A weekend walking tour highlighted notable historic Fredericksburg buildings that were lost, as well as those that were preserved for posterity.
On May 17, the Historic Fredericksburg Foundation, Inc., held its Demolition Tour, featuring sites in the city of Fredericksburg that were either torn down or saved. Since its inception in 1955, HFFI has advocated for protecting, preserving and revitalizing historical buildings and sites in the area.
This tour was held as part of Preservation Month, which recognizes the importance of historic places and communities. The observance began as a week-long event in 1973 as National Preservation Week and expanded to a month-long observance in 2005.
One of the attractions on the tour was the Renwick Courthouse, an example of Gothic revival architecture built in 1853. The building is named for its architect James Renwick Jr., who also designed St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York and the original Smithsonian building in Washington, D.C. The courthouse, which is located at 815 Princess Anne Street, includes a library and jail on its grounds.
The city announced via its website on May 16 that structural repairs will be made on the courthouse’s bell tower. This will include structural framing repairs inside the tower, repointing brickwork on the interior, reglazing windows and other cleaning and repair tasks. The effort is reported to take four months to complete.
HFFI’s Barbara Anderson guides tourists on the “Lost and Saved” walk. (Photo by Rick Horner)
According to HFFI Staff Preservationist Danae Peckler, the tower stabilization project addresses the particular issue of water leakage that was brought up in 2024. The building had been vacated in 2014, but talks about upkeep of the courthouse have been ongoing since 2007.
“We’ve been involved in helping to save a lot of the buildings in town, in particular sometimes two or three times,” Peckler said. “Preservation is constant, maintenance is a need.”
Peckler said that more work needs to be done in order to restore the building in the complex. A feasibility study produced by Frazier Associates for Fredericksburg Main Street in 2019 looked at potential economic uses once the complex was completely restored. The study landed on a boutique hotel as a possible option.
In addition to the courthouse, other stops of note on the tour included 108 Charlotte Gravatt House, which was moved from its original site at 610 Princess Anne Street in 1977. Sites on the tour that no longer exist included 401-403 Sophia St., along the Rappahannock River, which was demolished in 2015. Also featured on the tour was the 500 Block of Princess Anne Street, once known as The Black Shopping District.
The district had been home to many black-owned businesses and civic organizations; few of the buildings in that area have been preserved. One of the few still in use, a former gas station at 530 Princess Anne Street, is currently in operation by Nest Realty. Other buildings of note in that area include the old Greyhound Bus Station, which was a stop for the Freedom Riders in the 1960s. A historic marker marks the site, which is today used by the Fredericksburg Fire Department.
This building, now used by Nest Reality, was once a gas station in Fredericksburg’s Black Shopping District during the 1950s. (Photo by Rick Horner)
According to Barbara Anderson, HFFI’s events coordinator, efforts to preserve buildings of historical significance in the area have included buying and restoring properties, a process that was easier to accomplish in the 1970s compared to now. Anderson said that it’s now harder to preserve sites of historical significance through these methods due to the rise in real estate prices.
Another method of preservation is the addition of easements, which prevent owners from making changes to the buildings and can allow them to reap significant tax benefits from the preservation. The organization was also successful in getting a 50-foot height limit for buildings in Fredericksburg’s Historic Downtown District.
Another obstacle, said Anderson, is what she perceives as the current Fredericksburg City Council’s tendency to override or bypass preservation efforts by the city’s Architectural Review Board.
“Today we’re trying to fight City Hall,” she said. “The city has its historic preservation goals but doesn’t follow its own rules.”
