Larner's Staunton legacy forever etched in stone

It was Staunton's Golden Age — a time when talent, vision and artistry transformed a picturesque village into the Queen City of the Shenandoah. Fittingly, much credit has gone to master architect T.J. Collins, who between 1891 and 1912 designed more than 200 significant structures in and around Staunton.

Collins' designs, of course, would have remained merely marvels of the drafting table had it not been for strong, capable men who gave his work physical presence. One of those men — and one of Staunton's most dedicated artisans — was William Larner.

Much of Larner's great stonework is still in evidence today, including the massive Beverley Street gateway and arched bridge of Thornrose Cemetery; the eye-popping C.W. Miller house on New Street; Oakdene at 605 E. Beverley Street; what is now the Ritenour Rest Home; and buildings at Western State Hospital and the Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind.

Larner was born April 15, 1856 in Hadfield, Derbyshire, England, and learned the trade of stonemasonry as a young man. In 1881, he visited his brother, Mathias, in Massachusetts, who persuaded him to relocate to America.

Larner sent a message to his wife, Esther, telling her to take pack up their two children and "come to America." She did, and the family settled first in Massachusetts and then in Maine, where Larner obtained work in textile mills. The young stonemason, however, was accustomed to working outside, and by 1890 had sickened from the unhealthful conditions of the mill.

Seeing a brochure about Staunton, Larner traveled by train to give the town the once-over. He liked what he saw and wired his wife to "bring the children." There were five of them, now, and Esther — no doubt reluctant to singlehandedly deal with that many young ones on a train trip — reportedly wired back:

"I've done that, already. If you want us you will have to come and get us."

He did, and in January 1891 the Larners settled in Staunton. They would never return to England. It was in Staunton where William Larner would make his mark.

He contracted himself out as a masonry and cement-work foreman, quickly gaining a reputation for quality work. In the coming years, Larner would complete a number of major contracts, not the least of which was the construction of Thornrose Cemetery's gateway arch on Beverley Street.

The limestone gateway was completed in 1896 and Larner, proud of his work, laid in a slab just above the arching entrance that read, "William Larner, Contractor, Staunton, Virginia."

Larner's work also included construction of the first three vaults in Thornrose Cemetery; the now-demolished barracks at Staunton Military Academy, which required the laying of 1.5 million cement blocks in a four-month period; stone work on Emmanuel Episcopal Church; the retaining walls at Mary Baldwin College and Stuart Hall; the engine bed at White Star Mill; and the Whitmore Building, which was razed in 1981 by Community Federal Savings and Loan.

In June 1904, Larner purchased four acres of land on Middlebrook Road about a mile from the corporate limits and established a quarry. Soon, excavation along the southern boundary on a high bluff exposed the entrance to a cave. This entrance consisted of a vertical shaft that dropped 40 feet into the earth.

Larner constructed a concrete building to seal off the original entrance and excavated a new one from Middlebrook Road. During this work, Larner spotted what he thought was an unusual-looking rock and picked it up. In 1969 the specimen was analyzed by scientists at the State Museum of Raleigh, North Carolina, and was found to be a mollusk shell dating back some 130 million years.

Staunton Caverns was opened as a commercial venture in 1907. Larner installed acetylene lights and walkways with handrails, and for years the attraction did a brisk business. It boasted some 400 linear feet of passageway and rooms filled with developing flowstone, draperies, bacon rind formations, rimstone dams and, of course, stalactites and stalagmites.

Unfortunately, excavations using dynamite destroyed at least one major room.

No one knows when the cavern was abandoned as a commercial venture. The city has owned the land since 1932 and has since used it for the storage of equipment and vehicles.

Larner, who came to America seeking the dream of millions — and obtaining it through talent and hard work — died Dec. 17, 1910, at the age of 54. He was buried three days later in Thornrose, the cemetery whose beauty he had helped shape.

The stonework dynasty he founded lasted until the Depression, when Larner Construction succumbed to bankruptcy. His legacy, however, survives, in the cold, but elegant structures of stone that still stand in the city he helped beautify.