If MWHC does not want to pay real estate or corporate taxes, why not ask them to make annual donations to cover some of the costs that the city incurs? There is also the lost income from the lack of development on their site.
Before we write off the mansion, let's remember its context. There were four prominent ante-bellum dwellings built on the hills surrounding Fredericksburg. From north to south, they are Fall Hill, Snowden, Brompton, and Braehead. Each of these houses is exceptionally well cared for, but Snowden is the most visually prominent. So what we have in town is an intact assemblage of resources that are historically important both individually as well as collectively. By all means, Mary Washington Healthcare should proceed with its plans, but we all remember when Mary Washington College built its alumni center on top of Trench Hill without bothering with the necessary environmental assessment that would have at least identified and mapped the Civil War earthworks there. Mary Washington Healthcare is a different animal and it will not be difficult to construct the needed additions while respecting the old mansion's visual prominence (even if it was rebuilt after a fire in the 1920s).
Major error - take note - there was a fire that destroyed the original house, Snowden, in 1926. There is a small structure still standing behind the rebuilt Snowden that predated Civil War but that’s about it.
If MWHC does not want to pay real estate or corporate taxes, why not ask them to make annual donations to cover some of the costs that the city incurs? There is also the lost income from the lack of development on their site.
There it is......
Yup -- there it is.
Who will be living in the Snowden House? If it’s residential?
Before we write off the mansion, let's remember its context. There were four prominent ante-bellum dwellings built on the hills surrounding Fredericksburg. From north to south, they are Fall Hill, Snowden, Brompton, and Braehead. Each of these houses is exceptionally well cared for, but Snowden is the most visually prominent. So what we have in town is an intact assemblage of resources that are historically important both individually as well as collectively. By all means, Mary Washington Healthcare should proceed with its plans, but we all remember when Mary Washington College built its alumni center on top of Trench Hill without bothering with the necessary environmental assessment that would have at least identified and mapped the Civil War earthworks there. Mary Washington Healthcare is a different animal and it will not be difficult to construct the needed additions while respecting the old mansion's visual prominence (even if it was rebuilt after a fire in the 1920s).
Major error - take note - there was a fire that destroyed the original house, Snowden, in 1926. There is a small structure still standing behind the rebuilt Snowden that predated Civil War but that’s about it.
Thanks Helen, I will update that!