History Thursday: 803 Caroline Street
From grocery store to bakery to laundromat to specialty toy store.
By Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
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Everything from mincemeat pie to Holland gin to designer teddy bears has been sold out of this downtown Fredericksburg building.
It was constructed in 1806 by Thomas Johnston as a “storehouse and dwelling,” according to the research conducted by Carol DeChristopher for the Historic Fredericksburg Foundation’s marker program.
Johnston took out a Mutual Assurance Society policy on the property—which included the storehouse and dwelling, a lumber house, and a stable—on February 13, 1806, listing himself as the occupant and the depreciation allowance as “Nothing being all new.” The dwelling was insured for $4,500; the lumber house for $400; and the stable for $200.
Johnston himself died in 1812, but the property remained in his family until 1835 and it has consistently sold goods of one kind or another. A Larkin Johnston, who was renting the building, took out an ad in an 1822 edition of the weekly Virginia Herald, stating that he had just received a supply of groceries “which he offers for sale for cash, or on credit to punctual men” and which include “in part as follows viz. Cognac Brandy, Madeira, Port and other Wines” and “Beal Holland Gin, a very scare article in this place.”
In addition to the spirits—which he stressed were “selected with care from the importer, and any person wanting pure and good Liquors, can get them on application to me”— Larkin Johnston sold tea, loaf and brown sugar, mustard, cloves, capers, anchovies, cheese, crackers, and “Winter strained Lamp Oil.”
In 1835, John Buck bought the 803 Caroline Street property from Thomas Johnston’s daughter and son. According to the insurance policy he took out, he was the occupant of the property, which no longer included the lumber house and stable and which was insured for $4,000.
Buck ran a “family grocery store” out of the building, according to an ad he placed in the Virginia Herald.
“The subscriber begs leave to call the attention of the public to the present STOCK of FAMILY GROCERIES,” the ad reads. “They have been selected with such care and particular attention as he trusts will ensure approbation and extensive patronage.”
Buck’s store “shall yield to none in this place as a Tea, Wine, Liquor, and Family Grocery Store,” the ad states.
He was still in business in 1849, according to an ad in the Fredericksburg News, in which he invited “my friends and lovers of good TEA to call and give [newly arrived products] a trial.”
In 1859, William Lange bought the property and announced in the Virginia Herald that he was opening a confectionery, bakery, and ice cream parlor.
“The subscriber having purchased the store on MAIN STREET … has refitted and refurnished it in the handsomest style and opened a splendid lot of French, American and German Confectionery,” his ad states. “He has always in store every variety of CAKE, CANDY, NUTS, FRUITS, AND CONSERVES … attached to his store is an ICE CREAM saloon where the public can be supplied at all hours with Ice Cream of every kind of flavor.”
In his bakery, Lange made fresh bread daily with flour from city mills, the ad states. He also made pies. An 1899 notice in the Fredericksburg Star reads “‘Pi’ and pie are different. The former we hate; the latter we love. William Lange, the well known baker, will accept our thanks for a delicious homemade mince meat pie.”
After Lange, 803 Caroline was owned by Christiana Brulle, the wife of the Frederick Brulle, who emigrated from Prussia in 1860 and started Germania Mills.
Between 1928 and 1981, the building was owned by Fredericksburg Steam Laundry, Inc., which later became Sunshine Laundry, Co. In 1944, the Free Lance-Star carried two help-wanted ads for employees for Sunshine Laundry: “White women to do special laundry work” and “Colored women for general laundry work.”
John Lynch bought the building and several others that had been owned by Sunshine Laundry in 1981 and according to a Free Lance-Star article from that year, was considering turning 803 and 805 Caroline Street into an artists’ colony.
In 1992, David and Faylee Hydorn, who had been operating the Rocking Horse toy store elsewhere in town since 1982, bought the building and opened the Rocking Horse Gallery, which according to a 1994 Free Lance-Star article was known nationally for its designer teddy bear line.
The Rocking Horse Gallery is still in business as an artisan bear, doll, and specialty toy shop at 803 Caroline Street.
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