See if you can identify this older church, today’s Mystery Photo. Send your ideas to ebrack2@gmail.com and include your hometown.
Sara Rawlins of Lawrenceville recognized the recent mystery, “The mystery picture is the McLean House in Appomattox, Va. This is the site where General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses Grant, ending the American Civil War in 1865. The house was owned by Wilmer and Virginia McLean at the time of surrender. The house was originally constructed by Charles Raines in 1848 and his wife sold the property to the McLeans in 1863.
“The first Battle of Bull Run happened on this farm property that began around 1861 and ended in 1865 with surrender in the parlor of the farmhouse. It could be said the war started outside and ended inside at the same homesite. One more fun fact, Wilmer McLean was too old to enlist, even though he was a retired Major in the Virginia Militia, he ran sugar through the Union blockade, making a small fortune. But since most of his fortune was in Confederate currency he was nearly ruined. The home is now a part of the National Park Service and the National Register of Historic Places.”
The photo came from Matt Willis of Lawrenceville.
Also recognizing the mystery were Jay Altman, Columbia, S.C.; Raleigh Perry, Buford; George Graf, Palmyra, Va; Susan McBrayer, Sugar Hill; Lou Camerio, Lilburn; Steve Ogilvie, Rehobeth, Ala. and Allan Peel of San Antonio, Tex., who added:
“The house standing today is not the original McLean House but a reconstruction using most of the original materials. After changing ownerships several times between 1867 and 1891, it was purchased and dismantled by Captain Myron Dunlap from Niagara Falls who originally wanted to transport it to Chicago and reassembled it for the 1893 World’s Exposition. He was not able to complete the work in time, so he then planned to move it to Washington DC and convert it to a Civil War Museum. That never happened either, and so the house was ultimately reconstructed in its original form and location using the dismantled materials from the original structure. It is now the central feature of the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park.”
- SHARE A MYSTERY PHOTO: If you have a photo that you believe will stump readers, send it along (but make sure to tell us what it is because it may stump us too!) Send to: ebrack2@gmail.com and mark it as a photo submission. Thanks.
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