Centre Hill, Petersburg, Virginia

Petersburg has such potential for a long-visit destination spot!  After nine months here in Virginia, we've made more trips back to Petersburg than any other location   One of the rarest gems here is Centre Hill.  Located on the high spot in the city center it is a home loaded with the most unique furnishings I believe we have ever seen in a single location.

This was the original formal entrance to the home; over the decades, for different reasons, the other side of the house became the entrance:

Never rush into a place - there's history to be seen on the outside, too.  The interpretive sign in the foreground tells you a bit:  Abraham Lincoln, wife Mary and their young son, Tad (he's the one that waved the Confederate flag from the Union's White House upstairs window - see our post of April 15, 2012, "A New Museum of the Confederacy.")  The Lincoln's came here on April 7, 1865.  Centre Hill was being used as the headquarters for the Union's commanding officer of the Petersburg garrison after the siege of Petersburg succeeded.  The Lincoln's would have entered through the original front door. 

Mary was accompanied by her confidante and dressmaker, Elizabeth Keckley.  She had been a slave in Petersburg before working for the president's wife.  I'm kind of a fan of the Lincoln's and was well aware of Ms. Keckley - but I don't think it ever registered with me that she was originally from Petersburg.  How things must have changed both in the look of Petersburg (especially after nine months of constant bombardment and shelling from the likes of "The Dictator."  See our post of October 10, 2011, "The Civil War Dictator."), and in the fact that she was now FREE!

Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, one of Lincoln's closest friends was also there with the Lincoln party.  Eight day after this visit, Lincoln would lay dying after being shot at Ford's Theatre.  Senator Sumner would be with him there, too.

We approach the museum entrance at the basement stairs and find what must be an absolutely ancient Crepe Myrtle tree.  The trunks are enormous, the cinnamon bark peeled away revealing wood of variegated colors.

 

They remind us of the rainbow bark trees on the island of Kauai.  I wonder if they're related??  I wish I had asked the museum guides if they had an idea of how old these trees really are.

Once inside we have no clue as to the treasures we are about to uncover...