Rocktown History rallying votes for finial of former Court Square spring house

DAYTON, Va. (WHSV) - Rocktown History needs your help in preserving a piece of Harrisonburg history.

Each year, the Virginia Association of Museums holds a contest for “endangered artifacts.”

“A contest to bring these endangered artifacts to the public and build awareness for the costs that go into collecting, storing, caring for, maintaining these artifacts that represent our history,” Penny Imeson, executive director of Rocktown History said.

The winning artifact gets $1,000 dollars for restoration.

“The finial is a treasure from Harrisonburg’s history. It stood on the original spring house at Court Square from about 1830 to the early 1900′s, an approximate 70-year span,” Imeson said.

She said the spring house was taken down because it was considered a road hazard.

“At that point, we just had a road around Court Square. Later in 1995, a replica was rebuilt and that’s what people will be familiar with today,” Imeson said.

A new spring house now sits on Court Square, but the Rocktown History museum wants to preserve it.

”We have the original finial; it is in some rather poor condition, you can imagine, after 70 years of standing on spring house that it would have wear and tear from the weather,” Imeson said.

You can vote every 24 hours for the spring house finial here.

Voting ends on March 3rd.

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