Burnsville Chapter 7

What's that I spy, behind the chamber of commerce (aka old filling station) building?

Up on the hill is an antebellum home.

Th McElroy House is on my list of places to go see...just think about how it probably has authentic furniture as well as stories.  But we had to be on our way on that day, so there is definitely more to see in Burnsville, NC.

The 3,000-square-foot (280 m²) house was built by John Wesley McElroy as a mansion for his wife, Catherine in the 1840s. McElroy was a local businessman and lawyer, and a brigadier general in the Confederate Army. During the war, the house was used as a hospital and the headquarters for the home guard. In 1889 the house was purchased by William Moore, a state senator and former captain in the Union Army. Moore's family lived in the house until 1917 and it became the first Post Office in Burnsville. During the 1970s the house was abandoned and fell into disrepair.   It is now on the National Register of Historic Places. 

The house was purchased in 1987 by the Yancey History Association. The Association restored the building, which was opened as the Rush Wray Museum of Yancey County History in 2003. The museum houses period furniture and exhibits on local history.