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 SHENANDOAH VALLEY - WINCHESTER

 

History everywhere from Stonewall Jackson's Headquarters to George Washington's Office Museum

    In 1854 Dr. William Fuller built a Hudson River Gothic house in Winchester in rural Virginia.  His wife, Victorine S. Green, used many continental touches in decorating her new home: diamond-shaped window panes, marble fireplaces, hearth tiles and gilt wallpaper.  The Fullers soon outgrew their cottage and sold it to Lewis Tilghman Moore, great-grandfather of Mary Tyler Moore, the television and screen actress.

In the fall of 1861 General Stonewall Jackson came to Winchester to plan his Valley Campaign.  Lewis Moore, a lieutenant colonel in the Fourth Virginia Infantry Stonewall Brigade, offered his home to Jackson as his headquarters.  The general wrote to his wife, "The situation is beautiful.  The building is of cottage style and contains six rooms.  I have two rooms, one above the other.  My lower room, or office, has matting on the floor, a large fine table, six chairs and a piano.  The walls are papered with elegant gilt paper.  I don't remember to have ever seen more beautiful papering..."

His wife, Mary Anna Morrison Jackson, joined him in Winchester at Christmas time and stayed until March 1862 (see Stonewall Jackson House selection).  You'll see the table where they enjoyed Christmas dinner, Jackson's office (just as he described it) and his bedroom. 

Stonewall Jackson's Headquarters has photographs and personal memorabilia of Jackson and other Confederate officers on display.  The gift shop sells rare first edition books, old hard-to-find books on the Civil War and Confederate money.  The house at 415 Braddock Street is open 10:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. daily April through October.  Admission is charged.

Just down Braddock Street at the intersection with Cork Street is the small log office Colonel George Washington of the Virginia Militia used from September 1755 to December 1756 while he supervised the construction of Fort Loudoun.  The museum has a model of this fort that was built to protect part of Virginia's 300-mile frontier from the French.

    Washington spend a good deal of time in his early years in the Winchester area, having come here first at the age of 16, in 1748, when Lord Fairfax sent him with a surveying team.  His mission was to look at a part of Lord Fairfax's vast five million acres of land.  George Washington's Office Museum has both surveying and military displays as well as Washington memorabilia.  Hours are 10:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. daily, April through October.  Admission is charged.

Directions: From I-95 at Fredericksburg take Route 17 to Marshall.  Pick-up I-66 that will connect with I-81.  Proceed north on I-81 to Winchester, Exit 80, Millwood Avenue.  Head into Winchester on Millwood Avenue and turn right on Pleasant Valley Road past Abram's Delight (see selection). Turn left on Cork Street and right on Cameron Street.  Continue to North Avenue and turn left.  Go two blocks to Braddock Street and turn left.  Stonewall Jackson's Headquarters is half way down the first block of Braddock Street, on the right.  Continue down Braddock to Cork Street for George Washington's Office Museum on the left corner at the light

 

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