35. Christian Clise House

100 W New St., built as a log house c. 1786 by Christian Clise, who purchased the lot from Abraham Shepherd in 1785. Clise sold the house in 1790 and moved to Lexington, Va., where he and his son built and operated an ordinary. Succeeding owners including the Cookus and McCauley families enlarged the house, adding a center hall, siding, and unique architectural details. On January 21, 1892, near the front steps, a rejected suitor shot a popular town belle. Removed to the parlor of the house (then owned by Methodist minister A.A.P. Neel), the victim died, as outraged townsmen sought the killer. Sentenced to hang by a Charles Town court, the killer was found dead in his cell before the execution. Some allege that the house is haunted by the ghosts of that long ago tragedy.