Willa Cather Birthplace
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Willa Cather Birthplace
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Willa Cather Birthplace, April 2013
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| Location | NW of Gore on U.S. 50 near Gore, Virginia, U.S. |
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| Coordinates | 39°16′3″N 78°19′27″W / 39.26750°N 78.32417°WCoordinates: 39°16′3″N 78°19′27″W / 39.26750°N 78.32417°W |
| Built | 1850 |
| NRHP reference # | 78003017 |
| VLR # | 034-0161 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | November 16, 1978 |
| Designated VLR | September 21, 1976 |
The Willa Cather Birthplace, also known as the Rachel E. Boak House, is the site near Gore, Frederick County, Virginia, where the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Willa Cather was born in 1873. The log home was built in the early 19th century by her great-grandfather and has been enlarged twice. The building was previously the home of Rachel E. Boak, Cather's grandmother. Cather and her parents lived in the house only about a year before they moved to another home in Frederick County. The farmhouse was listed on the Virginia Landmarks Register (VLR) in 1976 and the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1978.
The house was originally owned by Cather's great-grandfather, Jacob Seibert. The original portion of the home was probably built in the 1810s. A two-story frame extension on the western end of the house was added around twenty years later while an ell was probably added sometime after the Civil War. In 1869, the home and 4.5 acres (1.8 ha) of land was conveyed to Seibert's daughter, Rachel E. Boak. Virginia Boak, her daughter, and Charles Cather were married at the house in December 1872. The following year on December 7, the couple's first child, Willa Cather, was born in the house. In 1874, Willa and her parents moved to a nearby home, Willow Shade, also listed on the NRHP. Cather's relatives began moving to Nebraska in the 1870s and her family followed in 1883, settling in Red Cloud. The house where she was born was conveyed from Cather's grandmother to a woman named S.S. Gore. Ownership of the home changed hands four more times until being purchased by Charles T. Brill in 1950. At the time of the home's historical survey taken in 1976, Brill used the building as an office and retreat.
The Willa Cather Birthplace was added to the VLR on September 21, 1976, and the NRHP on November 16, 1978. A historical marker in front of the home was installed by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources. The marker reads:
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Wikipedia