Rose Dale

According to family tradition this house was designed and built by McAllister for his family on former plantation lands bounded by the Jackson River and the historic Midland Trail (now approximated by U.S. 60). The Georgian-plan dwelling, with four rooms and a wide center passage on each of two main floors, combines decorative elements from Greek Revival and Italianate. Below the deck-on-hip roof, sawn brackets support deep eaves, and exaggerated dentils drip below the wide stuccoed frieze. The identical dentil detail and similar bracketlike shaped rafter ends are found on two brick cottages on the grounds of the Sweet Springs resort in neighboring Monroe County, West Virginia. Two-story stuccoed pilasters partition the Flemish bond brick facade into three bays and frame the east elevation. Fanciful X-shaped cutouts that pierce the front porch supports were a detail also used on the mid-nineteenth-century hotel and cottages (demolished in the 1930s) of the Bath Alum Springs Resort in neighboring Bath County. Rose Dale's c. 1900 two-story riverside porch, with coupled Tuscan columns and a classical entablature, was added by the builder's son. The spacious interior is more traditionally outfitted, featuring a stair with curved handrail in the central hallway and pilastered mantels at each of the ten fireplaces.