The trim is abundant and detailed. At each door frame corner is an open flower, a feature called 'paterae.'

A cherub is suspended from an arched opening in the grand foyer. The light fixture creates an interesting ceiling design.

An example of antique German stained glass is set into the door to a guest suite at the top of the staircase. The piece is believed to date to when the house was owned by Hurkamp, who was a German immigrant.

An ornate wrought-iron fence encloses the front yard and carries the name of former owner J. G. Hurkamp.

Former owner John Hurkamp connected the former kitchen house and slave quarters to the main house in his 1873 renovation. The ceiling has been removed, but beams remain.

The house may date to 1848, but the kitchen is 21st century. The wide-plank heart pine floors, however, are original.

Hurkamp House recalls an era of elegance in Fredericksburg

Date published: 6/16/2006

Hanover Street house had role in city's history

By RICHARD AMRHINE

M OST LOCAL residents are fa- miliar with Hurkamp Park in Fredericksburg, but not so many are aware of the Hanover Street house that also bears the man's name. It is one of the city's classic pre-Civil War residences.

John G. Hurkamp was a German immigrant and successful local businessman. As a city councilman, he's said to have been instrumental in setting aside the land at William and Prince Edward streets that would become Hurkamp Park.

He bought 406 Hanover St. in October 1862, and no doubt felt the ground tremble two months later during the Battle of Fredericksburg.

Though he was known as a Confederate sympathizer, Hurkamp opened his home to Union Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick, who used it as a headquarters during the battles around Fredericksburg in 1864.

The house was built in 1848 as the manse, or parsonage, for ministers of the Presbyterian Church in Fredericksburg. Pictures of the Revs. Charles Welford and Samuel Daniel, listed as the home's first two residents, hang on opposite walls of the church sanctuary.

A history and title chain of the house was assembled in 1993 by researchers at Mary Washington College. The house was on the Historic Fredericksburg Foundation's Candlelight Tour that year.

The house has had relatively few owners in its nearly 160 years. The church sold it to George and Ellen Scott in 1854, who sold it to Hurkamp. Hurkamp lived there until his death in 1886. His descendents lived there until 1978. It was sold to Rodrigo and Frances Moure that year, and then to local artist Betsy Glassie in 1989.

The current owners, Doug and Catherine Stewart, bought it in 1999. They have listed it with Janel O'Malley and Robin Marine of Coldwell Banker Carriage House Realty in downtown Fredericksburg. The asking price is $2.125 million.

It was Hurkamp who made the dramatic structural changes that gave the house its present look. The original house was a standard Federal design, with three windows across the second story and no front porch.

Date published: 6/16/2006