Fredericksburg Town Hall and Market House (1816)

The building at 907 Princess Anne Street carries the date 1816, built in the Federal style with large sandstone arches at the rear. Those arches were filled in around 1912, converting what had been an open arcade into enclosed space. The building stands within the Fredericksburg Historic District and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.

Fredericksburg was named in 1728, sited at the fall line of the Rappahannock — the point where the river stopped carrying oceangoing vessels. It grew as a port, exporting tobacco from the Piedmont and receiving manufactured goods from England. The town was incorporated in 1781 and became an independent city in 1879. The town hall and market house that went up in 1816 combined government function with commerce: a lower arcaded area for market activities, upper floors for the governmental and social functions of the city.

The building is part of the same complex as the Fredericksburg Area Museum, which now operates within it. Market Square abuts the rear — an open area paved in Belgian block, encircled by the shops that line William Street to the north and Caroline Street to the east. The square is part of the forty-block Fredericksburg Historic District, which contains more than 350 buildings and locations dating to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Fredericksburg was halfway between Washington and Richmond during the Civil War. The Battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862 inflicted significant damage on the town. Recovery was slow — neither the city nor the surrounding counties reached 1860 population levels again until well into the twentieth century.

The arches are still there. So is the square. The market is gone, but the building remains — brick and sandstone, slate roof, the shape of a town that built itself around what could be bought and sold at the fall line.