Style Weekly
White House of the Confederacy
1201 E. Clay St.
This imposing residence was built in 1818 for Dr. John Brockenbrough, a prominent banker. The Confederate government rented it to serve as the executive mansion and Jefferson Davis, his wife Varina, and their children moved here in August 1861. Every Wednesday evening the Davises entertained at a public open house. On the evening of April 2, 1865, after sending his family out of the city, Davis strolled through the house one last time before boarding a train with fellow Confederate officials for Danville. The next morning U.S. Maj. Gen. Godfrey Weitzel had moved his occupation operations into the house. Then, on April 4, Abraham Lincoln visited the former Confederate White House having walked up from the city docks at Rockett's Landing. The president had lunch here before visiting the Capitol, governor's mansion and Libby Prison, which was in Shockoe Bottom before its was moved to Chicago in the 1880s.
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