Rotherwood’s rich history lives on

On May 26, the Bluegrass Heritage Museum held its sum­mer trol­ley tour at his­toric Rotherwood, Asa Sphar’s home about three miles north of Winchester. Our hosts, Aaron and Holly Kuster, are the cur­rent own­ers of Rotherwood. After a box sup­per in their event barn and a talk about the old home by Gary Witt, we were giv­en a guid­ed tour of the house by Mrs. Kuster. All can attest that the home has been beau­ti­ful­ly fur­nished and lov­ing­ly restored, a process that con­tin­ues today.

A Swiss immi­grant fam­i­ly, the Sphars, set­tled in Clark County in 1779. Three broth­ers came to Strode’s Station: Jacob, Mathias and Theodorus. Two were killed by Indians — Jacob at Strode’s Station in 1781 and Mathias on Grassy Lick Creek in 1784 — after which Theodorus returned to Virginia. Mathias’ son Daniel set­tled north of Winchester on land he inher­it­ed from his father. He built his home near the old Hood’s Road on the east side of Woodruff Creek, about a half mile east of today’s Paris Road (Route 627).

Daniel’s son, William Rogers Sphar (1815−1885), mar­ried Elizabeth Gay and resided on his father’s home­place, where he became a pros­per­ous farmer. William and Elizabeth are buried in a fam­i­ly grave­yard near their home.

Their son Asa Rogers Sphar (1861−1929) mar­ried Emily French and built the show­place home they called “Rotherwood.” In 1886, Asa pur­chased 41 acres fronting Paris Road and com­menced con­struc­tion of his manor house. An unknown builder put up the three-sto­ry Queen Anne-style brick man­sion, com­plet­ed in 1887. Bricks were fired in the yard.

Asa’s estate also includ­ed a smoke­house, two chick­en hous­es, a bug­gy house, a horse barn, a milk­ing barn and two pigeon hous­es that pro­vid­ed squabs for the table. He engaged in gen­er­al farm­ing, rais­ing tobac­co, cat­tle, sheep, hogs, hors­es, and mules. Asa also kept a sta­ble of trot­ting hors­es that achieved some suc­cess on the local cir­cuit; the best known were “The Wanderer” and “Maggie F.”

The exten­sive gar­dens had a grape arbor, goose­ber­ry and cur­rant bush­es, an aspara­gus bed, a straw­ber­ry patch, a large kitchen gar­den, and numer­ous flower beds. From their orchards, they har­vest­ed a vari­ety of apples, peach­es, pears, plums, and cher­ries. A sug­ar maple grove pro­vid­ed sap for maple syrup.

The Sphars enter­tained lav­ish­ly with fre­quent din­ners for fam­i­ly and friends, a large July 4^th pic­nic, an annu­al stag din­ner in the fall, and a big Halloween Party. The fam­i­ly took in the waters at Olympia Springs (Bath County) for a few weeks in the sum­mer. Winters were often spent in Florida or some­times in rooms at the Brown-Proctor Hotel.

Asa passed away from can­cer, and Emily’s death fol­lowed in 1951. Both are buried in Winchester Cemetery. Their daugh­ter Margaret Sphar Reeves remained at Rotherwood, where she had lived for some years, look­ing after her par­ents. After Margaret’s death in 1977, her daugh­ter Emily moved into the house, where she passed in 1983.

In 1988, Rotherwood passed out of the Sphar fam­i­ly for the first time in a bit over one hun­dred years. The buy­er was Maurice “Washie” Miller, who owned Dear Lawn Farm (now part of Royal Oak Estates) on Paris Road.

I was curi­ous where the name Rotherwood came from. According to an arti­cle in the Winchester Democrat, it was “named for the home of the Saxon King.” Family lore has it that Emily was an invet­er­ate read­er, and Sir Walter Scott was one of her favorites. In Scott’s nov­el Ivanhoe, the pro­tag­o­nist “Wilfred of Ivanhoe” is dis­in­her­it­ed by his father, “Cedric the Saxon of Rotherwood,” for sup­port­ing the Norman King Richard the Lionheart and for falling in love with the Lady Rowena, a ward of Cedric and descen­dant of the Saxon Kings of England.

Thanks to Bobbi Newell for infor­ma­tion cit­ed in this article.