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Candlelight Tour features Fredericksburg's Hanover Heights neighborhood. Date published: 11/21/2004 By RICHARD AMRHINE ITH FREDERICKSBURG'S annual Candlelight Tour visiting Hanover Heights this year, a special period of the city's history is brought to mind. The neighborhood, developed as the Great Depression set in, is bounded by Hanover Street, Kenmore Avenue, William Street and Sunken Road. It was considered to be "way out there" by downtown city dwellers--the suburbs. Back in 1929, growth was welcomed as a sign of prosperity, not lamented as a symptom of sprawl. Residential construction meant jobs, when jobs were scarce--not simply more rooftops with more children to educate. Nevertheless, the development back then of a new subdivision called Hanover Heights raised some of the same issues that come up today: Can the utilities be in place quickly enough for the new homes going up? How could half of the development's 120 lots be bought up in just a year? Even then, people fretted over the loss of what was once open farmland. Even then people were concerned about roads, water mains and rapid development. And this was all happening in spite of the stock market crash and an ailing economy. The more things change. These days, Hanover Heights is much as it always was, and next month it will be on display as the site of the Historic Fredericksburg Foundation's 34th annual Candlelight Tour, scheduled for Dec. 11 and 12. The 10 houses to be open to the public in the tight-knit community represent a variety of architectural styles associated with the period. A brief description of each home on the tour accompanies this story. One of the most visible and attractive homes on the tour route is that of James "Mac" Quann at 701 Hanover St. For years, Quann has tastefully decorated his home for the holidays, placing a Christmas tree decorated with white lights in the sun room that faces Kenmore Avenue. "My favorite time of the year is the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas," said Quann, which makes his participation in the tour all the more appropriate. The 22 acres that make up Hanover Heights were part of an estate once owned by Capt. M.B. Rowe and A.P. Rowe, ancestors of the owners of this newspaper, according to information gathered by HFFI. Publisher Josiah P. Rowe III, whose family home at 801 Hanover St. was built in 1830, recalls an area of open land that gave way to development.
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