Todd’s Tavern Market /  by Todd Henson

Todd’s Tavern Market, a convenience store in Spotsylvania County, Virginia

Sometimes a name alone will draw me to a location. Care to take a guess what it was about Todd’s Tavern Market that drew my attention? 😊

Todd’s Tavern Market is a local convenience store in Todd’s Tavern, Virginia, within Spotsylvania County. It was once the location of Todd’s Tavern, a country inn and tavern that existed at the time of the US Civil War. You can read more about the Civil War history and some of the back and forth movement of troops as they moved towards Spotsylvania Court House in 1864 at a National Park Service webpage about the Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park.

Another view of Todd’s Tavern Market

One of the informational signs at the location quotes John D. Billings of the 10th Massachusetts Light Artillery, describing Todd’s Tavern as “an unpretentious structure one story and a half in height, with no merits, architectural or otherwise, to warrant its becoming a conspicuous landmark in the history of this campaign.” And yet here I am talking about it in that context. 😊

Fans of Joss Whedon’s Firefly and Serenity might enjoy the references to Confederate General Jubal Early, who threatened to attack Union General Winfield Hancock at the tavern but changed his mind when he saw the earthworks previously built up by the Union, and decided to head to Spotsylvania by another route.

George L. Frankenstein, a native of Germany who served in the Union army created a painting of Todd’s Tavern after the war, as seen on one of the signs.

A painting by George L. Frankenstein of Todd’s Tavern shortly after the Civil War

Below are the three Civil War Signs from the location if you want to learn more. Click on any image for a larger view.

Todd’s Tavern - Clash of Cavalry

Todd’s Tavern - Union Army Headquarters

Todd’s Tavern - March to Spotsylvania

And interestingly, the general area also has ties to the US Revolutionary War in 1781. Below is the sign describing this. 

Lafayette at Corbin’s Bridge, June 2-3, 1781

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Juvenile Red-tailed Hawk Cooling Off /  by Todd Henson

A juvenile red-tailed hawk cooling down in a puddle of water

Back on April 16 of 2017 while hiking the trails of Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge I was waved over by another photographer. He had found a juvenile red-tailed hawk that had landed in a puddle of water in the brush not far from the trail. Being in the brush it was a bit obscured so the photos may not graduate into the artistic realm, but they do provide some good views of this beautiful young hawk.

When the hawk stood tall it showed off its white chest feathers

A profile view of the juvenile red-tailed hawk

It's interesting the flexibility hawks have to twist their head and look straight up

Being a juvenile its tail feathers haven’t yet developed that striking rufous coloration the species is known for, though you can see hints of the color. This hawk was a very light colored one as you can see when it faces its chest towards the camera and in the one flight photo I captured (though the bird was blurry in the photo).

Every so often the juvenile red-tailed hawk would look straight at the camera.

Zooming and cropping in shows details of the hawk's head and shoulders

I spent about 40 minutes photographing this young hawk, going a bit overboard by capturing 250 images, many almost the same. When I first arrived it was standing in the puddle where it spent most of that time. It appeared to be cooling off. At one point it lowered itself and ruffled its feathers just as ducks do from time to time. It walked out of the puddle for a short bit before going back into it. Only about 37 minutes later did it take flight into some nearly branches before a few minutes later taking off for some other location.

The juvenile hawk had just lowered itself into the water and ruffled its wings, splashing the water all over itself

See how the young hawk blends into the brush?

Eventually the young hawk flew into a branch partially obscured by the brush

I love spending this much time with a single animal that isn’t at all concerned by my presence. I stayed put on the trail. It stayed put in the puddle just off the trail. And even though I did create too many images, it enabled me to get various views of the hawk and to share some of those with you. I hope you enjoy looking through these photos of a beautiful young red-tailed hawk.

When the young hawk bends over we can begin to see the early signs of the rufous coloration in its tail feathers

One final view of the perched juvenile red-tailed hawk before it flies away

Though the hawk is blurry, this photo does a decent job of showing the light coloration on the underside of the juvenile red-tailed hawk's wings

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Winston Memorial Chapel, Culpeper, Virginia /  by Todd Henson

A split-toned side view of Winston Memorial Chapel in Culpeper, Virginia. Given the age and look of the chapel I thought the split-toned processing might work well to accentuate the age.

In early September (2024) my father and I happened to drive by an old decaying chapel in Culpeper, Virginia, and I decided to turn around and find a place to photograph it.

The location is known as Winston Memorial Chapel, built in 1908 by the Winston family and dedicated to the memory of their son who died in 1906. It’s a beautiful stone building based on a Celtic style with a Celtic cross atop the bell tower. There is a small cemetery on the grounds to the left of the chapel.

At the time it was built the road out front was gravel but today it’s a fairly busy highway, which is what stopped me on this trip from attempting to cross the road to get photographs of the front of the chapel, something I’d very much like to do. But there isn’t a lot of space on that side of the road and when we visited there was a lot of high speed traffic, so I stuck to just the side view.

Please note if you ever visit this location that there are many no trespassing and private property signs around the walls and the building, so please respect that. The building and stone walls surrounding the property are falling into disrepair but the grass inside and outside the walls and around the gravestones is mowed, so there is some maintenance being done around the property.

Here we see a full color view of Winston Memorial Chapel and the small but busy and high speed highway out front.

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