Brompton | |
Brompton, Sunken Road & Hanover Street (Fredericksburg, Virginia) | |
    | |
| Location | Hanover St. and Sunken Rd., Fredericksburg, Virginia |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 38°17′44″N77°28′13″W / 38.29556°N 77.47028°W Coordinates: 38°17′44″N77°28′13″W / 38.29556°N 77.47028°W |
| Area | 11 acres (4.5 ha) |
| Built | 1820 |
| Architectural style | Other, Roman Revival |
| NRHP reference # | 79003279 [1] |
| VLR # | 111-0008 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | July 24, 1979 |
| Designated VLR | May 15, 1979 [2] |
Brompton, originally known as Marye House, is an historic house located on heights overlooking the town of Fredericksburg, Virginia. The house was built in 1838 by John Lawrence Marye. [3] The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in July 1979. [1]
Fredericksburg is an independent city located in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 24,286, up from 19,279 at the 2000 census. The city population was estimated at 28,360 in 2017. The Bureau of Economic Analysis of the United States Department of Commerce combines the city of Fredericksburg with neighboring Spotsylvania County for statistical purposes.
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States located between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" due to its status as the first English colonial possession established in mainland North America and "Mother of Presidents" because eight U.S. presidents were born there, more than any other state. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are shaped by the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Chesapeake Bay, which provide habitat for much of its flora and fauna. The capital of the Commonwealth is Richmond; Virginia Beach is the most populous city, and Fairfax County is the most populous political subdivision. The Commonwealth's estimated population as of 2018 is over 8.5 million.
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. A property listed in the National Register, or located within a National Register Historic District, may qualify for tax incentives derived from the total value of expenses incurred preserving the property.
The house sits atop an area of Fredericksburg known as 'Marye's Heights'. [4] The town was about 400 yards from Brompton and was a Confederate stronghold against repeated Union Army assaults on the slope during the Battle of Fredericksburg (1862–1863). Confederate General James Longstreet maintained his headquarters at Brompton. [5] [6]
The Confederate States of America, commonly referred to as the Confederacy and the South, was an unrecognized country in North America that existed from 1861 to 1865. The Confederacy was originally formed by seven secessionist slave-holding states—South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas—in the Lower South region of the United States, whose economy was heavily dependent upon agriculture, particularly cotton, and a plantation system that relied upon the labor of African-American slaves.
During the American Civil War, the Union Army referred to the United States Army, the land force that fought to preserve the Union of the collective states. Also known as the Federal Army, it proved essential to the preservation of the United States of America as a working, viable republic.
The Battle of Fredericksburg was fought December 11–15, 1862, in and around Fredericksburg, Virginia in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War. The combat, between the Union Army of the Potomac commanded by Major General Ambrose Burnside and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia under General Robert E. Lee, was part of the Union Army's futile frontal attacks on December 13 against entrenched Confederate defenders on the heights behind the city. It is remembered as one of the most one-sided battles of the war, with Union casualties more than twice as heavy as those suffered by the Confederates. A visitor to the battlefield described the battle to U.S. President Abraham Lincoln as a "butchery."
Brompton currently serves as the residence of the President of the University of Mary Washington. [5]
The University of Mary Washington (UMW) is a public liberal arts and sciences university located in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Founded in 1908 as the Fredericksburg Teachers College, the institution was named Mary Washington College in 1938 after Mary Ball Washington, mother of the first president of the United States, George Washington. The General Assembly of Virginia changed the college's name to the University of Mary Washington in 2004 to reflect the addition of graduate and professional programs to the central undergraduate curriculum, as well as the establishment of more than one campus.
