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SPOONER HOUSE: THE STORIES IT COULD TELL

May 4, 2007 12:37 am

BY RICHARD AMRHINE

Odds are you won't look this good after 213 years. But then you're not the historic Spooner House, whose owners over the years have strived to maintain the integrity of this notable Fredericksburg residence.

It's located at 1300 Caroline St., at the corner of Fauquier. Next door is the Rising Sun Tavern, the city landmark built in 1760 by Charles Washington, George's youngest brother, as his private home. Charles had bought the property from Fielding Lewis (of Kenmore), and later left the house and neighboring empty lot to his son, George Augustine Washington.

After it was bought in 1792 by Lt. Col. Gustavus Wallace, a Revolutionary War officer, the home was turned into a tavern.

George Spooner worked for Wallace as the tavern-keeper and in 1793 married his daughter, Elizabeth. Wallace made the empty lot a wedding gift to his daughter and new son-in-law, who promptly undertook construction of a house there. Long known by the name of its builder, the Spooner House first appeared in city tax records in 1794, identified as a "new house."

So not only did Spooner marry the boss's daughter, he had perhaps the shortest commute of anyone who has worked outside his or her home.

According to information on the home's history compiled from various sources, Spooner was also something of an entrepreneur, as he opened a store on the main level of his new home. The residence was upstairs.

The Fauquier Street door has always been used as the main entrance. But while the building was being used as a store, Spooner added the Caroline Street door as the business entrance.

The current owners, Tom and Martha Crimmins, bought the house in 2000, and continued its operation as the Spooner House Bed & Breakfast. It has one guest suite that sleeps up to four people. Martha Crimmins, whom her husband describes as a gourmet cook, is the proprietress.

They have decided to turn over the Historic District property to new owners, and are building a new house elsewhere in the city. They have listed the Spooner House with Janel O'Malley and Robin Marine of Coldwell Banker Carriage House Realty downtown. The asking price is $824,900. The house has 3,219 square feet of living space, with three bedrooms and 2 baths.

Tom Crimmins said that should new owners want to continue the bed-and-breakfast, the business and guest list can change hands as well. He said many guests have visited more than once.

The living room and dining room, which have 9-foot ceilings, were probably both used for Spooner's store. No doubt customers and passers-by had such names as Washington, Lewis, Mercer, Fitzhugh, Maury, Mortimer, French and Willis.

The living room has a boxed-beam ceiling and a brick fireplace. The random-width flooring is more uniform and less distressed than that in the dining room, which is believed to have been more of the family gathering place over the years. Today the dining room is where bed-and-breakfast guests gather for their morning meal.

The house has six fireplaces, four working and two decorative. Alongside the dining room fireplace is a recessed area once used as a warming oven.

In the foyer, beneath the main staircase, a half-bathroom is tucked away. Most adults will need to duck on the way in, but once inside no hunching is required.

The abundance of trim throughout the house suggests that the Spooners wanted their basic, two-over-two family home to reflect a level of financial well-being. The highly detailed reeded crown molding and fireplace trim in the master bedroom, for example, is quite rare around town.

The master suite and the other upstairs bedroom, which has its own fireplace, share a full bathroom.

Up a steep set of stairs is the attic, whose space is divided between a bright finished room and a less-finished storage area. Children would have a wonderful time playing up there.

The well-equipped main-level kitchen is housed in an addition that was built in 1840. But it's believed that the kitchen remained apart from the house until sometime later. The original kitchen was located in a separate structure several feet from the house.

At some point in its history, the home's shallow cellar was dug out and finished off to become habitable. Indeed, it serves as the comfortable bed-and-breakfast suite for visitors who have left notes singing its praises. It has a rough-hewn, exposed-beam ceiling, a private entrance and the technological amenities modern tourists and business travelers need.

The living area includes a kitchenette, while the bedroom has an adjoining full bathroom.

The lot seems spacious for acre. A driveway supplies the required off-street parking space for the bed-and-breakfast unit. It leads to a two-story garage that the Crimminses had built in 2001 with the approval of the city's Architectural Review Board.

It has held a car in the past but is currently used for storage and as a potting shed. Upstairs is a bright space that Tom Crimmins uses as an office and that has all the comforts of home.

Though some of the beaded exterior clapboards have been replaced over the years, many of the originals remain. The exterior was thoroughly refreshed and repainted last year, and a new standing-seam metal roof was installed in 1990. The upstairs portion of the dual-zone climate-control system was replaced in 2005.

Outside the kitchen door is a private patio with a goldfish pond and fountain. Five years ago the garden alongside the house was lined with fresh shrubs and sodded. In-ground irrigation was added.

The house has been on the Historic Fredericksburg Foundation's annual Candlelight Tour at least three times.

Given that the house has survived the Battle of Fredericksburg, the ensuing Yankee march of destruction through the city and the Great Fire of 1807, certainly it will be around to see a lot more Fredericksburg history unfold.