The Strachan House

The Strachan House was built in 1841 by Rev. John Alexander Strachan, founder of Enon Baptist Church, who also preached to several other congregations in the area and was remembered in family stories for rowing across the Appomattox River to preach at Broadway with his dog swimming behind the boat. When the Union army occupied Point of Rocks in May 1864, a field hospital was established on the property and the house became the surgeon's quarters. Union troops demolished Enon Baptist Church and brought its lumber there for use in the hospital. The Strachan family was forced from the home and most of their possessions were destroyed. As fighting in the Bermuda Hundred Campaign intensified, the area around the house became a large open-air operating room, with the house, tents, and shaded orchard crowded with wounded soldiers and surgeons working far into the night. After the war, Rev. Strachan appealed for the return of his property, calling the land his homestead and birthplace and saying that everything else he owned had been destroyed. He and his family returned to Point of Rocks in 1866 and he spent the rest of his life there. The house remained in the Strachan family until 2013 and is listed on the National, State and County Register of Historic Places.

Virginia · United States