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Next chapter of history for Bloomsbury Farm will unfold after upcoming auction Date published: 10/9/2009
BY RICHARD AMRHINE Before there was Bloomsbury subdivision, there was the 400-acre Bloomsbury Farm. When Gens. Lee and Grant faced off there in a battle that concluded the Spotsylvania Court House campaign in May 1864, it was known as the Harris Farm, for the family that lived there. But even by then the farmhouse had already been standing for generations, built in the late 1780s by the Robinson family, which had apparently acquired the property as early as 1740 and may have built some sort of early structure on the site. More recently, thanks to the last owner, the late Agnes McGee, and the work of University of Mary Washington researchers, Bloomsbury was named to the National Register of Historic Places and the Virginia Landmarks Register. The next chapter of its history will soon be written, when Bloomsbury goes up for auction on Oct. 23 at 1:30 p.m. Bill Ross, with At Auction Real Estate, is handling the arrangements. Though the property is an island of history clinging to life in the midst of Bloomsbury and Bloomsbury Farm Estates subdivisions, there is nothing about its National Register listing, or under Spotsylvania code, that would prevent a new private owner from razing the house and surrounding outbuildings and building a new residence on the property. However, there's always the possibility that the winning bid will be submitted by someone whose pockets are not only deep, but filled with a fondness for what the place represents. There are, after all, 223 years of history at Bloomsbury, just 10 years fewer than that of the nation itself. Given the story of the 1864 battle that took place on the property, it's remarkable that the house survived. The house is one of the oldest still standing in Spotsylvania County, and there's no question that the house is in need of rehabilitation. But the main structure is solid. The original fieldstone foundation--there is no basement--has been fortified with cinder block and concrete, according to university researchers Michelle Arcari and Gary Stanton. The house is listed with four bedrooms and 2 baths, and 2,650 square feet of living space.
Date published: 10/9/2009
Is the author getting mixed up with an article perhaps on boating at Lake Anna? What's an inboard chimney?
"She kept the 2 acres on which the arm now sits." Must be confusing Bloomsbury with Ellwood. Stonewall Jackson's arm is buried there. "box locks"??? You mean rim locks? Amrhine did get one thing right. Agnes McGee was born in Spotsylvania but her entire family were come heres. She never thought much of come heres.
that they must first write hilarious and incompetent articles about historic preservation prior to getting fully accredited to write for the paper? "a single story added under a slanted roof" ??? A shed roof maybe? "upstairs bathroom, whose turquoise fixtures are by now classic Art Deco fare"-the bath photo caption says 1960. Was that the Art Deco Movement era? "classic heart pine throughout, some with typical concave and convex bowing"-Heart pine is typically bowed and convex? I don't think so.
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