What’s in a Story? The Chimneys By jon gerlach
This is a story about The Chimneys. Mark Twain would have had fun with it. I can't write nearly as well as he did, but please humor me. I'll try to keep it brief. Once upon a time, a Scottish merchant by the name of John Glassell build a stately home in Fredericksburg just before the Revolutionary War. It was
flanked by two massive chimneys. Some folks thought John was a Loyalist, meaning he favored the British in a private way. He left Fredericksburg when the war started, crossed the pond, and little was heard from him after that. In the magnificent house that John built, there lived a little girl named Nell Herndon. She was known for her
beautiful singing voice and "ethereal presence". As a young socialite with promising dreams, Nell would fall in love with a rising star from New York, named Chester Arthur. By all accounts it was a very good marriage. Unfortunately, Nell died of pneumonia. This was a common and oftentimes fatal - situation in the 1800s. A single parent now, within the year he would become Vice President of the United States. His sidekick, James Garfield, was assassinated soon afterwards, so Arthur assumed the Presidency. By that time there were three Presidents who were widowed when they took the oath of office (Jefferson, Jackson and Van Buren), and Arthur made it four. There was a roundtable in the White House, but wait … this is a story about The Chimneys. So … Nell's father (remember Nell?) was a gentleman by the name of William Lewis Herndon. He was captain of the mail steamship Central America. In 1857 William went down with his ship off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, lost at sea in a ferocious storm. Besides the mail, he was transporting tons of gold coins and bullion, valued today at well over $100 Million. The shipwreck might just be the most talked about treasure in American history. The "Ship of Gold" was the subject of furious litigation over ownership and profit rights. The wreck was salvaged using cutting-edge ROV technology, designed to lovingly retrieve stacks of uncirculated gold coins in an undamaged state. Naturally, a single scratch devalues a rare coin. The significance of this wreck to coin collectors, investors (and old story-tellers like me) cannot be overstated. Remember The Chimneys? This is a story about The Chimneys. At 623 Caroline Street, it's a fine example of Georgian architecture and an icon in
Fredericksburg's preservation movement. Historic Fredericksburg Foundation, Inc. (HFFI) bought the building and put a preservation easement on it. Successive owners Bill Vakos and Tommy Mitchell have maintained The Chimneys in good condition, reflecting their commitment to historic preservation. Today, Billiken's Smokehouse at The Chimneys offers delicious barbeque, hand-smoked in the back yard. Rooms can be rented for private parties. Bands play Rock & Roll covers on the brick patio. When nostalgic tunes waft on the fragrant breeze, do you ever wonder what Arlo Guthrie's song "Alice's Restaurant" was really about? That's a story for another day. So … what's in a Story? Well … here it's about a little girl who …
An attorney and retired archaeologist, Jon Gerlach chairs the Architectural Review Board in Fredericksburg Photo courtesy City of Fredericksburg
front porch fredericksburg
August 2019
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