What’s the Smith House Galleries Backstory?
While her husband Victor was fighting overseas in World War II, Audrey Smith purchased a house (built around 1867) on South Liberty Street in Harrisonburg. Her family enjoyed the home for nearly 50 years before selling the property (by then commonly known as “the Smith House”) to its next door neighbor, the Daily News-Record (DN-R) in 1985.
Twenty years later, when the newspaper needed room for expansion, rather than demolishing Harrisonburg’s fourth oldest house, the DN-R gifted the building to Arts Council of the Valley (ACV), with the stipulation that the new owner would cover the cost of moving the house. ACV board members and community leaders embarked on an ambitious capital campaign to renovate and relocate the house. On June 23, 2005, the Smith House was placed on a truck and driven to its new 311 S. Main Street location, where it has since served faithfully as ACV’s administrative offices.
With generous support from the Strickler family and local business owner James McHone, the Smith House slowly evolved into the gallery space that now welcomes thousands of visitors each year. With two intimate spaces – the Darrin-McHone Gallery and Rhapsody Room – Smith House Galleries provides local and regional artists the opportunity to exhibit in a space that is as community-oriented and exciting as the day it was trucked from Liberty to Main.
