930s. Chestnut, maple and oak are used inside the house, with the frame built of pine and hemlock. The original stone support pillars are still in place, though a cinder block skirting was built in the 1950s. The property also features a two-story carriage house, a tool shed, and an 1844-era log smokehouse.

The challenge now for the Tolberts is to first stem the tide of neglect, then shape the property into the way they envision. The foundation requires stabilization, and the roof has a few significant leaks. The Tolberts closed on the property just before last fall’s hurricanes, and water penetrated some of the walls and chimneys. “The immediate goal is to keep it from going downhill,” Byron said.

After the roof is repaired, the couple will focus on repairing the kitchen and a bathroom, then a bedroom, so they can spend some nights there while they work. They hope to be able to spend more time this summer instead of driving up from Caldwell two or three times a week as they’ve been doing.

They are also thinking about how to best use the property to restore it and let people see what life was like over 160 years ago. “We’ve looked at any number of options,” Sharon said. “We’d love to be on the national register (of historic places) but we don’t have time to do the paperwork. We talked with a consultant, but the price is $5,000.”

The couple has discussed a number of ideas, from a bed and breakfast to sustainable agricultural use. Much of the property is in a flood plain, and the Tolberts have probed granting a conservation easement to protect the buffer along the New River.

“There’s so much history on this property, I’d like to have it available to people,” Sharon said. Since she’s an artist, she’s considered launching a monthly series of art shows at the house, or renting out studio space. The couple has also considered opening a “grieving center” to hold programs to facilitate healing and helping people recover from tragedies. Byron, a retired education administrator who is now teaching, said he’s seen a number of small children struggling to deal with personal tragedy, and believes the property would offer a peaceful setting. The Blair House used to offer parties in the yard, usually tied to harvests. The house was often full, as in the old days orphans were placed with farm families, offering labor in exchange for room and board. The Blairs also had two tenant farm families who lived on houses on the property in exchange for working.

The Blair Farm relied on agricultural income, with family members growing both subsistence and commercial crops. Cabbage, apples, potatoes, buckwheat, onions, honey, tobacco, flax fiber, sheep, and cattle were all raised there at one time or another. A member of the Blair family started the famed Watauga Kraut Factory in 1922 and later helped found a cabbage growers’ cooperative. The property held the county’s first air field in the 1940s, with barnstorming pilots offering rides for a small fee.

The decline of commercial agriculture forced the family to begin selling off much of the original property. Portions of Watauga Medical Center, the Boone Golf Course, and the Blairmont subdivision now sit on property that used to be gardens, hayfields, and orchards.

“The bottom line is to protect and preserve the integrity of this property forever,” Byron said. “We might not be here in the future, but we’d like to preserve it as it is. We’re not sure how it’s going to happen.”

The Tolberts have spent much of their energy just making room to begin work. They’ve hauled away 5,000 pounds of trash, held a yard sale, removed five layers of floor covering and paneling, pulled ivy from cracks in the kitchen floor. Tolbert called it “the silverfish capital of the world.”

Another immediate need is to repair the carriage house, which is threatening to collapse. “We want to take it back in time, from 1830 to the early 1900s. We’ll have to remove the new (modern) sheet rock, doors and molding, and take the floors back to wood.”

The Tolberts plan to close off two of the three chimneys, and received estimates of $8,000 to$10,000 to restore each chimney.

The couple has received support from family members, who have also pitched in with work, and were assisted by Nanette Franklin and Dr. Deanna Godwin, their teacher for a public history class that helped them compile materials on the house’s history.

Other ideas include converting the attic of the woodshed into an apartment, renovating one of the outbuildings into a studio for Sharon’s pottery and painting, and finding a barn to replace the original, which is long gone.

“We just want it to look like a farm, and not look like all the rest of over-developed Boone,” Sharon said. “I don’t think it’s okay to develop everything. “The couple hopes to live in the house full time in three years, when their daughter graduates from high school and hopefully attends ASU. Even then, they expect the work won’t be finished.

“There’s something good about this place for me,” Sharon said. “It forms a connection and an attachment for me. I just feel better when I’m here.”

* Scott Nicholson can be contacted at nicholson@wataugademocrat.com