History Thursday: 720 Littlepage Street
This building has housed the Sunken Well Tavern since 2006.
By Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
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Everything from clover seed, to hats and shoes, to sugar and butter, to “ardent spirits” and “chemical and pharmaceutical preparations,” to sub sandwiches and burgers has been sold from this property at the point where Kirkland, Hanover, and Littlepage streets meet.
The various buildings on this lot have been known as the “Sisson Store,” the “Freeman Store,” the “Sub Shop,” “Jake’s Place,” and now “Sunken Well Tavern.”
According to research conducted in 2013 by Janet Waltonen for the Historic Fredericksburg Foundation’s marker program, a T-shaped brick store and dwelling was first built here in 1828 by John Marye to take advantage of traffic flowing into and out of the city on two major roads—the “Public Road” to Spotsylvania Courthouse and the “Orange Turnpike,” now Hanover Street.
Fredericksburg at the time was a port town that shipped produce, grain, and tobacco to big cities like Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York, and “as many as 200 wagons” could be seen on these streets, Waltonen wrote.
Marye sold the building in 1837 to Robert Stairs or Staiars, who continued to operate a store out of it. In 1839, Robert was charged in Fredericksburg Circuit Court with having “feloniously stolen, taken, and carried away sixty pounds of soap”—possibly to sell in his store, Waltonen surmised.
By 1843 Robert was described in Spotsylvania’s “June Court” as “a man of good character [whose] store in this County (near Fredericksburg) is a good fit and convenient place for the retail of ardent spirits.” He had to appear in Spotsylvania Court and be found of good character annually in order to be able to sell “ardent spirits,” Waltonen wrote.
Obtaining merchandise for his store apparently led Robert to go thousands of dollars into debt, so in 1854 all of his property—including the “slaves Charity about 25 years old and her two children Jack and Jane, Rose about 20 years old” and “interest” in “an old woman by the name of Dolly”—was auctioned off to pay his debts.
William Cheek bought the store and then sold it to David Sisson at “a substantial profit.” Sisson operated the store for eight years and it became an important landmark during the Battle of Fredericksburg. Thomas Galwey, a Union soldier, wrote about carrying wounded comrades into the store and laying them on the counters and then the floor as their numbers accumulated.
“Strangest of all, we found here a woman who, either by accident or a foolhardy desire to save her property, had, after barring the door, descended into the cellar,” Galwey wrote. “This house was right in the vortex of a whirlpool of destruction.”
Another Union soldier described the woman, who was possibly Sarah Sisson, David’s wife, as “gaunt and hard featured, still sitting by a smoking candle, though it was nearly two hours past midnight … star[ing] across the dead barrier into the darkness outside with the look of one who heard and saw not.”
The Sissons kept the store until 1885, when it was sold to Charles Richardson, who had been a soldier in the Confederate Army and became “engaged in the pickle business” after the war, according to the Free Lance-Star in 1913.
John Ward bought “the old Sisson property” in 1892. The next year, the building that stands on the lot today was built and Ward’s business partner, George Freeman Jr., ran a grocery store out of it. He eventually bought the property.
Freeman would deliver groceries anywhere in town, according to Waltonen, and his store “excels all others, not only in the quality of goods, but in the pleasant and honest way of doing business,” the Free Lance-Star wrote in 1907.
He also served on the School Board and City Council. He and his wife Mary Rowe Freeman first lived above the store and then bought the historic Stratton House at 700 Littlepage Street.
The couple had 10 children. Two of the sons, John and Cephas, went into business with their father, establishing a wholesale wine and beer distributing company next to the grocery store and opening a filling station across the street.
One of the Freeman daughters, Addibel Freeman, graduated from Mary Washington College and was a longtime teacher at Maury Elementary School. In 1964, she was named “Fredericksburg’s First Lady.” Another, Audrey, was a professional violinist who played at the 1932 funeral of artist Gari Melchers, who lived at Belmont in Stafford.
Cephas Freeman was elected to City Council in 1948 by “the largest plurality in previous campaign history. Another son, Rodney Freeman, was a pilot in the Army Air Corps during World War II and received the Distinguished Flying Cross.
Addibel Freeman owned the property until 1976, when she sold it to Doris Coble, whose son Graham—known as “Corky”—managed a sub shop there.
In 1982, it was sold to Craig and Maureen Jones, who have leased it to different businesses.
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Very interesting. I enjoy reading about Fredericksburg area history very much. Thanks, Adele.