Introduction
The Lee Hill Exhibit Shelter was constructed in 1962 as part of the National Park Service’s Mission 66 initiative to modernize its Parks in the lead up to the organization’s 50th anniversary in 1966. The structure marks the location of Robert E. Lee’s headquarters during the December 1862 Battle of Fredericksburg. Lee Hill is a part of the Fredericksburg Battlefield, one of the four battlefields that make up Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park. In the spring of 2021, I completed a documentation project on the shelter for Associate Professor Michael Spencer’s HISP 305: Historic Building Technologies class at the University of Mary Washington.
Archival Research and Documentation
The project began with archival research and documentation of the Lee Hill Shelter. A chain-of-title was completed and information was compiled on the history of the structure, including plans for the structure’s construction and sources describing the Mission 66 initiative. In addition to this research, photographic documentation was performed along with the creation of a measured drawing of the structure’s northwest elevation to aid in later analysis of the building. Those photos, along with the measured drawing, can be found below.
Material Investigation and Analysis
Following the archival research and documentation work, a material investigation was performed. This investigation examined the building’s materials, technologies, and systems in order to determine the date of its construction and alterations. This information was combined with the archival research and documentation from the first part of the assignment to produce a comprehensive narrative of the structure. This narrative analyzed the development of the shelter over time, as well as examining how it fits into both a local and national context. Special emphasis was placed on the structure’s construction as a part of the National Park Service’s Mission 66 initiative, and the melding of trends in local Fredericksburg architecture with the national “Parkitecture” trends of the Mission 66-era in the structure’s design and construction. The full narrative can be found below.
This project was completed in the spring of 2021 for Associate Professor Michael Spencer’s HISP 305: Historic Building Technologies class at the University of Mary Washington.
