About “The Stone House” at Shadow Mountain Escape

“The Stone House” was a labor of passion for Ralph.  Since his childhood upbringing with his German mother and family in Germany, Ralph’s imagination was continually fueled by the countless medieval castles, churches, manor houses, and farms that he typically spent time with his family exploring.

After 40 years with Ralph, Karen has since discovered her large German family in Hessen, Germany, and has come to share his love of the ancient structures of Europe.  Ralph and Karen spend months every year in Europe to visit family, friends, and to explore ancient places and cultures.

“The Stone House” represents a culmination of our European experiences.   This simple building is actually the boldest and most difficult construction undertaking of all the Shadow Mountain Escape timber frame structures.   “The Stone House”, with its beautiful timber frame truss, lovingly represents the stories of old Europe… and those who still love it today.

Constructed between March 2024 and May 2025, the natural stone structure located at the corner of Shadow Mountain Escape was designed by Ralph.  Inspired by Ralph’s passion for ancient European buildings and materials, “The Stone House” was deliberately designed and constructed with the intent to represent a medieval European building as closely as possible in these modern times.

Thrilled with the outcome, Ralph calls SME’s newest structure “the last medieval building!”

Very different from Shadow Mountain Escape’s 5 other timber frame structures, “The Stone House” timber frame truss sits on solid masonry walls.  This is more typical of medieval buildings than structures with timber framed and waddle walls.  The masonry walls with their local natural stone (Ralph picked from the property) are slightly thicker at the bottom than the top.  This is the only way load barring masonry walls were built in ancient times.

The timber frame of “The Stone House” was engineered, cut and erected by Blue Ridge Timber Wrights of Christiansburg, VA.

Ralph and his friend John Sours (local master mason) completed the masonry.

Our neighbor Gordon Crosen (mason) helped Ralph out a lot in building the oversized footer.   Other local contractors were brought in to help Ralph with the finishing work. Serving gracefully as the head project logistician, Karen painted thousands of feet of tongue and groove pine board blue.

Although not as elaborate or large gauge, a timber frame truss, as the one in “The Stone House”, would have been quite standard in the medieval period in central Europe.

• The natural slate floors and the white plastered walls are also true to the ancient times.
• The blue ceiling was typical in medieval churches and grand structures.
• The photos of medieval art and structures on the walls are of surviving medieval work from Ralph’s personal photo library of medieval structures and designs.
• The beautiful stained-glass window was painstakingly restored, framed and installed by Ralph.  Stained-glass became quite typical in churches and grand buildings of the late medieval period.

In short, “The Stone House” is built to represent its ancient forebearers… and to leave us with a realistic “taste” of the time.

Historic Head Named Fabio