Peers House | |
Location | Appomattox County, Virginia |
---|---|
Nearest city | Appomattox, Virginia |
Coordinates | 37°22′43″N78°47′47″W / 37.37861°N 78.79639°W Coordinates: 37°22′43″N78°47′47″W / 37.37861°N 78.79639°W |
Built | 1855 |
Visitation | 185,443 [1] (2009) |
Part of | Appomattox Court House National Historical Park (ID66000827 [2] ) |
Added to NRHP | October 15, 1966 |
The Peers House is a structure within the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park. [3] It was registered in the National Park Service's database of Official Structures on June 26, 1989. [4]
The Peers House was constructed in 1855. Samuel D. McDearmon originally sold the house to William Abbitt, who then in turn sold the house to D. A. Plunkett in 1856. [4] When General Lee surrendered to General Grant the house on a hilltop overlooking the village of Appomattox Court House, once owned by Sheriff Plunkett, was owned and occupied by a George Peers. [5] Peers was able to obtain the house at public auction for non-payment of loans in 1870 after Plunkett's death. [6]
George T. Peers was a well known Appomattox County clerk for some forty years. [7] Historian Nathaniel Ragland Featherston writes in his book Appomattox County History and Genealogy that between the close of the Civil War and the time the original "court house" burned down (1892) there was a group of a dozen or so town's people in the village of Appomattox Court House that socially were like one big happy family. Among these key village people was Peers. [8]
Historian William Marvel writes in his book A Place Called Appomattox that Peers was the longest standing court clerk. He says Peers remembers the "court house" as standing forty feet square as he drew a map of the village of Appomattox Court House ("Clover Hill"). [9]
The National Park Service states that the Peers House has importance by virtue of its association with the site of General Robert E. Lee's surrender to General Ulysses S. Grant. [10] The Confederate soldiers marched past the house on the Richmond-Lynchburg Stage Road to go into battle on April 9, 1865. This is where they stacked their arms on April 12, 1865. [11] One of the last artillery shots fired by the Confederate Northern Virginia killed Lieutenant Hiram Clark of the 185th New York Infantry near the Peers house on the morning of April 9, 1865. [12]
The Peers House embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, and method of construction of mid-nineteenth century rural Virginia. The building with its resources is considered typical of both a county government seat and of a farming community in Piedmont Virginia in the mid-nineteenth century. [13]
The Peers House has many of the same characteristics as the Bocock-Isbell House, which is nearby. The two story house is thirty four feet wide by eighteen feet deep and is of post and beam construction. It is built on a brick raised basement almost 6 feet above grade. The house is finished with a narrow wood siding with an almost five inch exposure. The house comes with an attic. [13]
The Peers House has single step external end chimneys and with its narrow wood siding. The west side has a temple form entry porch raised to the first floor. There are simple box posts that support the pedimented gable over the porch. The porch gable and main roof are covered with square-butt wood shingles and covers a four-paneled entry door. The windows are a combination of 8/8, 8/12 (first floor west side), 6/9 and 6/6 sash windows. The east side has a porch with a shed roof on the first floor. The house was completely renovated in 1954 and is currently used as staff housing. [4]
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(help) and Accompanying 12 photos, undated (version from Federal website) (32 KB) and one photo, undated, at Virginia DHR Wilmer McLean was an American wholesale grocer from Virginia. His house, near Manassas, Virginia, was involved in the First Battle of Bull Run in 1861. After the battle, he moved to Appomattox, Virginia, to escape the war, thinking that it would be safe. Instead, in 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant in McLean's house in Appomattox. His houses were, therefore, involved in one of the first and one of the last encounters of the American Civil War.
The Appomattox Court House National Historical Park is a preserved 19th-century village in Appomattox County, Virginia. The village is famous for the site of the Battle of Appomattox Court House, and contains the house of Wilmer McLean, where the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia under Robert E. Lee to Union commander Ulysses S. Grant took place on April 9, 1865, effectively ending the American Civil War. The McLean House was the site of the surrender conference, but the village itself is named for the presence nearby of what is now preserved as the Old Appomattox Court House.
The Battle of Appomattox Court House, fought in Appomattox County, Virginia, on the morning of April 9, 1865, was one of the last battles of the American Civil War (1861–1865). It was the final engagement of Confederate General in Chief, Robert E. Lee, and his Army of Northern Virginia before they surrendered to the Union Army of the Potomac under the Commanding General of the United States Army, Ulysses S. Grant.
The Battle of Sailor's Creek was fought on April 6, 1865, near Farmville, Virginia, as part of the Appomattox Campaign, near the end of the American Civil War. It was the last major engagement between the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, commanded by General Robert E. Lee and the Army of the Potomac, under the overall direction of Union General-in-Chief Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant.
Thomas Salem Bocock was a nineteenth-century politician, slave owner, and lawyer from Virginia. After serving as an antebellum United States Congressman, he was the speaker of the Confederate States House of Representatives during most of the American Civil War.
The McLean House near Appomattox, Virginia is within the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park. The house was owned by Wilmer McLean and his wife Virginia near the end of the American Civil War. It served as the location of the surrender conference for the Confederate army of General Robert E. Lee on April 9, 1865, after a nearby battle.
The Clover Hill Tavern with its guest house and slave quarters are structures within the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park. They were registered in the National Park Service's database of Official Structures on October 15, 1966.
The Old Appomattox Court House is a former county court house within the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park. In the 1800s this structure gave the surrounding village the name Appomattox Court House. The 1865 surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia on April 9 at the nearby McLean House by General Robert E. Lee to General Ulysses S. Grant commenced the conclusion of the American Civil War that finalized with the surrender of the Shenandoah on November 6, 1865.
The Charles Sweeney Cabin is a structure within the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park. It was registered in the National Park Service's database of Official Structures on June 26, 1989.
The Sweeney-Conner cabin is a structure within the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park. It was registered in the National Park Service's database of Official Structures on June 26, 1989.
The Jones Law Office, also known as the Lorenzo D. Kelly House, is a structure within the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park. In the nineteenth century the structure was owned by Kelly and used as a single-family house. The original law office was also used as a dwelling by John Robinson for his large family in the nineteenth century after Kelly.
The New County Jail is a structure within the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park. It was registered in the National Park Service's database of Official Structures on June 26, 1989.
The Woodson Law Office is a structure within the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park. It was originally built by Samuel McDearmon in 1854 and rented by Woodson for his law office until he purchased it a couple of years later. It is a small structure and was built next to the main general store of Appomattox.
The Plunkett–Meeks Store is a structure within the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park. It was registered in the National Park Service's database of Official Structures on June 26, 1989.
The Bocock–Isbell House is a structure within the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park. It was registered in the National Park Service's database of Official Structures on June 26, 1989.
The Mariah Wright house is a structure within the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park. It was registered in the National Park Service's database of Official Structures on June 26, 1989.
The Appomattox Court House National Historical Park ruins are part of the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park, Virginia, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966.
The Appomattox Court House National Historical Park cemeteries are part of the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 26, 1989.
The Sweeney Prizery is a structure within the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park. It was registered in the National Park Service's database of Official Structures on June 26, 1989.
Samuel Daniel McDearmon (1815–1871), also known as Samuel D. McDearmon, was a Confederate army officer during the American Civil War. He held a number of political and government offices, and played a significant role in the development of Appomattox and Appomattox Court House, Virginia.