1209 Prince Edward Street (Fredericksburg, Virginia)

Date published: 9/25/2009
BY RICHARD AMRHINE - Free Lance Star newspaper

At 127 years old, 1209 Prince Edward St. is a mere child compared with some of its neighbors, but that's still plenty old enough to earn its place on one of Fredericksburg's historic streets.

The blue clapboard house with black shutters and white trim was built as a very basic two-over-two by Andrew Bowling in 1882. Since then the house has been owned by only three different families.

The current owners, Sarah and Brent Brady, doubled the home's size with a three-story (including basement) rear addition in 2006, shortly after they bought the house from John and Cornelia Ihlenfeld in 2005.

Today the house serves as a large, comfortable family home, with four bedrooms, 3 baths and about 4,500 square feet of living space. There are two fireplaces.

Researcher Sandra Staley compiled a history of the house for Historic Fredericksburg Foundation Inc.'s historical marker program. According to that information, the original house is typical Federal, or "Adam," style, with Italianate features that include a low-pitched roof and ornate brackets and dentil moldings beneath its gables. There are two symmetrical chimneys on either end, and a single-story portico on the front.

Bowling, who had built the Victorian house at 1203 Prince Edward four years earlier, was commissioned to build the house by John C. Willis, a local businessman who operated a hardware store at 214 Commerce (now William) St.

Having married Sallie B. Coleman in November 1878, Willis had the new house built for his wife and the two children, Mason and Nora, who would come along.

The children inherited the house from their widowed mother. It was then sold to the Ihlenfelds in 1969, and subsequently to the Bradys.

The house was built around the time plumbing was being moved indoors, and a two-story protruding "L" housed two original bathrooms, one above the other. It's unclear whether it was original to the house or a very early addition.

In need of more space for their growing family, the Bradys called on Habalis Construction of Fredericksburg to build a substantial two-story addition to the rear. As required of all additions in the city's Historic District, this one complements the exterior of the original home, but the old is readily discernible from the new.

Plans for the addition were drawn by Atlanta architect Jerry Spangler.

"He came in here, looked around and literally drew the design on a napkin," said Sarah Brady. "Then he made the plans from that."

She said that two goals of the addition were to provide plenty of natural light and to increase the virtually non-existent closet space, both of which were accomplished.

"We tried to respect the interior of the house and give the addition similar trim, doors, floors and doorknobs," she said.

The addition provides space for a new kitchen and family room on the main level, and additional bedrooms plus a shared bathroom upstairs.

Between the dining room and kitchen is a butler's pantry and wet bar.

The new kitchen features stainless-steel appliances, including a hooded range and a wine cooler, along with Silestone countertops, a granite-covered island and slate tile flooring.

Updated electrical and plumbing systems were installed during the renovation, as were new heating and air-conditioning units.

The home's handsomely refinished original heart-pine floors were appropriately matched in the addition.

The original kitchen house was in the backyard, separate from the house. It remained standing, barely, until the Bradys had the crumbling structure removed.

At some point while the house was still the two-over-two, cooking was moved inside to a basement kitchen. That now-modernized kitchen creates options for the newly expanded basement, which adds space for a recreation or media room.

The house sits on about one-sixth of an acre and backs up to a grassed-over alley that was blocked off long ago.

There is a sizable backyard for playing and entertaining. The addition includes a new covered back porch with black ironwork railings and columns designed and made by Virginia Architectural Metals in Fredericksburg.

Among the home's historic neighbors, a few doors down and to the rear, is the Mary Washington House at 1200 Charles St. It was already standing when George Washington bought it and had it enlarged for his mother to live in from 1772 until her death in 1789.