Two Salem landmarks are among four historic sites named to the Roanoke Valley Preservation Foundation’s 2026 Endangered Sites List, an annual accounting of significant historic, natural and cultural resources at risk of being lost to neglect, demolition or incompatible development. The announcement was made on Tuesday, May 19.
The RVPF, which has published the list since 1996, identified an antebellum brick house on the Roanoke College campus and a post-Civil War railroad bridge as the Salem entries. Two Roanoke sites — a 1920 golf course and a disappearing historic crossroads community — also made the list.
Butts House, Roanoke College
Built around 1850 by J.C. Deyerle at 102 N. Market St., the Butts House is one of the few surviving examples of work by the Deyerle family, prominent master builders and brick manufacturers in Salem. Deyerle constructed many of the earliest and most notable buildings at Roanoke College, in Salem and across Roanoke County.
The house, built with either enslaved or recently freed labor, is also part of the material culture documented through Roanoke College’s Studying Slavery project. The college has received two RVPF Kegley Preservation Awards in recent years for that work, including recognition in 2022 for a walking tour brochure on the histories of enslavement at the college and again in 2025 for a Genealogy of Slavery Database and a sculpture installation.
The house is currently proposed for demolition. The foundation is urging the college to explore alternatives.
“We encourage the college to explore other options and continue its leadership in preserving our shared history,” the RVPF said in its announcement.
Valley Railroad Bridge
The 1873 Valley Railroad Bridge stands as an architecturally significant remnant of an ambitious — and ultimately unrealized — transportation project from the Reconstruction era. The Valley Railroad was never completed to Salem, meaning the bridge was never put into service.
Built from stone quarried locally, the structure features barrel-vaulted tunneling through which Gish Branch flows, with the railroad grade crossing above. It was constructed by Irish immigrants and formerly enslaved African Americans and is considered among the finest examples of stonework in the region.
The bridge was listed individually on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008 but has since suffered from deferred maintenance, with debris and heavy vegetation now threatening the structure.
The RVPF is recommending a protective conservation easement for the property. The foundation also supports proposals for a walking trail along Gish Branch that would connect to the Mason Creek Greenway and the Hanging Rock Battlefield trail, along with historic signage to raise public awareness of the site.
Roanoke Sites
The two remaining entries on the 2026 list are located in Roanoke. The Ole Monterey Golf Club, a 1920 William Flynn-designed course considered the second oldest in the Roanoke Valley, has been closed for what ownership has described as maintenance and renovations. Neighborhood groups have raised concerns the course could be sold for residential development. The property also contains the gravesite of Revolutionary War patriot Col. William Fleming and a deteriorating log house dating to 1827-28.
The fourth site, identified as “Old Cave Springs” in Roanoke County, encompasses what remains of a once-thriving 19th century crossroads community in southwest Roanoke County. Three historic structures in the area were recently demolished, and the RVPF is calling for oral histories and interpretive signage to preserve awareness of the community’s history before more is lost.
For more information about the RVPF and its mission, visit roanokepreservation.org.
