At 15, Elmer Grimsley Heflin was working as a carpenter in Fredericksburg, his hometown. By 18 he was a building contractor. Later he taught himself architecture through a correspondence course and went on to design and build homes and commercial buildings across the city. Most people knew him as Peck. The Historic Fredericksburg Foundation, Inc. has built its 56th annual Candlelight Tour around him, and the tour runs December 12 and 13.
You may already pass his work on a regular walk. Within two blocks of Washington Avenue, four houses come from the same builder, and he put up three of them in the space of about two years. You can see them from the sidewalk any afternoon this month. With them in mind, the ticketed tour in December becomes a second visit to a builder you already know.
A builder's run on Washington Avenue
Virginia's Department of Historic Resources documents this stretch in its Washington Avenue Historic District nomination, which names the builders where it can. Heflin's name comes up again and again. The houses below are private homes, so this is a walk to take from the public sidewalk.
| Address | House name in the DHR record | Date | Heflin's role |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1311 Washington Avenue | A.P. Rowe House | 1904 | Designer, per surviving drawings |
| 1206 Washington Avenue | E.J. Cartwright House | 1905–1906 | Builder |
| 1305 Washington Avenue | Charles W. Edrington House | 1906 | Builder |
| 1200 Washington Avenue | Victor M. Moon House | 1916–1917 | Builder, to Philip N. Stern's design |
The A.P. Rowe House is the earliest firm date in the group. The Central Rappahannock Regional Library's Washington Avenue street history dates it to 1904. Drawings that still survive show Heflin designed it. The Edrington House followed two years later, in 1906. In those same years he was also building the house that stands out most on the avenue.
The stone house at 1206 came from up the river
The DHR nomination calls the E.J. Cartwright House at 1206 Washington Avenue "one of the most imposing residences on Washington Avenue." It is a 2.5-story stone house in the Chateauesque style. It has an angled square corner tower, a steep hipped roof, conical-roof dormers, a semicircular stone bay on the north side, and a slate roof topped with decorative iron cresting and finials.
The stone's history is the part most worth knowing on the walk. E.J. Cartwright was a partner in Cartwright and Davis, a quarrying business. Around 1900 the partners bought the Battlefield Granite Company, which worked a quarry several miles up the Rappahannock. The cut stone came down to their yard near town on the old Fredericksburg Navigation Company canal. "Battlefield Granite" paved city streets and went into monuments and mausoleums around the region. Heflin built Cartwright's own house out of it in 1905 and 1906.
So 1206 is built from the river corridor, by a builder born in the same town, for the man whose company quarried the stone.
1200 Washington Avenue, the house only VIP tickets open
A decade after the stone house, Heflin built the red-brick Craftsman house at 1200 Washington Avenue, around 1916 and 1917. Local architect Philip N. Stern designed it for Victor M. Moon, who worked as a traveling salesman. It has a green ceramic tile hipped roof, wide eaves with scroll-sawn rafter tails, and a Craftsman door hood over an off-center entrance.
Cecil L. Reid and Caroline Gibson Reid lived in the house from 1928 to 1971. Cecil Reid was an engineer who came to Fredericksburg in 1906. He designed the Embrey Dam on the Rappahannock and oversaw its construction, which finished in 1909, and he later spent nine years on City Council.
The Candlelight Tour gives this house its own time slot. Saturday evening VIP ticket holders can tour 1200 Washington Avenue from 5 to 7 p.m. on December 12.
Two Heflin footnotes off the avenue
Heflin's best-known act of preservation came on a different street. A Free Lance-Star photo caption reports that in 1924 he had the classic Italianate house now at 505 Charlotte Street moved there so it would not be torn down.
The other footnote is about family. Peck was not the only builder in the household. FXBG Advance reported that 708 Littlepage Street was probably built by Charles Heflin, Peck's older brother. If you see "Heflin" on a house history around town, check which brother it means.
How the December tour works
According to the FXBG event listing, the daytime tour opens five decorated homes:
- 706 Cornell Street
- 800 Cornell Street
- 810 Sylvania Avenue
- 904 Sylvania Avenue
- 808 Prince Edward Street
Check-in is at Memorial Park, 1401 Kenmore Avenue. Tour hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, December 12, and noon to 4 p.m. on Sunday, December 13. General tickets cost $40, and the optional Saturday evening VIP add-on costs $35. The VIP add-on includes the 1200 Washington Avenue visit, followed by a downtown pub crawl from 6 to 8 p.m. with two drink tickets to use at Alpine Chef or Colonial Tavern. HFFI put tickets on sale November 1 and sells them through its Candlelight Tour page. Proceeds support the foundation's work to preserve and protect Fredericksburg's historic buildings.
The tour began in 1970. That year the former Junior Board of what was then Historic Fredericksburg, Inc. wanted a new way to raise money and chose winter so it wouldn't compete with the spring Virginia Garden Week tour. Mary Wynn McDaniel chaired the board's Ways and Means Committee. She and her husband, Charles, opened their home, the Sentry Box at 133 Caroline Street, and Grace Spicer opened 136 Caroline across the street. HFFI quotes McDaniel on why candlelight made sense: "in daylight, there were a lot of things you didn't want people to see: candlelight meant that your didn't need perfection."
Saturday, December 12 is the busiest day downtown
The tour shares its Saturday with the 5th Annual Downtown Cookie Crawl, which Fredericksburg Main Street hosts. The crawl runs from 3 to 7 p.m., with check-in at the Fredericksburg Visitor Center, 601 Caroline Street. Tickets are $50 plus processing, and crawlers should arrive at the check-in time printed on their ticket. Each ticket includes a bag for 13 treats, and Sweet Reasons, Orofino and Agora are among the stops.
Here is one way to fit everything into that Saturday:
- Start at Memorial Park when the daytime tour opens at 11 a.m. and visit the five homes on Cornell, Sylvania and Prince Edward.
- On your own time, walk past 1311, 1305, 1206 and 1200 Washington Avenue from the sidewalk.
- Head downtown for your Cookie Crawl check-in at 601 Caroline Street during the 3 to 7 p.m. window.
- With the VIP add-on, be at 1200 Washington Avenue between 5 and 7 p.m., then use your drink tickets at Alpine Chef or Colonial Tavern before 8 p.m.
The rest of the downtown holiday calendar
The holiday trolley is back for Thanksgiving weekend. Fredericksburg Main Street and Trolley Tours of Fredericksburg run a free shuttle from 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on November 27, November 28 and December 19. It loops between the former PNC Bank lot on Fall Hill and the VRE lot off Prince Edward Street, with five stops in the Main Street District. November 28 is also Small Business Saturday downtown.
The Fredericksburg Christmas Parade starts at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, December 5. This year's theme is "A Timeless Christmas," and the parade runs along Caroline Street and Princess Anne Street. Fredericksburg Parks, Recreation & Events is organizing it.
You can also play Window Wonderland through the whole season by solving riddles posted in participating shop windows. The grand prize is $1,000 in downtown gift cards. The FXBG Holiday Shopping Passport runs through December 31. Collect stamps in the Visit Fredericksburg app at five different participating businesses to qualify for prizes.
If you'd like to know who built your own house, or you're thinking about buying or selling an older home on these streets, Coldwell Banker Elite works with historic homes across Fredericksburg and can help you understand the house you're in or the one you're looking at. Schedule an Appointment, and enjoy the tour.
