The Manning House

The Manning House. . On this spot for many years stood the home of William Silas "Bill" Manning and his family. Born into slavery in King George County about 1856, the son of Sampson and Winnie Hampton Manning, William was the pilot of a tugboat on the Rappahannock, a farmer, and a successful builder and landlord in Tappahannock. In the 1890s, Manning purchased this lot on Prince Street and constructed the two-story, Victorian style house where he and his second wife, Harriet Beale Manning, a dressmaker from Tappahannock, raised ten children., This property remained in the Manning family for three generations. In 1896, Manning also bought fourteen acres of land along Marsh Street and Croxton's Mill Road (now Airport Road) for a farm. One quarter acre of this tract was set aside for the Manning family cemetery located on Marsh Street, adjacent to the west side of the First Baptist Church Cemetery. Here are buried Harriet, who died in 1922, and William S. Manning who died in 1929. Manning Street in Tappahannock was once the lane that led to their farm., (captions) , Manning House, 129 Prince Street, April 1972, by R. Selden. Courtesy of Wesley E. Pippenger and the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, The west side of the house seen in an aerial view, taken the day of the Downing Bridge opening ceremony, February 16, 1927. Prince Street is on the right. Courtesy of Richmond County Museum, William S. Manning, seated, about 1920, and an unknown man. Courtesy of Keith Wheeler and Bessida Cauthorne White, A tugboat of the 1890s. Courtesy of Newport News Shipbuilding