There are only two periods of known photographs about St. George’s in the 19th century:
1. Civil War 1862-1864
2. Steeple Pictures 1888. These are views FROM St. George’s but unfortunately the unknown photographer did not take one of the church!
John Hennessey did 2 online posts about the “steeple pictures”. See extended article online of the photographs. Also below is the PDF of this first part.
He writes “In 1888 a photographer mounted the steeple of St. George’s Episcopal Church on Princess Anne Street and took a series of eleven panoramic images of Fredericksburg, spanning the compass. The panorama isn’t perfect–there are gaps–but it is as thorough a documentation of any Virginia town as exists from that period. Explored deeply, the panoramas are a gold mine, revealing a number of buildings since lost, a town still recovering from war, and a utilitarian landscape that has largely disappeared.”
The first article looks at the intersection of Caroline and Willia. He shows Dr. John Wallace Home. Dr. John Wallace was the father of two prominent St. Georgians A. W. Wallace, who served longer in the period after the Civil War than anyone else and Wistar Wallace who gave a stained glass window and the property for the Wallace Library across George Street from St. George’s. John Wallace was deceased when the 1888 pictures were taken.
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