(From The Northern Virginia Daily, Saturday 13 August 2005)

FRONT ROYAL -- The Warren Heritage Society is applying for grants to stabilize and restore a historic home built in the early 19th century.

The McKay house, also called "Fairview," on U.S. 340-522, is one of two local structures bearing the name. The two-story stone dwelling was built by a member of the first family to settle the county, according to Patrick Farris, executive director of the Warren Heritage Society.

Before the house, built circa 1820, is opened to the public, stairs, stairwells, chimneys, and stonework need to be examined and "shored up where needed," according to Farris.

"We are going to go steadily in the right direction, taking care of the appropriate things first before throwing the doors open to general tourism," he said.

The property also is where the remnants of the Union garrison were captured in the Battle of Front Royal, which is considered the end of the battle, Farris said.

The restoration would be an attempt to return the structure to a semblance of its original construction, he said. The society would remove a wrap-around porch built about 30 years ago, and retain the rest of the house, he said.

Because of degraded mortar, chimneys already have been taken apart and laid on the side of the house, he said. During the restoration, those chimneys would be reconstructed.

The house, which is "mostly safe and sound," would still present a safety and liability concern if it were opened now, Farris said.

"You can imagine if there was a regular flow of visitors in that structure, and it was not structurally sound, then we would be risking the public's welfare," he said. "And we do not want to do that."

To pay for the restoration, the society is seeking between $100,000 and $400,000 in grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Farris said. The group should know the status of the grants within the next three to five months, he said. If adequately funded, he said the restoration could take two years.

The land is currently owned by Sysco Corp., and will be transferred to the county within the next few months, according to County Administrator Douglas P. Stanley. The corporation proffered the approximately 1-acre tract during a rezoning in 2002, he said.

"It's one of the most historic structures in the county," Stanley said. "The county wanted to preserve the site for future interpretation."

Farris would like to see one of two outcomes for the house. Ideally, he envisions a center for tourists to acquire information about Warren County. Short of that, the house could be opened seasonally or operated as a living history site, he said.

The other building in Warren County called the McKay house also sits on the U.S. 340-522 corridor. The land was recently purchased jointly by the Front Royal Town Council and the Warren County Board of Supervisors.

"You've got an extremely important piece of history in the north end of the county with the McKay houses," Farris said.

Contact William Flook at wflook@nvdaily.com.