ROANOKE COUNTY, Va. – The historic Cave Spring community is one of four sites listed on the Roanoke Valley Preservation Foundation’s 2026 Endangered Sites List. This annual designation is meant to promote awareness and education for preserving historic resources.
The Roanoke Valley Preservation Foundation has been releasing the list every May since 1996, timed to coincide with National Preservation Month.
This year’s list includes an antebellum brick house, a post-Civil War stone railroad bridge listed on the National Register of Historic Places, a 1920 golf course with ties to one of Roanoke’s earliest settlers, and the fading historic community of Cave Spring.
1850 Butts House — Roanoke College, Salem
The Butts House at 102 N. Market Street in Salem is a rare surviving example of mid-19th century work by J.C. Deyerle, a member of the well-known Deyerle family of master builders who constructed many of the earliest and most prominent buildings at Roanoke College, in Salem, and across Roanoke County.
The house is also part of the material culture that Roanoke College has recognized through its Studying Slavery project. The college has previously received Kegley Preservation Awards from the Roanoke Valley Preservation Foundation — in 2022 for a walking tour brochure on the histories of enslavement at the college, and again in 2025 for a Genealogy of Slavery Database and the Authors and Architecture Sculpture.
The house is currently proposed for demolition. The Foundation is encouraging the college to explore other options and continue its leadership in preserving the area’s shared history.
1873 Valley Railroad Bridge — Salem
The 1873 Valley Railroad Bridge in Salem is a stone arch bridge built during the Reconstruction era as part of a railroad line that was never completed. Because the Valley Railroad never reached Salem, the bridge was never used.
The bridge — a barrel-vaulted tunnel carrying a drainage known as Gish Branch — was constructed by Irish immigrants and formerly enslaved African Americans using stone from local quarries. It was listed individually on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.
The Foundation says the bridge has suffered from a lack of maintenance since its listing and is now threatened by debris and heavy vegetation. A conservation easement has been recommended, along with a potential walking trail connecting the site to the Mason Creek Greenway and the Hanging Rock Battlefield trail. Historic signage is also recommended.
Ole Monterey Golf Club, William Fleming Gravesite, and 1827–28 Thomas Goode House — Roanoke
The 1920 Ole Monterey Golf Club, designed by William Flynn, is the second oldest golf course in the Roanoke Valley and is known for its views of the valley. The course recently closed for what was described as “maintenance and renovations,” raising concerns among neighborhood groups that it may be sold for development after years of minimal upkeep.
The property carries significant historical weight. It was formerly owned by Revolutionary War-era patriot Colonel William Fleming, and both Fleming and his wife Nancy are buried on the grounds. The Foundation says the family cemetery — which directly ties the land to Fleming — may also be at risk.
Also on the property is a clapboard-sided log house known as Bellmont, or the Thomas Goode House, dated to 1827–28. The structure is described as a good example of an early dogtrot log building and features the only known decoratively painted log fireplace lintel in the region. Fleming had died in 1795, before the house was built; Thomas Goode was the owner of the property at the time of its construction.
The golf course lies adjacent to Monterey, a historic 1845 Greek Revival home, and 116 acres of pasture protected by a historic and conservation easement — the only protected farmland within Roanoke City limits. The Foundation says it hopes any future sale of the golf course will remain compatible with the historic and open character of the surrounding area.
‘Old Cave Springs Village’ — Roanoke County
The village of Cave Springs was a thriving crossroads community from the mid-19th to the mid-20th century, located where three early transportation routes met in what is now an affluent suburban neighborhood in southwest Roanoke County.
The community grew up around a natural spring — a stopping place first for Native Americans, then for farmers, tradesmen, and their horses traveling from Bent Mountain to Big Lick, which later became Roanoke City. By 1885, Cave Springs had three stores, three grist mills, two sawmills, several churches, and established family residences. The area was also known for its apple and peach production.
Three historic structures were demolished recently: the ca. 1810 Dr. Harding House at 3801 Penn Forest Blvd. — which had been determined eligible for the National Register — a hewn-log house on Old Cave Spring Road estimated to date between 1820 and 1850, and an adjacent ca. 1930 building. A Poage family farmstead further west on Route 221 was also demolished in 2025.
Today, the surviving historic resources include the Cave Spring and its associated ca. 1940s vertical-log house, the 1862 Dr. Gale House, Mulberry Hill (ca. 1880), the former Cave Spring Methodist Church (1854), and a possible historic Dunkard church, now Bethel AME Church.
Alison Blanton, co-chair of the Foundation’s Endangered Sites Committee, says the spring itself cannot easily be destroyed — but its setting can be.
“The house where the springs are located — not the spring itself — is probably the most endangered at this point,” she said, citing concerns that a new Publix under construction at Old Cave Spring Road and Route 221 could accelerate road widening and additional pressure on the remaining structures.
The Foundation is contacting owners of all surviving historic properties and encouraging them to consider how preservation can be part of their plans.
“Hopefully calling attention to this will encourage the people that do own the historic resources that are left to be good stewards of them and realize they’re part of something that’s greater than just their single property,” Blanton said.
Roanoke Story Initiative launches in August
As part of its effort to preserve the Cave Spring community’s history, the Foundation is launching the Roanoke Story Initiative, a new project to collect oral histories and historical documents from community members.
The first public meeting is scheduled for August 4 at 5:30 p.m. at the Raleigh Court Library on Grandin Road. Organizers will collect oral histories and have scanners on-site to copy photographs, letters, maps, and other materials. All stories and documents will be archived digitally through the Roanoke City Library System and made available online.
“Growth and preservation can go together, but take the time to stop and look around you and learn about where you live and its history — because I think it will make you appreciate where you live a lot more,” Blanton said.
For more information on the Foundation and its preservation efforts, click here.