Abijah Thomas House, Thomas Bridge Road, Marion, Smyth County, Virginia

Significance: Abijah Thomas, a man of rare vision and enterprise, was the foremost industrialist of Smyth County before the Civil War. His developments of the iron industry in mines, furnaces, and foundries along the South Fork and on Staley's Creek made him a wealthy man for his day. His father Thomas Thomas, born in Wales in 1776, came to Smyth from Southhampton County, Virginia, and on April 5, 1791, married Freelove Cole, born December 24, 1773 d. March 22, 1848. Abijah, their youngest son, was born on the South Fork May 21, 1814, in the same house in which Mrs. Freelove Cole Thomas gave Marion its name. He married Priscilla Scott on June 2, 1836. He built a large octagonal house that still stands near Thomas Bridge and died there December 1, 1876. (Smyth County History and Traditions by Goodridge Wilson, 1932).

The octagon house built by Thomas contains seventeen rooms, ten closets, and a storage room. The exterior walls are made of brick, while the interior features a rare example of painted ashlar on plaster, as well as graining, marbleizing, and stenciling.

Survey number: HABS VA-639