Freeman Store to Celebrate Spot on National Registry

State, local and national officials are preparing to officially dedicate Vienna's Freeman Store and Museum as a National Historic Place as part of an all-day event Saturday recognizing the structure's role in the Civil War.

The dedication will begin at 2 p.m. at 131 Church Street NE, featuring performances by the Vienna Community Band and the James Madison Madrigals. But festivities — including a visit from Virginia's Civil War 150 HistoryMobile — will run all day. 

In May, local officials and volunteers celebrated the building's acceptance to the Virginia Landmarks Register, unveiling a plaque engraved with the honor that now hangs to the left of its white wooden door.

The building was then placed on the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places — the only structure in Vienna to earn the honor.

Earning the recognition was the legacy project Vienna's commemoration of the Civil War Sesquicentennial from 2011-2015, one that began more than two years ago.

Historic Vienna Inc. and the Town of Vienna contracted a consultant to help volunteers prepare a nomination package, which included old records, photographs and documents — among them, a pencil drawing of Vienna from 1861, sketched by a  famous journalist and found in the Library of Congress.

The Virginia Department of Historic Resources requires landmarks on the list to either be associated with events that made "significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history," or,  "associated with the lives of persons significant in our past."

For the Freeman House, that means preparing an application that features the property's role as a store in Fairfax County for 150 years,  its connection to local residents like Abram Lydecker and Leon and Anderson Freeman, and its time as a hospital and quarters during the Civil War.

Among its other roles,  the building served as an infirmary near the beginning of the civil war, according to Historic Vienna Inc.

The group staged a photograph last March modeled after an 1861 original, which showed soldiers climbing of the top-story window and overflowing onto the porch, perhaps to get fresh air or wait for beds inside the packed-to-capacity, makeshift hospital.

The house was also the polling place for 1861's secession vote.

The mobile — an interactive museum exhibit on wheels— is part of Virginia's statewide initiatives marking the Civil War's  sesquicentennial.

"The expandable 53-foot tractor-trailer uses immersive spaces and interactive exhibits to draw together stories of the Civil War and Emancipation from the viewpoints of those who experienced it across Virginia—young and old, enslaved and free, soldiers and civilians," according to the project.

Residents can access the mobile for free between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m.

Other activities planned around the day include "children’s activities, art display, tours of the Freeman Store and Museum and “Roads to Rails to Trails” museum exhibit," according to the town.

An old-fashioned picnic is planned for after the dedication.

Patch will publish a full schedule of events later today. Stay up to date with our free daily email newsletter, or on Facebook and Twitter.