history’s stories
JULY 4TH By Ralph “Tuffy” Hicks
Every child when I was growing up always looked forward to the July 4th holiday celebrations. It was not that we were excited about the celebration of the Declaration of Independence, but that we would be able to have “FIREWORKS”. I can still see those bright red Cherry Bombs and those silver TNT’s, and of course the usual Roman Candles, Fountains, Crawling Snakes, Sparklers and the Pin Wheels. Every 4th we started off the day on Caroline Street with the annual parade, that included the local National Guard along with the high school marching bands and with every political figure between here and Washington in attendance. I was always with my Grandfather Withers a WWI veteran who saw action in France at the Meuse. Back in those days we had many local heroes from Korea and WWII, men such as Battle Sale, Lem Houston, Wally Mann, Wadell Farmer, Lewis Ball and many others all now deceased that we admired. There are still several veterans many in their 90’s in the local area Bill Sale a local merchant and Jimmy Farmer of Bowling Green are two gentlemen well respected in the community and we thank them for their service along with all veterans from past and ongoing conflicts. Today the celebrations are not as localized but more on a national scale with major events in Washington or New York. We still have our local celebration of fireworks and people still get together too have a cook out. July 4, 1776 was not the day the continental Congress decided to declare independence, it was July 2, 1776. It was not the start of the Revolution either, that was in April 1775. Some say it was the day Jefferson wrote the draft, no that was in June 1776. It was not the date the Declaration was signed, that was August 2, 1776. So, what did happen on July 4, 1776? The Continental Congress approved the wording and finally agreed too all the edits and changes. July 4th, 1776 became the date that was included on the official handwritten copy and was signed in August. It was the printed and circulated throughout the new nation, so all citizens thought of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776 was the date always remembered. For the first twenty years people did not celebrate the date. With the deaths of both Jefferson and Adams just hours apart on July 4, 1826, Americans began too celebrating the holiday and it become more common and it was not until 1939 that it became a National Holiday.
Have a safe and happy 4 th.
DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF: MARGARET SACRA, RANDY HART, DUVAL SULLIVAN, LARRY VIDA AND RONNIE WALLACE
Tuffy is Front Porch's resident FXBG historian
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July 2018
Front porch fredericksburg
OUR HERITAGE
What’s in a Wall?
home with a view
919 Caroline Street
By Barbara Anderson
By jon gerlach
Surely there’s no better view of the Rappahannock River with Chatham Manor as its backdrop than from the home at 1305 Sophia Street. If you step out onto the porch, you also see the Civil War pontoon landing site. The home was built by Hargas Dillon in 1929. Henry McGee bought it in 1936 and used it as a rental property. According to the 1940 census, it was rented by Clarence Kratt, a relief watchman at a clothing manufacturer. He lived there with his wife, daughter, grandson, and two lodgers. The next year, Henry rented it to his son William, who started a family and lived there more than 20 years. The oldest part of the house includes the front parlor, sun porch, kitchen, three bedrooms, and one bathroom. William added two bedrooms, a bathroom, a full basement, and full attic space. The house was sold in 1962 for $15,500 to Elizabeth Robbins, who ran Blue China Antique Shop at 1004 Sophia Street. In 1972, Jimmy Jarrell, Jr., bought it and took the lead on a major expansion. He added on extensively to the house in the 1980s, including an elevator that goes to all five levels and an apartment for a caretaker. After Jimmy’s death in 2012, ownership passed to his son, James Jarrell III, who now rents out the house. This house has always had a pool. The original pool was much closer to the river when the river bank was further out. Since then, the banks have shifted as a result of natural erosion. William McGee built the swimming pool by himself for his family. He started with a small rectangle about 3 feet deep. Later, he continued to dig and built a 5-foot deep pool. The Jarrells installed the in-ground Anderson pool in the 1970s. In many ways, the history of the house is the history of Fredericksburg’s
floods. Plaques have been placed on the house to indicate how high the river rose during the floods. In April 1937, the Rappahannock crested at 39 feet. This was the highest level since the Johnstown flood of 1889. Then, only 5 years later in October 1942, the river crested at 43 feet with water covered Caroline Street in some areas. In August 1955, the river crested at 27 feet. Hurricane Agnes in 1972 saw the river crest at 39 feet, and with Hurricane Fran in 1996, it reached 27 feet. The most recent flood this year caused the river to peak at only 19 feet. As caretaker of the home, Nancy Gasparovic opened the residence to members of the Historic Fredericksburg Foundation, Inc. (HFFI) on June 17, 2018. Guests enjoyed a private tour where they walked through the entire home while hearing history from current and past residents, as well as HFFI docents. The day ended with an unplanned, but majestic, sighting of a bald eagle flying overhead. .
When you step inside Curitiba Art Café at 919 Caroline Street, you enter another world, filled with the inviting fragrance of Brazilian coffee and an air of warm hospitality. Owners Ana and Frank Robinson created the Café/Bistro to emphasize the arts, generating smiling faces and a following of familiar and frequent clients. The place has a special feel, beyond the reclaimed wood furniture, original tin ceiling panels, heartwood floors and local artwork. It has something to do with the walls themselves. According to Dr. Gary Stanton, past Chair of the UMW Department of Historic Preservation, two structures originally occupied this site: a main building and its dependency. Judging from architectural details, the back room of
Curitiba Art Café today connected to the front part of the business by a passageway was originally a s t a n d a l o n e building dating to the late 1700s. Many city lots in that era had a separate kitchen, or dependency, typically occupied by slaves, located in the back yard. Today only a handful of slave quarters survive in Fredericksburg. This is one of them. While tearing down drywall and sledge-hammering through cinder blocks during renovation, Frank Robinson and Joe Wilson uncovered a magnificent brick fireplace. Hidden for many years behind a wall in the back room, this was the smoking gun marking the site as a slave quarters. Topped by a massive wood beam, the fireplace interior is large enough to comfortably accommodate café Manager Bryan Raymond (above, standing over 6 feet tall). Here, meals were prepared by slaves who probably lived upstairs.
Rounded corners of bricks edging the fireplace indicate where knifes were burnished to maintain a cutting edge. What happened to the main building? According to a fascinating map prepared by Chief Historian John Hennessy of the National Park Service, the building was destroyed by fire during the 1862 Battle of Fredericksburg, a victim of indiscriminate artillery shelling aimed at the heart of the city. Fortunately, much of the city survived. Today, slave quarters join other buildings in "making for one of the best-preserved and healthiest historic downtowns in the east", says Hennessy in the blog Mysteries & Conundrums. The main building served as the post office and residence of Rueben Thom (1782-1868). Thom and his family sought refuge in the basement during the bombardment, and escaped to the garden when the situation grew dire. Separated from the main building by just a few feet of open space, the slave quarters were somehow spared from the fire. Ironically, this separation was meant to save the main building in the event of a kitchen fire in the dependency. Exactly the opposite
happened here. Today, charred wood in the kitchen's front door frame testifies to lapping flames that brought down the main building. According to a letter from J.H. Wallace, Rueben Thom was seen afterwards "nestled among the ruins like a bird which having been hurled from his nest by a howling hurricane, again picks up the scattered straws which compose it." Like a phoenix, the front room of Curitiba Art Café is an interesting story in itself. Erected in 1870, the new building rose from the ashes of the 1862 fire. A series of businesses took up residence here: Feuerherds Bakery around the turn of the century, and later the Western Auto Store. Frank Robinson fondly remembers a sporting goods display on the south wall. At this very spot his father picked out Frank's first baseball glove (which he owns to this day). Sometimes history makes a full circle, as it does here. So … what's in a wall? If only walls could talk. An attorney and retired archaeologist, Jon Gerlach chairs the Architectural Review Board in Fredericksburg. Photo by Jon Gerlach
This information was researched and compiled by Barbra Anderson (with assistance from HFFI volunteers) who is the HFFI Events Coordinator and a member of the Board of Directors.
front porch fredericksburg
July 2018
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