By William “Skip” Deegans
Sitting on a hill between Caldwell and White Sulphur Springs is the forlorn-looking Mountain Home. Completed in 1835 for the Robert Dickson family, this Federal/Greek Revival home has been a Greenbrier County landmark. The son of an Irish immigrant, Dickson was enterprising and he prospered. In addition to the farm, he was involved in other business ventures. With 30 slaves, he was one of Greenbrier County’s largest slave owners who bought, sold, and rented them. As tourism grew in Greenbrier County, the Dickson family capitalized on it and built cottages where guests could stay for costs lower than those at area resorts. Some guests would stay for weeks – even months – at a time. The Dicksons bought, sold, and kept horses that were used to conduct trail rides for their guests as well as guests at The Greenbrier Resort. The home and 500-acre farm remained in the Dickson family for nearly 200 years before property began to be sold in the 1960s.
Over the years, there have been plans for repurposing the house. In the 1980s, some Lewisburg business people purchased it with the idea of turning the house into a restaurant. Their plans included restoring the bridle trails that would allow guests at The Greenbrier to ride or travel by horse-drawn carriages to the restaurant for meals and afternoon teas. Alas, those plans never materialized and the house continues to deteriorate. The house and about 20 acres are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Source: National Register Nomination forms (1980, 2019); Greenbrier Pioneers and Their Homes by Ruth Woods Dayton.
