Fredericksburg—Where History Never Gets Old

A lucky coincidence found Bonnie, the innkeeper, on the back porch as we pulled into the parking lot. If there is a bed-and-breakfast anywhere with a better location than the Richard Johnston Inn, I will be very surprised. The visitor center is right across the street, and Caroline Street is the center of historic Fredericksburg.

Our room was on the second floor. Entering through the backdoor involves climbing a set a stairs onto the porch from the parking lot, so if stairs are an issue, this isn’t the right place for you. I fell in love with this inn as soon as we walked through the dining room and parlor into Bonnie’s little office below the staircase. The inn is beautifully decorated, but it is also warm and welcoming. It could have been the glass jar filled with chocolate chip cookies from Bonnie's special recipe (she has written a cookbook) that won me over, or maybe it was the little bowls filled with candy bars and chocolate treats. A woman after my own heart!

All this was confirmed by our warm welcome. We were taken on a tour of the house and led us up to our room. It was gorgeous, with a huge canopy bed; two sets of steps (one on each side of the bed) helped us climb in. All the furniture was antique: marble-top tables, converted gas lamps, etc. Again, the small touches were there: a decanter of brandy on the night stand, a trinket box with Ghirardelli chocolates on the dressing table, and two cozy robes hanging on the door. This was home away from home, if you have a beautiful antique-filled historic home, that is. The inn reportedly has a resident ghost, so be sure to ask about it.

The modern conveniences haven’t been forgotten, either. We had a small TV in our armoire, wi-fi is available, and our bathroom had plenty of thick towels and good shower pressure; it was located across the hall from our room, and I knew the configuration when I booked the room.
Breakfast is served between 7:30 and 9am. Coffee, however, is available earlier. During the week, breakfast is an extended continental with cereal, yogurt, a fantastic fruit bowl, coffee cake, juice, and coffee. On the weekend, all the stops are pulled out, and one day we had a cheese souffle and the other we had pancakes, with or without pecans, served with a praline sauce. On Saturday, we had the best bacon I have ever had with the souffle, and on Sunday, we had sausage balls, which are one of Bonnie's specialties.

What we loved about this inn was the warm atmosphere created by the furnishings and the innkeeper. We also appreciated the family atmosphere created by sharing a table with other guests at breakfast. One morning that meant that Al and I had the head and the foot of the table, which forced us to meet other people.

"I have bought an old place in Virginia on the Rappahannock by Fredericksburg and we expect to live there a good part of the time," Gari Melchers.

A visit to Belmont is eye-opening for a number reasons. I was unfamiliar with the work of American artist Gari Melchers. I can’t imagine how I haven’t come across his work before. There is a realism and yet a soft beauty. I became an immediate fan. Corinne Melcher was also a very talented artist, and there are examples of her work on display.

The history of Belmont begins long before the Melchers decided to call it home. The exact date of the construction has been lost with the original deed, but it was sometimes in the 1790s. The house was purchased by Joseph Ficklen in 1832 and remained in that family until it was purchased by the Melchers in 1916. It came through the Civil War unscathed but had fallen into disrepair by the time Gari and Corinne spent $12,000 to acquire a "country home and acreage."

The house, Belmont, must be visited on a tour. You are free to visit the gallery and grounds at your own pace. We arrived on a Saturday when a large tour group was expected. They didn’t want to send us on the house tour alone, so we had to wait for the tour to arrive. While we were waiting, I decided to visit the gallery. This turned out to be a very wise idea. The bus tour were seniors, and there were a lot of them.

Our visit to the house was effected by the size of the group we were in, and the guide apologized to us as we left. I would have loved to linger over some of the paintings both by the Melchers and by their friend George Hitchcox, but there were two other parts of the group waiting to enter the house. I felt a little slighted, but it was just one of those things. As important as seeing the house was learning about the painter himself. The love story of Gari and Corinne reads like a novel. She was an art student on a cruise to France. When finding out that the well-known artist was on the same ship, she arranged an introduction and the rest is history. The 25-year difference in their ages never was an issue, and she put her talent on hold to devote herself to promoting her husband both before and after his death. It is thanks to Corinne that the house was donated to Mary Washington College.

There is a 15-minute video that you can watch before or, as we did, after you visit the other parts. If the weather had been cooperative, the grounds would have been lovely to walk around.
I highly recommend a visit here, and take the time to visit the very nice gift shop.

If you get the chance, don’t approach the Museum from Princess Anne Street; come in through the rear from Caroline Street. This gives you the view of the building facing the market square. Built in 1816, this impressive building served both as the Town Hall and the Market House. It is built in the Federal style and somehow survived the bombardment of the Civil War battlefield that was played out in Fredericksburg.

This is both a history and a social museum. On the ground floor, the exhibit entitled “The Art of Living” deals with the decorative arts and how they differed by class. You will be introduced to the class system as it existed from colonial times in Virginia: the aristocracy, the gentry, and merchant class, the lower order (poor whites and free blacks), and slaves. In Virginia, the majority of people fell into the gentry and merchant class. The dining implements of these classes are on display, and they range from decorated silver for the aristocracy to wood for the slaves. This is a very visual museum, and it is easy to understand the great difference in the classes through these exhibits. Obviously the majority of the exhibits have many more items from the gentry class, such as furniture and musical instruments, since the very fact that are made of superior materials made their chance of surviving over 200 years more likely. It is interesting to watch the Rocco style give way to Federal and then to neoclassical, all in a period of 50 or so years. Among the many interesting pieces is a tall clock that is thought to have belonged to Mary Washington. Another piece of Washington memorabilia is a mourning broach belonging to Betty Lewis Carter shown weeping at the tomb of her Uncle George Washington.

On the second floor there is a 10-minute video. What we do learn is that the City Council still meeting this building. We also learn that in 1824/25, the city gave a party for the Marquis de Lafayette in this building when he visited the city. What I found of particular interest is that this building has been the market hall since 1730, and they built the Town Hall on top of it, waste not, want not, I guess. This floor is divided into the 19th and 20th centuries. You go from the Civil War to Civil Rights, which makes for a very interesting transition. There are lots of newspapers and diaries documenting the privation of war. Take time to enjoy the exhibit on the important blacks in Fredericksburg’s history.

The third floor has a Masonic Exhibit, and among the treasures in the council room is a lock of George Washington’s hair.

This is a very interesting museum, so allow about 2 hours to do it justice. You finish up at the gift shop. There is an elevator to take you to the 2nd and 3rd floors.