Kenmore, (also known as Kenmore Woods), is a historic house in

Spotsylvania County Spotsylvania County is a county (United States), county in the U.S. state of Virginia. As of the July 2021 estimate, the population was 143,676. Its county seat is Spotsylvania Courthouse, Virginia, Spotsylvania Courthouse. History At the time ...

, Virginia, United States. It was built in 1829 by Samuel Alsop, Jr. (1776–1859) for his daughter Ann Eliza and her husband, John M. Anderson. The home bears the same name as the home of Fielding and Betty Lewis (Betty was the sister of

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...

) in nearby

Fredericksburg, Virginia Fredericksburg is an independent city located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 27,982. The Bureau of Economic Analysis of the United States Department of Commerce combines the city of Fredericksburg wi ...

. To distinguish the houses, Kenmore in Spotsylvania County was renamed Kenmore Woods. Samuel Alsop, Jr. designed a number of homes in Spotsylvania County. In addition to Kenmore, he also designed and built "Oakley" for another daughter as well as his own home, " Fairview". In all, Alsop designed and built 10 homes.

Design

Begun in 1828 and finished in 1829, the design of the home is

Federal-style Federal-style architecture is the name for the classicizing architecture built in the newly founded United States between 1780 and 1830, and particularly from 1785 to 1815, which was heavily based on the works of Andrea Palladio with several inn ...

. The house was built on that Alsop purchased in 1821. The relatively modest-sized Kenmore is unusual for Alsop in that it was designed with a narrow central hallway and a spiral staircase. Another unusual aspect of the house is the brickwork. On the front and south sides, bricks are laid in

Flemish bond Brickwork is masonry produced by a bricklayer, using bricks and Mortar (masonry), mortar. Typically, rows of bricks called ''Course (architecture), courses'' are laid on top of one another to build up a structure such as a brick wall. Bricks ...

pattern while the other sides are common bond. The present owners of the house suggest that the reason for this might be that the house sits on an intersection of two roads and thus visible from two sides. The kitchen was originally an outbuilding – a structure built apart from the main house. It was common in Colonial times to separate the kitchen from the rest of the house because the kitchen was the working area of the household's slaves.

History

The house was sold in 1832 to Dr. Hubbard Minor who, in 1836, added an ell to the rear of the home and a

gable end A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

shed A shed is typically a simple, single-story roofed structure that is used for hobbies, or as a workshop in a back garden or on an allotment. Sheds vary considerably in their size and complexity of construction, from simple open-sided ones de ...

roof. The ell is now a sitting room. The character of the additions was

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but ...

. The house was located at the intersection of major roads near Spotsylvania Courthouse. During the

American civil war The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

, the house was used by Colonel Walker of the

Army of Northern Virginia The Army of Northern Virginia was the primary military force of the Confederate States of America in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War. It was also the primary command structure of the Department of Northern Virginia. It was most oft ...

as a headquarters during the Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse in 1864. Dr. Maxwell Harbin and his wife purchased the house in 1935 and changed the name of the home to Kenmore Woods because of the confusion with the home of George Washington's sister, Betty, in nearby Fredericksburg, Virginia. Sometime during the 1930s, a screened porch was added to the south side of the home. To create a passage from the house onto the porch, it was necessary to cut through four courses of brick. It was around this time that electricity and plumbing were added to the house. Kenmore was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in June 1993.

Design

History

References

Further reading