"Harris House (Spotsylvania) Razed!" Topic

The historically significant Harris Farm House was torn down. The house was not on a preserved portion of the battlefield but was on the National Register of Historical Places:

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This is sad and a loss for ACW history. But looking at satellite view, the house sat in the middle of a lot of other houses on large lots, so the area was already developed it seems.

I think its tragic that it was torn down. Never mind that it was part of a significant piece of civil war history. It's very age meant it was a piece of architectural history. It was a good looking old home that didn't need to be demolished. I'm very disappointed that someone would feel the need to pull this lovely old home down to replace it with something newer and will probably lack the character and charm of the original home.

Wow, sold on December 1st and demolished on December 23rd. I didn't know that one could get a razing permit that quickly.

Shame on Ms. Agnes McGee* for selling it for a mere $125,000 USD to a developer. I bet that the CWT would have bought the property had they known that it was for sale.

* if that is really her name. The fictional character, Travis McGee, had an old Rolls Royce converted into a truck, that he named "Ms. Agnes".

CWT should have contacted the seller before it sold. No shame in not keeping a building, significant or not.

I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand I hate to see something which survived so long and had historical or other significance torn down to be replaced with a structure that could easily have been errected elsewhere. On the other hand, if the property was so important, why didn't preservation or park officials step up to acquire it, or at least acquire a preservation easement.

Wow, sold on December 1st and demolished on December 23rd. I didn't know that one could get a razing permit that quickly.

Probably a big business. I suspect they showed up locked and loaded. Nobody seems to care about history in this country. These guys are all about the dollars with little sense.

Reminds me of when a certain pharmacy chain bought and demolished a Civil War Era tavern in Mechanicsburg, PA that was witness to some of the northern most fighting in the ACW. I was angry not just at the company…because the local officials had to approved it.

The key is to help buy up critical pieces while we still can. Civil War parks are going to be precious green space in suburbia in the next few decades.

I've had some experience in the permitting process for both construction and demolition. Typically, unless there is someone willing to raise a voice against it, the permits will sail right through. OTOH, if there IS someone willing to actively oppose it, they will often succeed. A shame no one made some noise over this before it was too late.

I am sure they did this quickly and discreetly, before anyone could get a court injunction. Looks like someone knew what they were doing. There is a special place in hell for people like this.

From the NPS website:

"The property owner should contact the State historic preservation office (SHPO.) The SHPO is the state agency that oversees historic preservation efforts in their state. There may be state or local preservation laws that they should be aware of before they undertake a project with a historic property."

Someone should at least be fined. But that would be the cost of doing business. Fait accompli.

Why isn't this property part of the park? WTH! This land should have been bought by the park service or some friends of the park type association. Maybe condemned by the state or feds and saved for the good of the American People? The house could have been moved to the park or donated the land for a tax write off. Do we know exactly who was responsible for this?

What I don't understand is how a developer was even allowed to build there? I guess it didn't cost very much to buy a few county officials. This just goes to show that we are the stupid country. Don't know and don't care about our own heritage.

There are a lot of laws where I live to slow down development. The net effect is to keep all building in the hands of major developers since they are the only ones who can make the paperwork affordable.

This almost made me sick.

We should all get together after Historicon, drive over, and raze whatever gets built there.

Every year.

The Central Virginia Battlefield Trust, a great organization, has been the group to take the lead on the Harris site going back in time.

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The owner of the demolished house said it was torn down because it was infested with termites, according to the Fredericksburg (Va.) Free-Lance Star.

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Per Bank's article

But in 1989, a deep-pockets developer bought the land, outmaneuvering preservationists, and massive houses pockmarked the area by the early 2000s. The builder's web site touts single-family homes starting at $500,000 USD "with spacious home sites up to five acres."

It is a shame more could not have been done, but the preservation community was not allowed to.

The Fredericksburg area with 4 battlefields is a tough area for preservation with a lot of ongoing threats and there is likely not enough time and money to get it all. Major wins were achieved at Chancellorsville this year and there are active plans to do more by both CVBT and CWT. If you have not been, you should walk the Slaughter Pen Farm at Fredericksburg. Local politicians come and go and it is always a struggle to make sure the preservation voice is heard.

Thanks for the support shown here. Any financial support you can give CWT or CVBT at year end here would be greatly appreciated.

Bill Hupp
CWT Trustee
CVBT member

Tragically, this is common in a lot of countries. The local council in Stirling, Scotland is desperate to sell land at the Bannockburn site, though admittedly that is, in part, a bit of gesture politics as well as good old Tamany Hall behaviour.

Bill,

I think we need to find '21st century' ways to raise the money to buy up more battlefield land. I know the gentlemen and ladies at the Trust spend the majority of their time doing just that, but we need a true stroke of genius.
I don't know what that 21st way is myself but I am just thinking about how the 'ice bucket challenge,' which I know had it's critics, raised around $100 USD million dollars for ALS research. Now, I am not suggesting that we dump ice water on Civil War Historians and authors (or am I? ) but something truly innovative.
Now, before everyone gets up in arms, I am in NO way criticizing or minimizing the efforts of the CWT or it's staff. I understand that what they have given large portions of their life to saving Civil War and other historic sites.

Maybe GoFundMe?