History

As best as we can determine, the following is a brief and hopefully accurate history of the house. We cannot say for certain, as we find slightly conflicting dates depending on the source. But here is what we think is most likely the case:

Built in 1885 by Morgan Lauck Walton Sr., a Virginia state senator, the house became Woodstock’s first hospital in 1937. Established by Dr. Harold Miller Sr., the Cora Miller Memorial Hospital (named after Dr. Miller’s mother) was a 40-bed hospital providing all of the medical needs of the area. The hospital was in service until 1951, when it was converted to the Susan B. Miller Nursing Home (named in memory of Dr. Miller’s first wife). Operating as a nursing home until 2001, the building was purchased by a local non-profit providing transitional housing, where it continued its important service to the community for twenty four more years. In October 2025, we bought this historic building and are humbled to call it home.

Undated photo of Cora Miller Hospital prior to the building becoming a nursing home in 1951. Source: Morrison Studio Collection – Shenandoah County Historical Society.

The following are snippets from the Virginia Department of Historic Resources record on the Woodstock Historic District, dated July 27, 1995.

“Beginning in the 1880s several impressive houses were built on Muhlenberg Street, which soon became the fashionable address for many of the town’s wealth citizens.”

“The Walton House at 118 North Muhlenberg is an early example of the Queen Anne style. Built in 1885 for Morgan L. Walton, a prominent lawyer and Virginia state senator from 1891 to 1895, the large brick house has projecting bays, a corner octagonal tower with a tall pointed roof, segmental-arched 2/2 sash windows, massive interior chimneys with corbeled brickwork, and a wraparound porch with fluted Ionic columns on stone parapets. In 1937 the house was converted into a private hospital, and since 1951 it has served as a nursing home.”

Undated photo (Cora Miller Hospital era) taken several years after the earlier image, judging from the size of the trees. Source: Morrison Studio Collection – Shenandoah County Historical Society.

We found online these postcards from the Cora Miller Memorial Hospital era. Two are postmarked (September 1, 1946 and August 14, 1948) and one is unused. These are such neat treasures!

The Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from 1899 helped us determine whether the back of the home was original (or likely original) to the building or an addition added later.

Circled in red is our home. Pink = masonry, Yellow = wood. You can see the wooden wrap-around porch on the front of the home facing west. On the east side of the building is what we had thought was a later addition.

What we were calling “the addition” was likely instead a two-story summer porch built along with the rest of the home. We now call it “the summer porch”.

Etched into a piece of original slate on the back of the turret high up on the roof reads “W.D. MAGRUDDER”. Presumably, this individual was responsible for installing the slate that has now lasted 140+ years.

Boy Scouts delivering little Christmas trees to the front door. Given the name plates on the wall, this may have been during the hospital era of 1937-1951. Source: Morrison Studio Collection – Shenandoah County Historical Society.

More to come as we learn more…