ON THE PORCH one corner of our little city

Sally Cooney Anderson

Dianne BachmanLaurie Black

Sonja CantuCollette Caprara

Trista ChapmanTom Conway

Ryan CudahyJanet Douberly

Jeannie Ellis

Jenna Elizabeth Edwards

Caroline FordFrank Fratoe

Bill FreehlingJon Gerlach

Annie HarpeRalph “Tuffy” Hicks

Jill LaiaconaAdam Lynch

Nancy KellyDavid C. Kennedy

Ray MikulaVanessa Moncure

Pete MorelewiczPatrick Neustatter

Penny A ParrishM.L. Powers

Paula RaudenbushGerri Reid

Ginger RobertsonRob Rudick

Mandy SmithTim Talbot

Anne TimpanoRim Vining

Tina WillNorma Woodward

Front Porch Fredericksburg is a free circulation magazine published monthly by Olde Towne Publishing Co. Virginia Bigenwald Grogan, Publisher.

The mission of Front Porch Fredericksburg is to connect the diverse citizenry of Fredericksburg with lively features and informative columns of interest to our community’s greatest resource, its people.

Messages from our readers are welcome. All article submissions must be received by e-mail by the 16th & calendar items the 19th of the month preceding publication.

Writers / Artists / Photographers are welcome to request Guidelines and query the Publisher by e-mail.

Front Porch Fredericksburg PO Box 9203 Fredericksburg, VA 22403

Ad Sales: E-Mail: frntprch@aol.com

Web Site: www.frontporchfredericksburg.com

Facebook: @Front Porch Fredericksburg

The opinions expressed in Front Porch Fredericksburg are those of the contributing writers and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Front Porch Fredericksburg or its advertisers.

Copyright 2023

Front Porch Fredericksburg Magazine All rights reserved.

by tom conway

At first glance, there is nothing special about the northwest corner of Hawke and Caroline streets. It looks a lot like any other residential corner in the city. There's a house on the corner, and at first glance, it's nothing special. If you're paying attention, you might notice that it has no setback from the sidewalk and it doesn't have much in common architecturally with its neighbors. It does have a plaque dating the building to 1868, but half of the buildings in Fredericksburg have similar plaques. There are no historical markers telling the world what happened on that spot on some historic date. George Washington probably never slept there. It's just a corner.

If you take a closer look at the house, though, you're bound to notice the large picture window on the left-hand side. You may also notice that the house has two front doors, more like the commercial buildings in the city center than the colonial and Victorian houses that populate this end of town. It might provoke a question in the mind of someone passing by: "Was this once a store of some kind?"

For a little over 80 years, this unassuming building was where the neighborhood shopped for "groceries, fruits, fresh meats, tobacco, cigars, confectionery, etc." as it stated on Ryerson's letterhead. It doesn't take much imagination for one to picture bins of fruit out front and shelves inside stocked with staple items and canned goods. I picture Thomas as a stocky man with a bushy gray mustache standing behind the counter in a white apron. He's holding a cleaver, having just cut one of his customers a fresh steak. Ryerson I envision in a dark suit with dark hair parted to one side taking down orders on his newfangled telephone for chocolate bars and bags of flour.

"I'm sorry ma'am, we don't have any rutabagas in stock currently, but as soon as they come in, I will give you a call."

I see neighbors strolling by, stopping in to say hello, and kids running through the door clutching pennies to buy strings of licorice, Mary Jane candy bars, and bottles of Coca-Cola and root beer.

bridge where Hawke Street meets the river two blocks away. Three regiments of US Army troops fought their way up Hawke Street, resisted by Confederate troops who fired on them from buildings all along Caroline Street. Soldiers from both sides died on the northwest corner of Hawke and Caroline, and if there was a building on that site, it certainly could have been used to tend to wounded troops.

And, in fact, it was. From 1876 until 1957, a neighborhood grocery store operated on the site, first run by William H Thomas and later, from 1924 on, by Ernest V Ryerson and then Truman P Merritt The high tin ceiling, most likely installed during an extensive rebuild in 1924, still exists, as does the bulkhead inside the front door, where the outline of the recessed store entrance can still be seen.

Porch Fredericksburg

The store closed in 1957, and after that the trail gets colder. As I understand it, a few businesses ran out of the building over the ensuing years. Eventually, the bottom floor was converted into a residence. It sounds like, in the 1980's, the place was home a fair number of parties. Becca the Wonder Dog lived upstairs. Downstairs, former residents tell me that holes in the floor allowed them to clean the dining area with a garden hose after parties, washing beer and whatever else into the unfinished cellar below. One of the residents from that era claims that human bones were recovered from the backyard during some sort of excavation in the 1960's. A professor at the University of Mary Washington alledgedly wrote a paper on it, though as of yet I have not found that document.

It is possible, however, that bodies or parts of bodies were buried on the site. Tax records show that there was most likely some structure, perhaps also a store, on the site prior to the Civil War, and that whatever was there was destroyed during that time. It also just so happens that the US Army, when it crossed the Rappahannock River in December of 1862, built its northernmost pontoon

It's why people still talk about the dead soldiers who may or may not haunt the low-ceilinged cellar. Every bump in the night could be a dead Civil War soldier banging his head on the floor joists above. 180 years after the war, they still haven't learned to duck.

The northwest corner of Hawke and Caroline isn't the most historic corner in Fredericksburg, but like every corner in our little town, there are stories to tell, which at the very least, mean a lot to the people who have lived, worked, and visited over the years. On this particular corner, that list includes my wife and I, who have been living on that corner for three years now and hope to continue making stories here until we retire.

Of course, you can read about every other corner in town if you continue to read Front Porch Magazine from cover to cover each month.

Aside from living with his wife and two dogs on the corner of Hawke and Caroline streets downtown, Tom Conway teaches English at James Monroe High School and is currently working on a Master of Fine Arts in Writing from the Savannah College of Art and Design.