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Can you help us identify
(click on photo for closer view)
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Unidentified photo 1918 from the Emeline Stearns photo album.
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Unidentified Turner family members taken in 1936 from the album of S.A. Orr, the father of Waller S. Orr.
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Unidentified photo from the Chewning Collection.
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Unidentified photo from the Stearns Collection.
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Quick Links...
Services:
The Center gladly provides research services. Please contact the Center for rates.
Hours:
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., the first Saturday of each month, 9:00 a.m. to noon or by appointment.
Location:
900 Barton Street #111 Fredericksburg, VA 22401.
(540) 373-3704
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Click here to join the CRHC mailing list and stay up to date with what is happening at the Center!
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Message from the Chairman
The book launch of The Circle Unbroken: Civil War Letters of the Knox Family of Fredericksburg at Kenmore Inn (the Knox family's former home) drew over 250 attendees, including Lucy Gray, the Knox family descendant who donated the letters to the Heritage Center. Book sales were brisk. Rob Alling, the Inn's owner, hosted this event. Seeing the rooms where the Knox family ate, slept, and conducted their daily affairs made more vivid the portraits of the individuals and experiences painted in the letters. Many thanks to Mr. Alling, and our partner, the Historic Fredericksburg Foundation, Inc., for making the book launch so successful! Call the Center or HFFI if you haven't purchased your copy yet. It's a fascinating read!
The Center's annual meeting on September 17 featured highlights for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2013. They are summarized here for members' information. Last December, a five-year lease with the City was renewed for our Maury Commons location. About half of the 50+ volunteers who worked regularly kept the Center operating. Over two dozen collections were donated. Membership was stable. Monetary donations increased. New CRHC brochures were designed and printed. Community Foundation grants enabled us to buy equipment, refine our website, and help with the Knox book publication costs. On behalf of the Board, I extend deep appreciation to the members, donors, funders, and volunteers for sustaining CRHC, now in its 16th year!
Barbara Barrett
CRHC Chairman
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A Whale of a Game
 | | Warren Farmer from the Leitch Collection |
Football - the game associated with autumn -
was new to Fredericksburg High School in the 1920's. Then came the Fredericksburg High School team playing in the fall of 1925. It has lived on through pictures, newspaper stories, and in legend repeated from sports fan to sports fan across the generations.
The team won all of its games and was unscored on. It was district champ according to the front page article in Fredericksburg's Daily Star newspaper dated Nov. 14, 1925.
One of the players - Warren Farmer - told the story in his oral history.
"This team was made up of a bunch of hefty souls....We had a line where I guess some of them weighed 180 pounds, which was pretty heavy for a high school team in those days. It was just a unique congregation that, as I say, was brought together by fate and the fact that for the first time we had a very good coach... we had a man named Ted Woodson...he was not only athletic director but he also taught. The result was we went through the 1926 (sic) season, won every game...kept every opponent scoreless. That won us the district championship which was in northern Virginia which included Alexandria, our greatest enemy...I played quarterback on the football team."
The newspaper account of the district championship game was modestly worded, but upbeat: The game was not as difficult as expected and the local team "trotted out some new plays...and the trials were successful," wrote the sports writer for the Star.
Then came what Farmer remembered was the eastern Virginia championship game -district champion against district champion.
Fredericksburg played South Norfolk and lost 39 to 0.
Says Farmer: "It was one whale of a football game. They really beat us."
CRHC Archivist
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Thanksgiving Memories
 | | George Washington Inn/Stratford Hotel from the Tony Kent Collection |
The Thanksgiving season means tables laden with the bounty of Southern hospitality. For many years the General Washington Inn provided the splendor of this harvest holiday. Thanksgiving at the General Washington Inn meant linen-dressed tables gleaming with candelabras and a meal replete with roast turkey, country ham, roast beef, yams, corn pudding, biscuits, spoon bread, mincemeat and pumpkin pies (all homemade). Many Fredericksburg families enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner at the General Washington Inn.
The General Washington Inn, initially known as The Stratford Inn, was built in 1932 by local contractor Peck Heflin. A Gala was held to celebrate its opening and featured Levin Houston and his band. The Inn was described as lovely, dignified and comfortable with a circular drive lined with weeping willows and magnolias. Guests were served by red-coated waiters, uniformed bellmen and elevator operators who catered to their needs. In its heyday the Inn was a perfect example of an Old Virginia Inn.
It was a popular stopover for those traveling south and north by car. It is known that President Franklin D. Roosevelt caused quite a stir when he stopped for tea. Senator Harry Byrd was a frequent guest, Governor J. Lindsay Almond often entertained there, and General George Marshall, Army Chief of Staff, used it as headquarters when he visited area battlefields.
Business declined when the Bypass was built in 1946 and by the 1970s its heyday had ended.
Ann Reamy
CRHC Board Member
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Welcome new members: Michael & Claire Huie and James & JoAnn Brown.
Our memberships support the important work done by the Center, including the purchase of archival boxes, folders, etc.
If you are able to become a CRHC member, please help us in our efforts to preserve our area's history. Just click on the Membership link under Quick Links on the left.
The Center will be closed November 28th for Thanksgiving.
Thank you for your support,
Central Rappahannock Heritage Center
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