What’s in A Lane? Thornton’s Tavern By jon gerlach
As with so much of historic Fredericksburg, the Rappahannock River plays a vital role. Take Thornton's Tavern, the wonderful old building at 523 Sophia Street, overlooking the river and close to Riverfront Park. Known as the oldest documented structure in Fredericksburg, it was built in 1746 by Thomas Thornton on an earlier foundation of brick and locally quarried sandstone (see photo). The building we see today was built as an "ordinary" (aka tavern), adjacent to the town's first ferry. Alongside the tavern, a dirt lane ran down to a wharf and the ferry landing, operated at one time by the same Thomas Thornton, and later by William Hunter. The ferry remained in use until the 1820s.
Thornton's T a v e r n originally fronted on this lane, as seen in the white r e c e s s e d doorway today (see photo). The main entrance was moved to the street side of the house around 70 years after the ferry ceased operations. One can imagine the foot traffic, wagons, and carts hauling goods and produce, that went up and down this lane. The water's edge here is intriguing in its own right, which once again, ties this story to the river. It saw three types of uses: the wharf and ferry landing, baptisms in the river, and the place for a cruel and unusual form of Colonial humiliation: the ducking stool. A ducking stool was a see-saw device for public punishment of wrongdoers, including criminals and
"shrews" (women who dared to talk back), dating from Medieval times. The victim was bound in a chair attached to the end of a long lever that sat atop a fulcrum. As the shore end of the lever was raised, the other end - including the chair and victim - was pushed down ("ducked") into the water. If the action was not reversed soon enough, drowning could follow. Ducking stools were required equipment of local courts as early as 1661 under Virginia law. Thornton's Tavern saw a lot of different uses through the centuries: residence (upholsterer John Eubank and his wife; taxidermist Michael Genzberger's family), mercantile shop (Hunter's Store; later William H. Owens Toy Store), substance abuse treatment facility (Serenity House), and an office (Charles McDaniel's). The building was extensively rehabilitated in 2013. The costs were defrayed to some extent by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources (VDHR) preservation tax credit program, Federal tax credits, and the City's tax abatement program. Dovetail Cultural Resources
Group assisted with research and paperwork required for the tax credits. The project earned HFFI's E. Boyd Graves Award for Preservation Excellence in 2014. The HFFI plaque on the building says: "Thornton's Tavern, re-built for merchant William Hunter, wharf and ferry owner." Dovetail used dendrochronology (aka "tree ring dating") on original woodwork to help nail down the time of construction to 1746. This building is a survivor. The major floods of 1937 and 1942 inundated the property to a depth of about 5 feet above the floor, and the high water mark is still visible along interior walls. Which brings us back to the river again! So … what's in a Lane? Here, the oldest surviving structure in town, and a reminder that the river has always played a major role in our history. An attorney and retired archaeologist, Jon Gerlach chairs the Architectural Review Board in Fredericksburg and was elected to City Council, Ward 2 in the Nov. 2021 election. Photo by Jon Gerlach, artwork courtesy Waterford Whispers News.
The Central Rappahannock Heritage Center is a non-profit, all-volunteer archives whose mission is to preserve historically valuable material of the region and make it available to the public for research 900 Barton St #111, Fredericksburg, VA www.crhcarchives.org contact@crhcarchives.org 540-373-3704 Volunteers Wecome! Contact us about donating collections of documents and photographs
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