Woodson Law Office: Difference between revisions
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== Description == |
== Description == |
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[[File:John W Wilson law office shingle.jpg|thumb|Woodson law office business sign]] |
[[File:John W Wilson law office shingle.jpg|thumb|Woodson law office business sign]] |
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The Woodson Law Office is a single story frame structure that is twelve and a half feet wide by fourteen and a half feet deep. |
The Woodson Law Office is a single story frame structure that is twelve and a half feet wide by fourteen and a half feet deep. Its construction started as early as 1851 and is post and beam on brick piers with a standing seam gable roof. It is sheathed in weatherboard with six inch exposure. There is an 8-panel door on the east gable (front) elevation. The west elevation has an external common bond brick chimney.<ref name="nrhpinv2"> {{citation|title={{PDFlink|[http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NRHP/Text/66000827.pdf National Register of Historic Places Registration: Appomattox Court House / Appomattox Court House National Historical Park]|32 KB}}|date=Undated |author=Author not noted |publisher=National Park Service}} and {{PDFlink|[http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NRHP/Photos/66000827.pdf ''Accompanying 12 photos, undated'']|32 KB}} (Incomplete copy, lacking author and date)</ref> |
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It was moved from its original location to be connected to north side of the Plunkett-Meeks store before 1874.<ref name="woodson4"/> It presently shows the relationship as it was to the [[Plunkett-Meeks Store]] and village scene at the time of surrender of General Lee to General Grant. The [[National Park Service]] restored the building in 1959 and in 1985.<ref name="nrhpinv2"/> |
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== Interior == |
== Interior == |
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Revision as of 00:30, 4 February 2009
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The Woodson Law Office is part of the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park identified as structure number 9A.[1]
History
The law office building was built between 1851 and 1856.[1] It was purchased by lawyer John W. Woodson in 1856 and he owned it until his death in 1864. It was a working law office during the time of the surrender of Confederate General Lee to the Union commander General Grant on April 9, 1865. The office is similar to a nineteenth century attorney's office in a small Virginia town, with an attorney's desk and a portrait of George Washington.[2] John W. Woodson was no longer living at the time when General Lee surrendered to General Grant.[3]
Woodson was born March 8, 1824 and died July 1, 1864. There is no confirmed evidence that it was necessarily always occupied by Woodson.[1] He was an attorney that practiced law in the Old Appomattox Court House until his death in 1864.[2] Woodson rented the building from Samuel McDearmon starting on January 1, 1854. He used the building to store his law books, legal documents, and a change of clothing. In 1856 he purchased the building from McDearmon, who was bankrupt by then. Woodson's village office was on the same corner lot as John Sear's blacksmith shop and had a small footprint. Woodson decided to sell the balance of the lot not used by himself to a John Plunkett, who owned the adjacent general store.[4]
In his book A Place Called Appomattox,[5] historian William Marvel describes history of the Woodson law office building in 1854 as follows:
...it was not until the first court day of 1854 that Woodson bought a hasp, hinge, and padlock for the building and a lock for the chest in which he could store a change of clothes.[6]
In their book Plantations and Outdoor Museums in America's Historic South,[7] historians Gerald and Patricia Gutek[8] describes the Woodson law office building in 1856 as follows:
Woodson Law Office, a beige frame building, was purchased in 1856 by John W. Wilson, an attorney who practiced law in Appomattox Court House until his death eight years later.[2]
Later in his book A Place Called Appomattox, historian William Marvel[9] describes additional history of the Woodson law office building in 1864 when John Woodson died:
...leaving his wife the little law office at Clover Hill...[10]
Historical significance
The Woodson Law Office has historical value by virtue of its association with the site of General Robert E. Lee's surrender to General Ulysses S. Grant at the end the American Civil War.[3] It is important because it embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, and method of construction in the mid-nineteenth century in Virginia. The building and resources of the Woodson law office at the Park constitute both a typical county government seat in Piedmont Virginia in the mid-nineteenth century and of a farming community in the state of Virginia. It was registered in the National Register of Historic Places on June 26, 1989.[1]
Description
The Woodson Law Office is a single story frame structure that is twelve and a half feet wide by fourteen and a half feet deep. Its construction started as early as 1851 and is post and beam on brick piers with a standing seam gable roof. It is sheathed in weatherboard with six inch exposure. There is an 8-panel door on the east gable (front) elevation. The west elevation has an external common bond brick chimney.[11]
It was moved from its original location to be connected to north side of the Plunkett-Meeks store before 1874.[3] It presently shows the relationship as it was to the Plunkett-Meeks Store and village scene at the time of surrender of General Lee to General Grant. The National Park Service restored the building in 1959 and in 1985.[11]
Interior
-
Cabinet for law books -
Fireplace heating -
Secretary desk
Footnotes
- ^ a b c d "Woodson Law Office". Retrieved 2009-01-21.
- ^ a b c Gutek, Plantations and Outdoor Museums in America's Historic South, p. 299
- ^ a b c "Woodson Law Office building". Retrieved 2009-01-21.
- ^ Marvel, A Place Called Appomattox, pp. 38-47
- ^ "Book Review: A Place Called Appomattox (by William Marvel)". Retrieved 2009-02-02.
- ^ Marvel, A Place Called Appomattox, p. 39
- ^ "Book Review: Plantations and Outdoor Museums in America's Historic South (Gerald and Patricia Gutek)". Retrieved 2009-02-02.
- ^ "About the authors". Retrieved 2009-02-02.
- ^ "William Marvel bio". Retrieved 2009-02-02.
- ^ Marvel, A Place Called Appomattox, p. 186
- ^ a b Author not noted (Undated), Template:PDFlink, National Park Service
{{citation}}:|author=has generic name (help); Check date values in:|date=(help) and Template:PDFlink (Incomplete copy, lacking author and date)
Sources
- Gutek, Gerald, Plantations and Outdoor Museums in America's Historic South, University of South Carolina Press, 1996, ISBN 1-5700307-1-5
- Marvel, William, A Place Called Appomattox, UNC Press, 2000, ISBN 0-8078256-8-9
- Marvel, William, Lee's Last Retreat, UNC Press, 2006, ISBN 0-8078570-3-3
- National Park Service, Appomattox Court House: Appomattox Court House National Historical Park, Virginia, U.S. Dept. of the Interior, 2002, ISBN 0-9126277-0-0