Qualla: Abingdon Historic District

Abingdon Historic District: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Steven C. Price, CC BY-SA 3.0. In 1933, in the worst year of the Depression, a young actor named Robert Porterfield came home to Abingdon with an idea: nobody had cash for theater tickets, but everybody had a ham hock or a jar of preserves. He took over an old Sons of Temperance hall on Main Street and announced that admission to his new theater would be paid in food. Local farmers brought hens and butter. The actors ate. The Barter Theatre opened on June 10, 1933, and ninety-three years later it is still putting on plays - the longest-running professional theater in the United States, still standing in the same Main Street building that anchors the Abingdon Historic District.

Image: Steven C. Price | CC BY-SA 3.0

Abingdon Historic District: A Half-Mile of Time

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Steven C. Price, CC BY-SA 3.0. Abingdon's historic district covers 145 contributing buildings, 13 contributing structures, and 2 contributing sites - everything from a 1773 house belonging to the first settled Presbyterian pastor west of the Alleghenies to mid-twentieth-century commercial blocks. The district ...

Image: Steven C. Price | CC BY-SA 3.0

Abingdon Historic District: The Preston House

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit RebelAt at English Wikipedia, Public domain. General Francis Preston built the central brick block of what is now the Martha Washington Inn in 1832 as a private home for his wife Sarah Buchanan Preston and their nine children. The original Preston living room is still the hotel's lobby. In 1858 the family sold the house to ...

Image: RebelAt at English Wikipedia | Public domain

Abingdon Historic District: Sinking Spring and the Cashier's House

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Steven C. Price, CC BY-SA 3.0. Sinking Spring Cemetery, near the eastern edge of the district, marks where the first Presbyterian congregation in the region built a log church in the early 1700s. By 1833 they had moved to what is now the Barter Theatre building. In 1837 the congregation split, and one branch b...

Image: Steven C. Price | CC BY-SA 3.0

Abingdon Historic District: Living On

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Steven C. Price, CC BY-SA 3.0. Most historic districts are quiet. Abingdon's is not. The Barter still draws audiences to evening shows, the Martha Washington still serves dinner in the Prestons' old dining room, the courthouse from 1868 still hears cases, and the storefronts still sell things. Walk Main Street...

Image: Steven C. Price | CC BY-SA 3.0