Boydville

Set far back from the street at the end of a private drive, this is the house that Civil War correspondent “Prock” declared “altogether the most handsome” in the city. Built and lived in by generations of one of the area's most prominent families, the plastered stone house has the status of Martinsburg's “manor” house. A fivebay central block, sixty feet long, covered with a deck-on-hip roof, is flanked by recessed wings extending thirty feet to each side. A c. 1900, one-story porch extends across the facade. The exterior is plain, but the interior is notable for its fine woodwork and trompe l'oeil wallpaper, with paintings imitating paneling. The wallpaper was imported from England in 1812.

Elisha Boyd, Berkeley County's Commonwealth Attorney and member of both houses of the Virginia General Assembly, built Boydville. After his death, it was inherited by his daughter, wife of Charles J. Faulkner I, another member of the Virginia House of Delegates and later a United States Congressman. The property narrowly escaped destruction during the Civil War, but was spared thanks to Mrs. Boyd's lastminute appeal, which brought this response, dated July 18, 1864: “The property of Charles James Faulkner is exempt from the order of General David Hunter for the burning of residences of three prominent citizens of the Shenandoah Valley in retaliation for the burning of Governor Bradford's house in Maryland by the Confederate forces. (sgn'd) Abraham Lincoln.”