Mountain Rose

Mountain Rose, at the base of a hill facing Rock Castle Creek, is a two-story, six-bay, T-shaped frame house with a projecting three-bay front porch and recessed porches on both sides of the rear ell. In this isolated mountain location, the builders cut and dried the wood in a “dry house” on the property; fired clay bricks for the fireplace, four chimneys, and parts of the foundation in a specially constructed kiln; and hand-mixed concrete for the rest of the foundation, exterior stairs, and footings. Inside, the ceilings and interior walls are of tongue-and-groove poplar, and most of the floors are of tongue-and-groove oak. DeHart had an earlier house on the property and a licensed distillery, Mountain Rose No. 250, that opened around 1887. The distillery produced Old Ike rye whiskey, and Mountain Dew and Pride of Virginia corn whiskey. By the late nineteenth century, the DeHarts were producing apples and grain on their farms and, with their distillery, had more than forty employees, making them the area's leading employer. With the advent in 1916 of Prohibition in Virginia, DeHart destroyed his distillery and built a large cider press in its place. In a secret location, he reconstructed his distillery and life went on as usual, although a little more carefully. The house was converted to a bed-and-breakfast in 1992. The Mountain Rose was sold in 2018 and is now a private residence.