By RUSTY DENNEN
Looking for a big, historic house in town with lots of room and acreage?
How about one where Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee himself had breakfast before the Battle of Fredericksburg?
The Central Virginia Battlefields Trust has just the place.
The trust, which has a long record of protecting Civil War battlefield land here, has signed a contract to purchase Braehead, an antebellum mansion on Lee Drive off Lafayette Boulevard.
"We do not usually consider houses," says Dr. Mike Stevens, CVBT president, "but Braehead is an important part of the Fredericksburg battlefield."
When the family that has owned the house since it was built in the mid-19th century decided to put it on the market a few weeks ago, "We thought it important to get it off the market, at least temporarily, so we could ensure its protection," Stevens said.
The trust plans to place easements on the land to prevent anyone from subdividing the more than 18-acre site and to avoid inappropriate changes to the historic building.
CVBT would then resell Braehead to a preservation-minded buyer who would take care of the property.
Erik Nelson, a senior planner in Fredericksburg and secretary of the trust, said the contract price was $995,000. Closing was delayed for 18 months to allow the organization time to find a suitable purchaser.
Nelson said the owners, Dr. Graham Stephens, and his wife, Thelma, decided it was time to sell the property.
"None of their kids have an interest in living there--and it's an enormous building--and they agreed it was time to pass it on," Nelson said.
The Stephenses held a family reunion at the house in 2004, giving distant relatives a chance to reconnect with the property.
Stephens' youngest son and daughter-in-law, Bruce and Sandi, ran Braehead as a bed and breakfast from 1997 to 2002 before moving to Hawaii. Then Graham Stephens, a retired emergency-room physician from Roanoke, and his wife moved back in.
Braehead is within the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park boundary, but the park service couldn't acquire it because of a lack of funds.
"We're delighted that CVBT stepped up and is going to preserve Braehead," said Russ Smith, the parks' superintendent.
The brick mansion was built by John Howison, a dairy farmer, in 1859 for his extensive family. It was the core of a 600-acre estate, run with one slave and 13 other workers. The house sits on the east slope of Telegraph Hill, now known as Lee Hill.
According to Nelson, Braehead also served as a way station for people traveling to and from Fredericksburg during the war. Screened by topography and thick vegetation, the Howison House could not bee seen from the Union lines in December 1862. Braehead is Scottish for "house on the hill."
As a result, locals seeking to enter or leave the city without drawing attention to themselves, such as soldiers visiting their families, could do so there.
Robert E. Lee ate breakfast in the home the morning of Dec. 13, 1862, as Confederates and Union troops were preparing to do battle. Two of Howison's sons were members of the Fredericksburg Artillery, a local Confederate unit. Neither son survived the war. John Howison Jr. (known as Jack) was killed at Gettysburg. Edward Howison died the following year at Ream's Station near Petersburg. Union soldiers occupied the house in 1864.
The house has some impressive Civil War credentials: There's a bullet hole next to the front door, a blood-stained floor and soldier graffiti on a plaster wall.
After the war, the house remained in the family, and most of the land was sold off.
Founded 10 years ago, CVBT has acquired land on each of the area's four battlefields--Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania Court House, Chancellorsville and Wilderness.
After each purchase, the trust has sold the acreage to the park service or continued to hold it in trust.
CVBT has made several of its most important acquisitions along the Jackson Flank Attack area on the western end of Chancellorsville Battlefield. That's where Confederate Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson led 26,000 men on a daring 12-mile march to attack the Union's right line.
Several months ago, CVBT pledged $1 million toward the Washington-based Civil War Preservation Trust's $12 million purchase of Slaughter Pen Farm. The farm, adjacent to Shannon Airport in Spotsylvania County, was a key component of the Battle of Fredericksburg.
To reach RUSTY DENNEN:
Email: rdennen@freelancestar.com