Willa Cather's home in Virginia

These photos were sent to me by a kind soul named Mark Kissel-- he's lucky enough to live "up the hill" from Cather's childhood home in Virginia-- where she lived before she moved to Nebraska. The photos are so great that I decided to give them their own page. Feel free to "borrow" any of these photos, as long as you provide a citation of their source, and credit to Mark, as well as load them to your own Internet server (do not link to them here, in other words)

Here's the skinny on the house, according to the locals... (contributed also by Mark):

"I believe the house is for sale at present. It underwent a major restoration a few years ago. Might be the ideal place to inspire a young novelist . . . It is supposedly haunted, though -- it was a field command center and field hospital during the Civil War (I imagine many men died horrible and painful deaths there). There is a small cemetary a couple hundred yards away, with many war graves; the headstones are just flat rocks erected, and whatever may have been scrawled on them has long since faded away.

It would also appear that the Cathers were quite well-to-do, as this is about the largest house in the immediate area. There are still quite a few Cathers here in the Winchester area, including Cather's Store, which is about 6 miles east on US 50."

Historical Marker to Cather's childhood home

The marker that fronts the house on US highway 50.

The remains of the barn where Cather probably did chores as a child.

The east side view of the house.

West side of the house.

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page created January 16, 1999:

Last update:
May 2003