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Thomas Wallace House

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1855. 204 S. Market St.
  • (Virginia Department of Historic Resources)

From the 1840s to the early twentieth century, the two-block area of S. Market Street was one of the city's fashionable residential areas. Some houses still have their original outbuildings, including kitchens and carriage houses. This residence built for merchant and lawyer Wallace briefly served as the headquarters of General Ulysses S. Grant. Here Grant and President Abraham Lincoln met on the front porch for the last time on April 3, 1865. They discussed their final strategy and reviewed Lincoln's lenient terms of Lee's expected surrender. The two-story, double-pile building with a pressed-brick facade has the boxlike massing typical of Greek Revival residences, but the detailing is Italianate with metal caps over the windows, paired brackets supporting the wide eaves, and marble mantels on the interior. The rear elevation features the double portico often found on Virginia's refined urban houses of the era. Around 1900, the front porch was extended and an attached circular gazebo was added.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Anne Carter Lee

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