04/08/2026
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✨Historic Highlight of the Day ✨
The John Mathias Homestead in Hardy County represents the early buildings that were constructed in much of this area between the Revolutionary War and about 1850. It is made up of two hewn-log houses built close to each other and joined by a frame "dog trot", also known as the "entry". Each section is a two-story rectangle, but the older unit (c. 1797) is slightly longer, though narrower, than the newer one (c. 1825).
John Mathias emigrated to the United States from Alsace-Lorraine to escape persecution during the French Revolution. Along with two brothers, he first took up residence in Philadelphia before moving further into the interior where he lived in Lancaster County, PA and Frederick County, MD, then across the Potomac River in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia before making his way over the mountains to the Lost River Valley of Hardy County. He was a Revolutionary War veteran and lived until 1819. Following him, generations of Mathias' descendants lived in this home before being deeded to the Mathias Civic Center in 1974.
