The Cromer-Trumbo House sits adjacent to The Heritage Museum and is operated as a historic home. The original farmstead consisted of the house, a log barn, log smokehouse, log springhouse, and other outbuildings on 10 acres. The log rear section was built about 1811. The front brick part was built about 1840. The house contains architectural features which show a German influence, particularly the roof substructure. Shannon Trumbo, an attorney who grew up in the house that his grandmother, Sarah Cromer, purchased in 1889, gifted the home to the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Historical Society.
The House contains the Mary Spitzer Etter collection of Victorian and early twentieth-century household items, toys, and decorative arts. Mrs. Etter grew up in Harrisonburg and graduated from the State Normal School (now James Madison University). She taught elementary school for 39 years before retiring in 1973. Her father, Perry Franklin Spitzer, was a life-long Rockingham County resident and well-known businessman of Harrisonburg.
The Cromer-Trumbo House is open on First Fridays, April-August, from 1 pm-5 pm and by request throughout the year. Docents and their special guests welcome you to envision life as a member of the Spitzer family. $5 admission ages 13 and up. Visiting with guests on the porch is free and open to the public.
JUNE 6-OPEN HOUSE
Special guests are Nancy Voas, fiber artist from the Shenandoah Valley Textile Guild and Joan Shaver-Fraktur artisit. Mary Jane Chewning and Rosemarie will be docents. House has air conditioned.
