Richmond

Richmond, VA was the capitol of the Confederacy and the first (and only) president of the Confederacy had his home there. Jefferson Davis and his family didn’t live in the place too long – he somehow didn’t complete his term in office – but while he did live here many meetings took place in these rooms among Davis and his generals. After Richmond fell (Davis and family skedaddled a couple of days earlier) the Union army moved into the house and a few days after that, President Lincoln spent some time here.

After the Union left, the house became a school and eventually wound up in private hands and opened for tours. Presently, the house is dwarfed by the Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center, which probably covets the ground it’s on, if not publicly then in closed-door meetings. But since the house is preserved and on the National Registry of Historic Places,  the medical center will never be able to expand it’s emergency department onto this piece of land.

Interestingly, the big iron pipe next to the house is actually part of the propeller shaft of the Merrimac.