In view of many thousands of motorists traveling daily by this Spotsylvania property along Interstate 95 just south of the city of Fredericksburg, Stirling is an anchor to the past for a region experiencing erosion of historic identity. The property is dominated by a prodigious hipped-roofed brick mansion erected in 1858-60 for John Holladay, a wealthy landowner. The house marks the end of plantation house construction in the area, activity stopped by the Civil War. Stirling is of special interest because it has remained in the same family, retaining its original interior architectural decoration and paint finishes. The family’s plantation account books document the sources of the materials used in the construction. Stirling’s conservative Georgian character may have been reinforced by the fact that John Holladay was fifty-nine years old when the house was started. The curtilage of the Stirling property preserves the original kitchen outbuilding and smokehouse, and the archaeological sites of other outbuildings.