William C. Flook, The Examiner
2007-05-29 07:00:00.0
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Fairfax -

Fairfax City will break ground early next month on a $1.5 million project to preserve a house whose walls bear more than 100 inscriptions from Union soldiers and erect a historical Civil War center next to it.

The 3,800-foot center would sit on the 12-acre property at 3610 Old Lee Highway, next to the historic Blenheim house. A groundbreaking is set for Saturday at noon.

The Blenheim house’s first two floors and attic walls bear the writings of soldiers from three periods between March 1862 and June 1863, according to Andrea Loewenwarter, the city’s historic resources specialist.

“The sentiments [on the walls] are varied,” she said. “You have people who are sick there, you have people who are boastful, others full of bravado.”

Some were sarcastic; one soldier farcically lamented what a shame it was they had to destroy the walls with their graffiti, Loewenwarter said.

The first round came when Union troops passed through the area from D.C. to fight in the Battle of Second Manassas. The second round of markings at the house were from “the hospital period,” from some of the hundreds of sick soldiers recovering at the nearby Fairfax courthouse.

The third came from soldiers on their way to the Battle of Gettysburg, Loewenwarter said.

City officials hope to open the site to public tours and programs in mid-2008, she said. The new center will include a full-sized reproduction of part of the attic walls and a 925-square-foot multipurpose room for adult lectures and youth programs.

The estate is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

wflook@dcexaminer.com