What is the best gift you ever received? For the Botetourt County Historical Society, Inc., it was the gift made posthumously by Joseph Benson Buhrman (1924-2019) of his beloved home where he lived all of his life.
He was a founding member of BCHS in 1966 when its museum opened in the county-owned Breckinridge Law Office and Western Hotel behind the Botetourt Courthouse. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect since the plans for the footprint of a new courthouse required the area where the museum was located. The beautiful historic Buhrman home located along Rt. 220 in Gala was too remote to become the new museum. Consequently, BCHS hired Ray Sprinkle with REMAX and the property was sold. The money received allowed BCHS to purchase the former law office of Judge Robert C. Hagen, Jr. Esq., and stay in Fincastle.
In 2022, BCHS moved to 26 E. Main Street where it is located today in the historic 1871 “Gray House.”
For more information, visit the Botetourt Museum of History and Culture to take a tour and pick up the fall 2025 newsletter.
