Rainsburg is the largest borough in Friends Cove, protected by Tussey Mountain on the east and Evitts Mountain on the west. It was incorporated in 1856, three years after the Methodist Episcopal Church's Baltimore conference opened the Allegheny Male and Female Seminary ( BD18), which drew students from Virginia and Maryland until the Civil War. Many of Rainsburg's houses, which enjoy excellent integrity, date from this era. A half mile of stone and frame gable-roofed, two-story houses along Main Street lead to a group of the finest houses clustered near the seminary building. They include the handsome three-bay stone Paxten House (1849; 3109 Main Street) two doors south of a clapboard five-bay house with frieze band windows (c. 1850) at 3125 Main Street. Opposite is a stone one-room schoolhouse c. 1850, which was retired in 1868, and is now a private residence (3116 Main Street). The dark orange brick Rainsburg Methodist Church (c. 1880) next door has paired brackets. At 3192 Main Street, a two-story, Flemish bond brickwork house (c. 1870), with a peaked gable and wheel window, illustrates the inventive southern architectural influence of Maryland and Virginia, as do handsome stone houses at 3298 Main Street and 312 Stillhouse Lane. The Land farm (1812–1815; 651 Sherry Road) north of Rainsburg is a classic dairy farm, with a five-bay, two-story, gable-roofed farmhouse and a large frame, gable-roofed barn. The low mountains curving through Bedford County protect farms like these.
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