CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

Bayne–Fowle House

historic house in Virginia, United States

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 1, 2026
Entity authorityQ4874651 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Bayne–Fowle House is a historic house located at 811 Prince Street in Alexandria, Virginia, United States. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 6, 1986. The Bayne–Fowle House is a masonry townhouse built in 1854 for William Bayne, an Alexandria-based commission merchant. It is noted for its fine mid-Victorian interiors and elaborate plasterwork. During the American Civil War the house was occupied by Northern troops and subsequently confiscated by the Federal government and converted briefly into a military hospital. Since 1871 it has been a private residence.

Background and history

William Bayne, a commission merchant and grocer in Alexandria, purchased the lot at 811 Prince Street in 1849. A house was constructed in 1854 but was sold to William H. Fowle, another commission merchant and the son of a Massachusetts businessman in 1855. The house served as his residence until the outbreak of the American Civil War, when he took refuge in Richmond. During the Civil War the house was occupied by Northern troops and occupied by the federal government.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Bayne–Fowle House” is historic house in Virginia, United States. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Bayne, Fowle and House, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1986, 1854, 1871, 1849—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Bayne, Fowle and House is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “historic house in Virginia, United States” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4874651. Authority coordinates are 38.804, -77.049. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1986, 1854, 1871 and 1849.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Bayne–Fowle House”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Bayne–Fowle House primary sources, Bayne–Fowle House archive and Bayne research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Bayne–Fowle House”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Bayne–Fowle House” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.