Archive for category: Uncategorized

by Inga Gudmundsson McGuire

A shorter version of this article was published in the April 2025 issue of Front Porch Magazine.  

In and around Fredericksburg, Virginia, architect Philip Nathaniel Stern’s legacy sits in plain sight. On streets like Caroline (previously Main), Washington Avenue, and William (Commerce), his oeuvre includes numerous public buildings that anchor downtown Fredericksburg occupying corner lots and coveted plots of land. From his office in the Law Building (910 Princess Anne Street) from 1909 to 1949 (at least), Stern supplied Fredericksburg, neighboring counties, Winchester, Richmond, and far-flung states such as Mississippi and New York, with his architectural expertise and knowledge. Many of his completed designs, both commercial and residential, are extant to this day. While extensive research continues on the life and work of Philip Nathaniel Stern (1878–1960), an overview of his architectural career in Fredericksburg, which spanned four decades, is laid out below in hopes that more interest and discovery into Stern will be sought out in the future.

Philip Nathaniel Stern was born, along with his twin sister Katharine Wyman Grumell (nee Stern), on April 15, 1878, in Bangor, Maine. His parents, Jacob Stern (1844–1913), a German-born merchant married Maine native, Eunice Wyman Walker (1848–1924), in December 1876.[1] The Sterns operated a store aptly named Stern & Co. from 1871 until 1887, which featured fine goods.[2] A mainstay in Bangor, Stern & Co. remained opened until 1887 when it appears Jacob Stern fell into debt and declared bankruptcy, prompting Jacob and Eunice to move their young family to Karlsruhe, Germany, Jacob Stern’s hometown.[3]

Archival resources in the United States offer scant information about Philip Stern’s childhood in Germany or his eventual return to this country. At the age of eighteen, Philip Stern enrolled in the architecture program at the Royal Technical University of Karlsruhe, now the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, in the winter of 1896 where he studied for the next three years.[4] The first documentation that Stern was back in the United States following the family’s trans-Atlantic move came in June 1901.[5] Two years after leaving school, Stern, now a 23-year-old young man, was working as a draughtsman in Chicago, Illinois, for the well-known D. H. Burnham Co. architectural firm.[6]  Stern’s stint in Chicago, however brief, came at an exciting time in the city’s history, following the city’s post-1871 fire which sparked rebuilding and growth. The young draughtsman would have been surrounded by new technological advances, materials, and thought, dictating the changing architectural styles of Chicago in the latter half of the nineteenth century from Richardsonian Romanesque to Beaux Arts. Stern’s introduction and immersion into the Chicago School along with his architectural degree provided a strong foundation for his future career in Fredericksburg.[7]

In the early years of the twentieth century, the fledgling architect led a transient life, traveling between Germany and the United States somewhat frequently. In August 1901, Stern, along with his sister, left New York for Germany on the steamship Vaderland. Almost three years later in May 1904, Stern returned alone to the United States on the Rotterdam, settling in Baltimore, Maryland. Three months prior, in February 1904, a fire destroyed over seventy blocks of buildings in downtown Baltimore, presenting an opportunity for young architects like Stern to help rebuild the city.[8] While working in Baltimore, Stern visited Fredericksburg, Virginia at least twice, in April and December of 1905.[9] That December, he stayed with the prominent Shepherd family, whose patriarch, George W. Shepherd Sr. (1830–1909) was the “leading dry goods merchant” at that time.[10] Soon after his first visit, the “rising young architect of Baltimore” would become inextricably tied to the family and town when, in December 1906, he married one of three Shepherd daughters, the “well known and loved” Mary “Mamie” Glassel Shepherd (1875–1960).[11] Soon after their marriage in Fredericksburg, the newlyweds returned to Baltimore, where Stern continued to work, although research did not uncover any buildings in Baltimore attributed to him.[12]

In Baltimore, Stern received a “very lucrative position” to join the architectural firm of Henry C. Brubaker Jr. (1874–1942), in Indianapolis, Indiana.[13] Moving in June of 1907, the Sterns would remain in Indianapolis for two years, Stern quickly becoming an important asset to Brubaker’s firm. In 1908, the two architects formed Brubaker & Stern, successfully winning a variety of large contracts for numerous Indianapolis area projects including the No. 54 School Building (1909), a residence for prominent Indianapolis dentist George Edwin Hunt (1909), and most notably the Rockville State Tuberculosis Sanitorium (1909).[14]

In 1910, Brubaker and Stern added a third architect to their firm, Harry E. Boyle (1881-1947), who operated their Evansville, Indiana office, creating Brubaker, Stern, and Boyle.[15] The firm continued until 1913, when the architects disbanded.[16] By then, Boyle had laid a strong foundation and client base in Evansville and Brubaker had begun to focus his architectural endeavors in Mexico and Texas.[17] As for Stern, once again he would be pulled back to Fredericksburg, this time for good.

While living in Indianapolis, Stern is attributed with designing his first building in Fredericksburg, the former Lafayette School (1908), presently the Central Rappahannock Regional Library on Caroline Street. This anomaly, the only work completed prior to Stern moving to Fredericksburg in 1909, seems somewhat estranged from Stern’s future work in town. The building, which blends both Classical Revival and Romanesque Revival features, is what architectural historian Richard Guy Wilson noted as “more typical of the nineteenth century than of the twentieth” indicating “a lingering Victorian sensibility.”[18] The building’s compound arches, prominent belt course, and corbel detailing above the main entrance do speak to the Romanesque style features that reached the height of their popularity in the decades prior, while the pilasters, pedimented double-hung windows, and central fanlight, seem more aligned with the Classical Revival or Beaux Arts architectural styles, both favored at the turn of the century.

In fall of 1909, Mary and Philip Stern returned to Fredericksburg from Indianapolis following the death of Mary’s father, George W. Shepherd Sr.[19] Whether Stern remained an active partner in business firm with Brubaker and Boyle after this move is unclear, but the architect did embark on his own endeavors in Virginia right away, building a successful architectural business and becoming a well-known architect at both the local and state levels. Stern brought skill and a capable knowledge of architectural design to the growing city of Fredericksburg. Along with his experience working in large metropolitan cities such as Chicago, Baltimore, and Indianapolis, his connections to the prominent Shepherd family and successful completion of the Lafayette Elementary School building created a foundation for Stern’s architectural career in Fredericksburg and surrounding area that only seemed to solidify with time.

In late November 1909, Stern, in collaboration with architects Charles M. Robinson (1867–1932) and Charles K. Bryant (1869–1933), completed plans for the first two buildings of the proposed Fredericksburg State Normal School.[20] Although Robinson is credited with the Jeffersonian Classical Revival style designs for both Monroe Hall (1909–1911) and Willard Hall (1909–1911), Stern superintended the construction of both buildings.[21]

Stern’s institutional, commercial, and residential designs constitute a fair portion of the city’s early-twentieth century landmarks, easily pointed out when driving or walking through downtown Fredericksburg. The architect seemingly pulling from the architectural elements of the colonial and classically adorned buildings around him, applying fanlights, broken pediments, symmetrical facades, dormers and columns to his own original designs at the Princess Anne Building (1910), Commercial State Bank (1911, Crown Jewelers), and the nearby Stafford County Courthouse (1922), as well as the houses at 1304 Washington Avenue (1910), 1111 Prince Edward Street (1914/1923), 407 Fauquier Street (1926), nearby Little Falls on Kings Highway (1915), 804 Prince Edward Street (1923), and 507 Lewis Street (1929).[22]

 

 

Stern’s residences exhibited other architectural styles popular during the early-twentieth century, some with eclectic elements from the Stick, Craftsman, and Prairie styles. These works include the house at 1307 Washington Avenue (1911), two sister residences at 1308 and 1310 Caroline (1911), 1200 Washington Avenue (1916), and two bungalows built in Stafford County (1910 and 1916, locations for both unknown).[23] Stern’s Lee-Maury School building (1911, demolished) in nearby Bowling Green has Stick-style features like decorative tussles in the gables, wide overhanging eaves, and general applied ornamentation.[24] These buildings, in contrast to the bulk of Stern’s Classical and Colonial Revival designs, showcase the architect’s flexibility and proficiency in providing each client, whether a local businessman or a board of trustees, their desired style and type of building.

His architectural career included a variety of educational and industrial buildings. Along with his early involvement at what is now the University of Mary Washington, the former Lafayette Elementary School, and the Lee-Maury School in Bowling Green, Stern is attributed with designing various other schools in the area, his most impressive school design being the Fredericksburg High School Building, now known as Maury (1919).[25] Some of Stern’s original designs for commercial and industrial establishments are no longer extant, like Sunshine Laundry (1929), Virginia Excelsior Company Office Building (409 Caroline, 1910), the Liberty Cafe Lunchroom and Store (500 Caroline, 1918), and Mullen and Mullen Office (707 Princess Anne, 1922).[26]

He also provided plans for improvements, additions, and interior alterations to existing buildings on streets like William, Caroline, and Princess Anne. Stern directed the interior renovation of the Mansfield Country Club (Fredericksburg Country Club) in 1925, supervised the construction of the Planters Bank Building (1927, now Ava Laurenne Bride), expanded “The Busy Corner” store at 321 William in 1925, and remodeled the Commercial Cafe in the long-demolished Bradford Building (1935).[27] An important legacy of Stern’s is also the numerous alterations he designed for the old Mary Washington Hospital on Sophia Street including additions in 1910, 1915, 1927, and 1933.[28]  Stern worked on the interiors of numerous historic houses and landmarks in and around Fredericksburg. Names like Kenmore, Rising Sun Tavern, Mary Washington Home, John Paul Jones House, Sabine Hall in Warsaw, Snowden, Rokeby in King George, Hayfield in Caroline County, and the Knox House (Kenmore Inn) were restored, or rather renovated, by Stern beginning in 1911 when he first worked on Hayfield to his last known restoration work on the Rising Sun Tavern in 1938.[31]

Stern newly designed a few churches in Virginia, all of which lie outside of the city’s boundaries.  St. Paul’s Episcopal Church (1914) in Warsaw; New Hope Church (1915) in Stafford County; and St. Anthony Catholic Church (1916) in King George County are all attributed to Stern. Interestingly, his church designs vary in material and layout.[29] In 1919, Stern also renovated the historic St. John’s Episcopal Church in Warsaw, and in 1925 completed an interior renovation of Fredericksburg’s St. George’s Episcopal Church.[30]

On June 30, 1960, Philip Stern died at the Riverside Convalescent Home, formerly the Mary Washington Hospital on Sophia Street, the same building he had worked on and improved his whole architectural career in Fredericksburg. Philip and Mamie Stern never had children. At the time of their deaths, just a few months apart, their estate was estimated at a staggering $225,000 dollars in 1960, close to $2.3 million dollars in 2025.

This article, neither comprehensive nor extensive, was written in hopes that it would generate more interest and research into architect Philip Stern. His career and legacy, while solidified in Fredericksburg, extends farther into the state and beyond. His restoration work, original architectural designs, involvement in the American Institute of Architects (one of four founders of its Virginia chapter in 1914), Kiwanis Club, and numerous other local and state level committees provides a lens into the architectural profession during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century as well as the development of Fredericksburg and the surrounding area from 1910 to 1960.[32] Only the start of my research into Philip Stern, this article acts as the kickstart into uncovering the architect’s legacy and better understanding his impact on the Fredericksburg area.

 

Citations:

[1] Bangor Maine Town and Vital Records 1819-1891, 534, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-99FP-N4H6?i=533.

[2] “Jacob Stern,” Bangor Daily Commercial, September 30, 1887.

[3]  “Bangor and Vicinity,” Bangor Daily Commercial, October 10, 1887″; Jacob Stern Dead”, Bangor Daily Commercial, December 1, 1913; “Philip N. Stern Dead; Retired Architect, 82,” The Free Lance-Star, June 30, 1960; Jacob Stern, Find A Grave, accessed November 10, 2024 https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/253000536/jacob-stern#view-photo=271540071.

[4] Wells, John E., The Virginia Architects, 1835-1955: A Biographical Dictionary, 1997, 430. https://archive.org/details/bwb_T2-ERT-433/page/430/mode/2up?q=stern.;
Matrikel der Gr. Polytechnischen Schule Carlsruhe und der Technischen Hochschule, accessed November 10, 2024,  https://digital.blb-karlsruhe.de/blbihd/content/pageview/6635276, 83. Note that Stern’s AIA folder says that he graduated from the program in 1904, which does not match the university’s records found. Matrikel der Gr. Polytechnischen Schule Carlsruhe und der Technischen Hochschule, accessed November 10, 2024, https://digital.blb-karlsruhe.de/blbihd/content/pageview/6635653, 14.

[5] Stern’s parents continued to live in Karlsruhe until Jacob’s death in 1913. Karlsruhe Death Register, Certificate No. 1696, 1913, https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/discoveryui-content/view/57557:61003?_phcmd=u(%27https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/search/collections/61003/?name=jakob_stern&successSource=Search&queryId=eba5ad5a-2822-43a0-b84a-aabed08be299%27,%27successSource%27). “Welcome to the City of Rockland,” The Bangor City News, June 20, 1901, 2.

[6] 1901 Passport Application, accessed November 10, 2024, https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/discoveryui-content/view/1096188:1174?tid=&pid=&queryid=3f8117ed-2c80-4196-8ff8-e6bcc895b2fd&_phsrc=Bfa1611&_phstart=successSource; “Philip N. Stern,” The Daily Star, May 5, 1922. Note, that in his passport application, he uses the address of B. B. Thatcher, a prominent Bangor resident who married two of Eunice Stern’s sisters. “Hon. B. B. Thatcher,” Bangor Daily Commercial, June 2, 1906.

[7] Lowe, David Garrad, “Architecture: The First Chicago School”, Encyclopedia of Chicago, accessed December 10, 2024, http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/62.html.

[8] Badertscher, Eric, Let’s Take a Look at Maryland, https://research.ebsco.com/c/n4ikcb/viewer/html/65tul2zmdb.

[9] “Newsy Nuggets,” The Daily Star,” April 17, 1905, 3.

[10] “Current Comments,” The Free Lance-Star, December 28, 1905; “Laid to Rest,” The Free Lance-Star, October 7, 1909. Shepherd Jr. served as best man in the Stern-Shepherd wedding, which could be evidence of a close friendship between the two and possible connection to the Shepherd family and Fredericksburg initially. “Shepherd-Stern,” Richmond Times-Dispatch, December 13, 1906.

[11] While researching, the only connection to Fredericksburg, Virginia prior to Stern’s visit in 1905, was a mysterious note in the Bangor Commercial newspaper in 1887. It noted a man, who was thought to be Jacob Stern, had committed suicide in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Called a “sensational report,” to boost newspaper sales, perhaps the Sterns had connections to Fredericksburg that led to this false report.; “Stern-Shepherd,” The Free Lance-Star, December 15, 1906. At the time of their wedding, Mary was thirty-one years old, and Stern was twenty-eight.

[12] “Newsy Nuggets,” The Daily Star, June 17, 1907, 3. Research did not reveal any buildings in Baltimore that Stern designed, or if he was working for an established firm or as an individual architect.

[13] “New Member of Architect Company,” The Indianapolis News,” June 29, 1907, 12.

[14] “Architects Chosen,” The Indianapolis Star, March 27, 1909, 7; “Finish New School Plan,” The Indianapolis Star, August 24, 1909, 14; “How Others Have Built,” The Indianapolis Star, August 22, 1909, 44; ” The P.G.C. and G.E. Hunt Society, Circa 1915,” accessed November 10, 2024, https://images.indianahistory.org/digital/collection/dc013/id/293/.

[15] Marchland, Joan C., Sunset Park Pavilion Nomination, National Register of Historic Places, accessed January 31, 2025, https://catalog.archives.gov/id/132005003.

[16] “Harry E. Boyle & Company Incorporated Architects & Engineers are successors to Brubaker, Stern, and & Boyle,” Evansville Courier and Press, October 26, 1913, 28. It seems that 1913 marks the year Boyle left the firm. Brubaker and Stern continued to work together in some capacity, with a contract awarded to the pair in 1919. “Three Homes Are Started,” The Indianapolis News, July 23, 1919.

[17] “Heads New Architectural Firm,” The Evansville Journal, October 12, 1913, 17; “Gets Mexican Contracts,” The Indianapolis News, February 19, 1910, 2.

[18] Richard Guy Wilson, et. al. “Central Rappahannock Regional Library,” Society of Architectural Historians, SAH Archipedia, accessed January 29, 2025, https://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/VA-01-FR32.

[19] “Current Comments,” The Free Lance-Star, October 7, 1909, 3.

[20] “Building Plans Are Approved,” Richmond Times-Dispatch, November 13, 1909, 2.

[21] “Building Plans Are Approved.”

[22] “Hotel Directors,” The Free Lance-Star, May 31, 1913; “New Residence,” The Daily Star, October 12, 1914; “Commercial State Bank” The Daily Star, May 18, 1912; “Building New Residence,” The Daily Star, July 8, 1925; “New Court House,” The Daily Star, May 9, 1922; “To Build Brick Residence,” Richmond Times-Dispatch, January 21, 1923; “To Build Brick Residence,” The Daily Star, February 17, 1915; Building Residence for Dr. G. B. Harrison,” The Free Lance-Star, February 27, 1929; “Eight Fredericksburg Homes open their doors,” The Free Lance-Star, December 1, 1979.

[23] “New Houses To Be Built,” The Daily Star, July 1, 1910; “To Build Residence,” The Free Lance-Star, January 8, 1916; Richard Guy Wilson et al., “J. Conway Chichester House,” Society of Architectural Historians, SAH Archipedia, accessed January 31, 2025, https://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/VA-01-FR50; “Will Build Bungalow,” The Free Lance-Star, July 9, 1910; “Fredericksburg, VA. – Bungalow,” The American Contractor, July 29, 1916, volume 37, 94.

[24] “Bowling Green High School,” The Daily Star, July 10, 1912.

[25] “Letter of School Board,” The Free Lance-Star, May 12, 1917.

[26] “Mullen & Mullen,” The Free Lance-Star, December 21, 1922; “Will Erect Handsome Building,” The Daily Star, July 23, 1918; “Sunshine Laundry Is To Begin Operation Monday,” The Free Lance-Star, March 15, 1929.

[27] “City Items,” The Free Lance-Star, May 09, 1930; “City Items,” The Free Lance-Star, May 21, 1935; “Find Shattered Rafters In Repairing Old Tavern,” The Free Lance-Star, March 29, 1938, “To Build $20,000 Residence,” The Free Lance-Star, May 12, 1917; “New Home of Planters National Bank,” The Free Lance-Star, October 8, 1926; “Renovating Country Club,” The Free Lance-Star, March 12, 1925; “To Erect New Building,” The Free Lance-Star, July 8, 1924, “Bank and Office Buildings,” Manufacturers’ Record, April 14, 1910, 65, accessed January 31, 2025.

[28] “The Hospital Addition,” The Daily Star, May 13, 1910; “The Hospital,” The Free Lance-Star, June 10, 1915; “News of Bygone Days,” The Free Lance-Star, March 29, 1933; “Hospital Work is Under Way,” The Free Lance-Star, September 23, 1927.

[29] “Contract Awarded,” The Daily Star, July 19, 1916; “New Hope Church,” The Free Lance-Star, June 9, 1915; “To Build New Chapel,” The Daily Star, September 4, 1914.

[30] Stern also designed a chapel “near Truslow’s Store” in Stafford although at the time of this article, the location has not been determined. “To Build Chapel,” The Daily Star, September 19, 1910; “Improvements for Warsaw,” The Free Lance-Star, May 13, 1919; “Completing Improvements,” The Free Lance-Star, May 21, 1925.

[31] “Will Have Handsome and Modern House,” The Free Lance Star, November 2, 1911; “The “Snowden” Fire,” The Free Lance Star, January 19, 1926; “Hayfield Mansion,” The Daily Star, November 11, 1911; “Will Close Mary Washington Home,” The Free Lance-Star, August 17, 1929.

[32] “Kiwanis Held Informal Session,” The Daily Star, March 17, 1926.

 

 

 

City of Fredericksburg Planning staff made a  presentation at the August 28, 2024 meeting of the Planning Commission on the amount of infill development and teardowns in town over the past few years (a copy of staff’s memo and presentation is available at the end of this post). HFFI was pleased to see that City staff conducted such an analysis and hopes they will continue to keep the public informed on this matter – as it provides insight into potential gentrification and loss of historic housing in some of the City’s older established neighborhoods.  HFFI’s public comments read at the meeting are provided below.

The Historic Fredericksburg Foundation has reviewed the upcoming agenda for the August 28, 2024, meeting of the Planning Commission and submits the following comments on select items: 

Discussion of Potential Policies, Ordinances or Applications: Item 5.A. Analysis of Tear Down and Infill Housing

HFFI is pleased to see staff’s assessment of recent teardowns and infill development and are thrilled to see the long-standing historic trend of infilling vacant lots continue in our community. We also understand that the demolition and replacement of some older buildings is necessary for the continued growth and development of the city. The buildings constructed today and those erected decades ago will not last forever. Regardless, what we choose to preserve and what we discard is a direct reflection of our culture and community values.

The adaptive re-use and rehabilitation of existing buildings is important for many reasons, some of which are not commonly known.

• Environmental Benefits: Reusing buildings and making them more energy efficient plays an essential role in meeting our community’s goals for sustainability, resilience, and climate action. Modernizing existing buildings greatly reduces greenhouse gases by keeping many tons of material out of landfills and reducing the need for new construction, which typically generates far more carbon emissions than conservation and reuse.
• Economic Benefits: Repairing, reusing, and renovating historic places keeps money in the local economy by spending more on labor than materials compared to new construction, and employing local laborers. Furthermore, the rehabilitation of older buildings gives property owners a marketing edge—with buyers paying a premium for the resource’s unique features and stories.
• Health & Well-Being Benefits: Older places also support our emotional and psychological health in multiple ways. We form strong emotional bonds with the places that helped shape us or that provide the backdrop for our daily lives, and we take comfort in their familiarity. Older and historic places remind us that we’re part of something bigger than ourselves, connecting us with our past and with each other, while fostering a sense of belonging and pride of place in our community.
• Blight Reduction Benefits: Reviving vacant and underused buildings, maintaining older multifamily housing, and adding compatible new construction in older neighborhoods can add density and vitality to a community while keeping what makes it unique.
• Affordability Benefits: Most of the country’s existing affordable rental housing is unsubsidized, privately owned, and at risk. New construction can’t keep up with demand, and the vast majority of new construction isn’t affordable to low- and middle-income residents. Rehabilitating our existing housing stock keeps these buildings safe and maintains greater affordability at a fraction of the cost of new construction.

Infilling vacant lots is the most organic way a city grows new built resources. The other way involves the demolition and replacement of older structures or buildings of lesser market value. While HFFI is pleased staff’s study highlights just four of the 14 new houses in 2024 resulted in the demolition of older buildings, it is both common sense and proven fact that vacant lots are low hanging fruit. As time goes on, Fredericksburg neighborhoods will increasingly lose their older, smaller, and more affordable housing.

The fact that new buildings raise the property value of the existing parcel is made clear in staff’s analysis. This infill will also impact the value of neighboring properties—good news to many homeowners whose residence is likely their largest financial asset. Sprinkled across the city in various neighborhoods, incremental increases in property value enhance the wealth of our community slowly over time. However, such changes also increase property taxes—impacting some people and neighborhoods at higher rates than others. Given Fredericksburg’s ongoing challenges of affordability, rising cost of living, and the forecasted growth in renter-occupied houses, investor-driven rapid growth in our older established neighborhoods can only exacerbate these issues.

Preservation isn’t the sole solution to pressing local issues, but we can’t solve them without it. We can’t build our way out of the housing crisis or bulldoze our way out of climate change. We need to use every tool we have, including our existing places and infrastructure.

Hired consultants and planning experts like Streetsense and Heritage Arts have repeatedly advocated for increasing local preservation incentives—a priority task for City Council since 2021—to encourage the conservation and rehabilitation of our existing housing stock. We can support preservation and new development simultaneously—it is not either or, it’s both.

HFFI hopes that the Planning Commission and City staff will continue to assess the quality of infill and impacts of teardowns in the City, sharing these statistics regularly with the public to monitor character loss and any rise in gentrification. We further urge Planning Commissioners to support the expansion of preservation incentives to retain and rehabilitate our unique, authentic, historic, and most affordable housing assets.

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by Danae Peckler, HFFI Preservationist

On the first page of his 1991 book, Robert A. Hodge called Alum Spring Park, “the most historic park in America’s most historic city.” These days, people might view that ambitious moniker with suspicion. However, the more one learns about Fredericksburg’s past, the more remarkable it becomes. The park encompasses 34.75 acres around the Alum Spring—named for the crystalized salts that form on the surface as the spring’s water evaporates. However, the area has also served many other purposes:

• A source of clay for local indigenous populations that camped along area waterways
• The site of multiple 18th and 19th century grist and saw mills along with millworker houses
• A hospital and prison camp for Hessian and British soldiers marched to Fredericksburg after Cornwallis’ surrender in October 1781
• A place for dueling and more than a few tragic deaths
• A quarry for local sandstone
• A place of refuge and conflict during the Civil War, as well as the site of many veteran reunions into the 20th century
• A plentiful source of ice in the winter
• A popular local swimming hole in the summer
• A wondrous place to explore the area’s natural and cultural history.

Local newspapers and long-time residents credit Hodge—a geologist, educator, and local historian—as the galvanizing force behind the creation of Alum Spring Park. After moving to Fredericksburg for a teaching job at James Monroe High School in 1956, Hodge began taking students to Alum Spring to illustrate the area’s natural history, using its diverse rock formations, from the bed of Hazel Run to its sandstone cliffs, as visual aids for teaching geologic time. And for the many decades that he lived here, Bob Hodge also read, thoroughly researched, and wrote about local history in his spare time. Decades after his efforts to create Alum Spring Park, he published a small book about the property, entitled A History of Alum Spring Park, to chronicle all that makes it unique and historically significant (copy available at the CRRL Downtown branch).

The area was actually first proposed as a park by the Fredericksburg Development Company and appears in the firm’s 1891 map of holdings in and around the city. However, the idea for a public park did not come to fruition until the land was threatened by a large townhouse development in the mid-1960s. The Planning Commission and Recreation Commission supported the park idea, and in October 1965, Fredericksburg City Council voted unanimously to purchase the land that comprises Alum Spring Park today (The Free Lance-Star, Oct. 6, 1965:4).

The city’s Recreation Commission, of which Bob Hodge was a member, made a careful study of the 34.75-acre property in consultation with National Park Service staff and state Outdoor Recreational Department officials. In December 1967, a formal report made to the City Council “emphasized the primary purpose of the park was to preserve the natural state of the tract as much as possible,” and provided a plan for the park’s immediate development along with some long-range proposals (Hodge 1991:39).

Presently, two planning efforts stand to substantially affect the landscape within and around Alum Spring Park—both require and assume that the city will acquire the neighboring 34-acre tract of woodland on the east side of Emancipation Highway, north of the park, from the University of Mary Washington (UMW).

The Parks & Recreation Master Plan currently proposes a wholesale redesign of Alum Spring Park, reorienting it toward the busy Emancipation Highway (Route 1). This plan calls for closing the ford entrance and removing most of the existing facilities to build a new larger parking lot, bathroom/ welcome center, and playground on UMW’s undeveloped land (Figure 1). Simultaneously, the Small Area 5 plan currently proposes the construction of a new “connector road,” extending from the William Street/Blue & Gray Parkway (Route 3) intersection to meet with Idlewild Drive or Beverly Lane (Figure 2).

City staff’s proposed plans to build a new roadway with a multi-use path, 50-space parking lot, new welcome center/restroom facility, picnic shelters, and a playground on UMW’s forested tract seems to be at odds with many stated environmental and historic preservation goals.

Given its proximity to Hazel Run and Alum Spring, much of Alum Spring Park and UMW’s wooded 34 acres are located within “Resource Protected” and “Resource Management Areas” under the Chesapeake Bay Protection Program. The rest of UMW’s parcel is within the “Whole Lot Provision” of the Resource Management Area (Figure 3). Both the Alum Spring and UMW tracts have also been identified in George Washington Regional Commission (GWRC) reports focused on bettering our environment. In the Green Infrastructure Regional Plan, both parcels are identified as Contributing Eco-Core areas, and “the over-arching finding is that proper forest retention can provide important water quality benefits to the Commonwealth and Chesapeake Bay Watershed,” based on recent studies on the impact forest buffers have in protecting against erosion and stormwater runoff (GWRC 2016, 2017). 

From a preservation perspective, these plans will have a negative effect on known cultural historic resources. The 1968 Recreation Commission report to the City Council called for archaeological investigations at one of the known mill sites; however, few, if any, such studies have been conducted. The area also has a significant indigenous, Colonial, Civil War, and industrial history—much of which has yet to be thoroughly documented and analyzed. Localities and other state agencies often avoid disturbing areas known to contain important cultural artifacts, embracing the cheapest option, which is to preserve them in place. Given that almost every inch of the UMW and Alum Spring Park tracts falls within the highest probability in the City’s Archaeological Predictive Model, both plans will come at a higher price to taxpayers (Figure 3).

It is often said, “history repeats itself” and “no idea is ever new.” In 1980, a proposal for a new road connecting the end of Alum Spring Drive to the Route 1 Bypass was voted down by City Council after an uproar from local groups, including “the Jaycees, the Planning Commission, Recreation Commission, Economic Development Commission, and the Rappahannock Garden Club,” who “chiefly [opposed the road] because it would border tranquil Alum Spring Park” (The Free Lance-Star, Feb 28, 1980:17). The Public Works Committee had supported the idea as a “trucking link that would open an undeveloped section to business use” (The Free Lance-Star, Jan 25, 1980:3). A January 28, 1980, editorial in The Free Lance-Star addressed the feelings of many residents had for this special place in the city:

Crossing tiny Alum Spring is like entering another century. You may hear a truck on the Bypass or spot the top of a nearby apartment complex. But the distractions are few amid the splendid isolation of Alum Spring Park’s wooded hills.

There is a sense of discovery and reflection to these 35 acres. A 2,000-year-old sandstone cliff and an abandoned railroad bed from a century ago suggest a resistance to change. For close to 40,000 visitors a year, a piece of Fredericksburg’s past has been delicately and beautifully preserved….

With the Fredericksburg area leading Virginia in growth, it has never been more important to safeguard our remaining natural and historical resources from the temptation of short-term economic gain….

The Council should do more than ratify the overwhelming arguments against this proposal. It’s time to go on the offensive in protecting our natural assets. Possible scenic easements on nearby undeveloped tracts should be explored as a way to insulate the Alum Spring “experience” from future developments.

As currently proposed, the “new” plans fail to protect much of what City Council’s Vision for 2036 describes as important to Fredericksburg’s future and identity. They do not preserve one of the few sizable, undeveloped, Eco-Core areas in the City; do not reduce run-off into our waterways; do not protect known cultural historic resources; and do not appear to make prudent use of taxpayer dollars.

Danae Peckler, HFFI Preservationist

*A public meeting to discuss the proposed St. Mary’s Landing townhouse development is set for Thursday, June 20^th at 6 pm at the Dorothy Hart Community Center.

**Next week is the first public meeting about revising Fredericksburg’s Comprehensive Plan on June 26, 2024, 6:30-8:30 pm, at 210 Ferdinand Street in the School Board meeting room.

In the last few years, there has been much talk about the future of the old hospital building at 2300 Fall Hill Avenue and the neighboring lots. The property was owned by Medicorp Properties Inc—an arm of Mary Washington Hospital—until earlier this year (FredGIS 2024). Since the site plan for the St. Mary’s Landing townhouse project was initially submitted to the City at the end of January 2024, the public has become aware of the developer’s intention to demolish two extant buildings on the block across from the hospital bounded by Fall Hill Avenue, Hunter, and Elm streets. One is a brick bungalow built in 1947 by contractor H.H. Tyler for Arthur Greene at 2315 Fall Hill Avenue, while the other is the former Fredericksburg Public Health Center at 435 Hunter Street, designed by architect John J. Ballentine, Jr., and constructed between 1959 and 1960 by contractor L.C. Mitchell (Stanton 2014).

Although little funding has ever been dedicated to documenting our historic built environment, the demolition of our existing building stock is not something we should continue to ignore. As with the conservation of natural resources, preserving and repurposing our built environment has great benefits. It is estimated that 25–30% of our landfills are now filled with construction debris, some of which has proven toxic to our air, water, and wildlife. In an effort to save high-quality historic building materials, some localities have established programs to foster salvage and reuse of these valuable materials. Acknowledging that some older buildings cannot be salvaged or that the greater needs of the community outweigh the benefits of preserving them, many localities have policies and procedures that allow the thorough documentation of historic properties, recording their historic occupation, use, and physical fabric before their removal. Regardless, it’s always good to know what you’ve got before it’s gone. HFFI hopes this article provides some historic context for the old hospital and the associated healthcare buildings around it, as well as for the architecture and time period that defined them. 

Funding for the construction of the hospital and public health center stemmed from landmark healthcare legislation referred to as the Hill-Burton Act. Passed by Congress in 1946, “this bill invested significant sums of federal tax dollars to increase access to healthcare for citizens across the nation. Among its many initiatives, the program offered local governments the majority of funds necessary to build dedicated structures for their health departments” (Marshall 2021:96–97). Government’s role in preserving the health of its people was certainly nothing new, but the impacts of wartime mobilization revealed both the relative scarcity of healthcare facilities across the country and how successful “public health centers” could be in maintaining it, distributing vaccines and offering basic care. Work to erect Fredericksburg’s third hospital building began in 1949. More than $520,000 in federal funds and over $314,000 from the State of Virginia supported its construction, augmented by roughly $350,000 from local sources and donations (Alvey 1989:60,62). On February 18^, 1951, a small dedication ceremony on the grounds of 2300 Fall Hill Avenue marked the official opening of the new Mary Washington Hospital. At five stories and encompassing nearly 28,000 square feet, this new brick, steel, and concrete facility became the very model of a modern healthcare facility (Figure 1). It was designed to accommodate future growth, and between 1951 and 1990, the building underwent seven major upgrades and expansions. One of the more dramatic changes to the hospital building was the relocation and reorientation of its main entrance from the southwest elevation to the east side, facing Fall Hill Avenue. A 1980 aerial image and more recent photographs from the 2023 property listing provide a striking contrast to its initial architectural form and design (Figure 2 and 3).

The growth and success of Mary Washington Hospital prompted the construction of other supportive, Modern-era, healthcare buildings around it. The “Medical Arts Building” at 2301 Fall Hill Avenue was constructed in 1956 by local builder/contractor, Bernard Cline, as a “professional office building” for a select group of physicians with private practices (Stanton 2014). The building also contained commercial space. A second Peoples Drug Store opened in the Medical Arts Building that year, offering “free prescription delivery service anywhere in the city” (The Free Lance-Star, Dec 20, 1956:16). A third-floor expansion occurred in 1964 as demand from local practitioners grew (Moore 1979:13). In fall 1969, drawings by architect Henry C. Johnson, Jr., for a sizable addition to the north side of the building were submitted to the City Engineers Office, along with a request for exemption from the setbacks and height limits of earlier residential development. The requested variance was granted, but Johnson’s Modernist addition to this Georgian Revival-style building did not materialize (Figure 4 and 5). However, a single-bay addition matching the original material composition of the building was added to the north elevation sometime after 1969, along with other modifications to the exterior.

The Medical Arts Building’s Georgian Revival style reflects a conscious choice by the physicians who funded its construction. Did the doctors believe a more traditional look  would give a sense of continuity to their previous practices or instill greater trust among new patients in the physicians’ depth of experience? Or perhaps they felt that a Georgian exterior would help their new multi-story office building blend with the surrounding residential neighborhood (Figure 6), composed of one- and two-story dwellings?

On another lot across from the hospital and southeast of the Medical Arts Building is the modest one-story Public Health Center, at 435 Hunter Street. Fredericksburg’s City Council voted unanimously to support its construction with the understanding that at least 55 percent of the cost would be obtained through the Hill-Burton Act (Figure 7; The Free Lance-Star, Aug 29, 1958:1). Designed by local architect, John J. Ballentine, Jr., in conjunction with Fredericksburg Health Director, Dr. Frederick J. Spencer, this Modernist building was completed and open to the public in 1960 (Figure 8; The Free Lance-Star, May 20, 1960:11).

At a time when “new planning techniques, modern medical equipment, advanced building systems, and sterile treatment spaces radically changed health-care design,” some historians view healthcare architecture in the postwar period as the embodiment of medical technology used for patient treatment (Marshall 2021:102). The administration of Modern-era healthcare planning and services placed stringent demands on its architecture—the design of such facilities needed to be as maintenance free as possible and support the efficient and economical administration of services, while remaining flexible to meet new and growing demand from the community. A Public Health Center’s plan was “delineated by five primary functions: patient waiting, administration, clinic, assembly, and service” (Marshall 2021:102).

While many new public healthcare facilities embraced the cost-effective, minimal maintenance construction of the Modernist designs with International and Contemporary elements, great stylistic variation occurred in Virginia’s units. Modernist examples most often appeared when the buildings were erected at the urban fringe—similar to the approach and design trends that affected public schools during this time period.

Fredericksburg’s Public Health Center was not the only one John J. Ballentine, Jr., designed in Virginia. In 1954, he was selected by the Board of Supervisors in Caroline County to design their new public health center, which would be located across from Bowling Green’s town hall (Marshall 2021:107). Given the site’s surrounding architectural context at the town’s historic civic core, the selected design featured a traditional exterior skin—what Ballentine called “Pseudo-Colonial” styling—with a Modernized floor plan informed by recommendations from the Virginia Department of Health and Caroline County’s Director of Health (Figure 9; Marshall 2021:108).

In Fredericksburg, Ballentine customized his design in a series of seven schematic drawings to suit local officials and medical professionals, using the popular International style. The individual with the most influence appears to have been Fredericksburg’s Health Director, Dr. Frederick J. Spencer, a young physician from England, who had been selected for training by the State Health Department (Suffolk News-Herald, Apr. 3, 1956:1). In his mid-30s at the time, Dr. Spencer held the position in Fredericksburg for just a few years before moving to Richmond circa 1962 to become the State Health Department’s Director of Communicable Disease Control (Suffolk News-Herald, Oct 8, 1962:6).

Ballentine’s use of the International style at Fredericksburg’s Public Health Center strongly reflects the building’s modern medical purpose and use, as well as its public funding, location, and context within the community (Figure 10). He continued to work in the International style when he was hired to design an addition to the building in the mid-1970s. Drawings finalized in 1975 included a one-story, three-bay, brick addition to the east end of the center, designed to accommodate a second story in the future (Figure 11).

Relatively few truly Modernist designs made it off Ballentine’s cutting room floor in Fredericksburg—a community dedicated to preserving its Colonial history and architecture. Ballentine was successful, however, in balancing Modern architecture within a traditional context. Aside from the Public Health Center, the most recognizable of his Modernist works include the commercial shopping center now home to Fahrenheit and Castiglia’s restaurants at 320–324 William Street (1956), the Virginia ABC store at 505 William Street (1963), and the U.S. Post Office (1972) at 600 Princess Anne Street (Spencer 2016). He is more often remembered in Fredericksburg for his efforts to preserve and rehabilitate historic buildings in the community, often in conjunction with Historic Fredericksburg Foundation, Inc.—an organization for which he served as President for a time. As strong a preservationist as he was architect, Ballentine donated his collection of architectural drawings to HFFI, many of which are being digitized by our friends at University of Mary Washington’s Department of Historic Preservation.

Over time, Ballentine’s Mid-Century Modern exterior at Fredericksburg’s Public Health Center has been somewhat “Colonialized” by the removal of many original windows and aluminum panels, infilling the space with masonry and stucco, and the replacement of its original vestibule with a pedimented portico. The remaining aluminum-frame windows are original and the addition of stucco around them has some precedent, as seen in Ballentine’s 1975 addition to the building. But the cover is not the book. This customized example of Modern medical architecture is worth a closer look, particularly at the interior, which has not been explored. HFFI hopes that there will be an opportunity to more fully document this cultural historic resource, inside and out, so that we might continue to learn from it in the future.

The omission of Fredericksburg’s Public Health Center from the area’s “Character Structures” list also offers a few lessons on how we identify and assess our historic built environment, particularly what parts of it provide valuable “character” to our neighborhoods. There’s little comfort to those who care about Fredericksburg’s cultural historic resources that even IF the Public Health Center had been identified as a “Character Structure” in Area 6, current zoning does nothing to prevent or discourage its demolition.

Some might say, “Why does this keep happening? Preservationists always sound the alarm at the 11th hour!” Yet both more common and less public are the many times when the insights and efforts of local preservation advocates are ignored, dismissed, or excluded from the discussion in the “hours” (months, years, and even decades) leading up to the alarm sounding.

In this case, the timing seems to be good. There is an opportunity to reevaluate the process for selecting and protecting “Character Structures” and also how we handle the demolition of our historic resources in and outside of the Historic District.

Next week is the first of many public meetings about rewriting much of Fredericksburg’s Comprehensive Plan: June 26, 2024, 6:30–8:30 pm, 210 Ferdinand Street in the School Board meeting room. I sure hope to see you there!

References:

Alvey, Edward, Jr. 1989. 90 Years of Caring: Mary Washington Hospital 1899–1989. Mary Washington Hospital. Moran & Company: Charlottesville, Virginia.

Coldwell Banker Commercial Elite. 2023. 2300 Fall Hill Avenue property listing webpage. Coldwell Banker Commercial Elite, https://cbcelite.com/property-search/?propertyId=1195794-sale

Marshall, Andrew. 2021. “A Suitable Memorial”: The History of Public Health Centers in Post-World War II Virginia, Buildings & Landscapes, Vol. 28, Issue 2, Fall 2021, pp. 96–123.

Spencer, Michael. 2016. “John Jennings Ballentine, Jr., Fredericksburg Architect,” Historic Fredericksburg Foundation, Inc., https://hffi.org/john-j-ballentine-jr-fredericksburg-architect/

Stanton, Gary. 2014. “Surviving Fredericksburg Building Permits: 1938-1960,” Fredericksburg Research Resources. Department of Historic Preservation, University of Mary Washington, https://resources.umwhisp.org/fredburg.htm