Show w w w aff ar birthplace JL n f y tol GORG afas T by ELMO SCOTT WATSON AMERICANS prepare to celebrate AS birthday again it should be welcome news for them that just a century and a half after the christmas dav fire which in 1780 destroyed wakefield the old colonial homestead in which the bather of his country was born the foundations had been laid for a new wakefield to rise upon the original cite and by the time of the great washington bicentennial celebration next year the restoration of this historic home will have been completed credit for the restoration of wakefield Is due principally to the wake field rational memorial association which originated in the summer ot 1923 among residents of westmoreland county va who felt that it was a matter of national concern that washington s birthplace was still comparatively unknown to most americans and that pictures of houses falsely represented as the birthplace were being published their cause was taken up by leaders in various patriotic organizations and high government officials and since that time plans for the restoration have gone forward steadily at the start the association faced a serious difficulty for no one say with certainty in what sort of house washington was born there were a wide variety of opinions tome assert ing that the wakefield house was only a mere cabin others that it was a real colonial mansion and still others claiming that washington was not born at wakefield at all students of history however under the auspices of the began researches which led them to what they consider the truth of the matter no stone was left unturned and this familiar saying Is literally true in this case in the quest and no document however remote in its bearing was left unexamined when all the evidence had been collected sifted and used in a final decision the actual plan was formulated alien an architect was entrusted with the task of reproduce ing the bouse and the plans which he drew up have been approved by the rational line arts commission the next basl was to acquire the land apon which the restored home was to stand and this was made pos elble by john D rockefeller jr who purchased acres of the wakefield estate and organized a corporation to hold the tract in trust for the wake field organization ahe actual site of the house where a monument was erected with funds provided by a con gressional gress lonal appropriation lias been un the jurisdiction of the war department part ment but earl last 5 ear the war department turned it over national park service of the interior de apartment part ment which has officially bated it as the george washington birthplace national monument the national park service Is co operating with the wakefield association and the united states commission for the observance of the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of george washington in the plans for rebuild ing wakefield the washington family first settled on a part ef the present wakefield estate in march a full century before the revolution col john washington the great grandfather of george washington had come to westmoreland a in he died and was burled there in 1670 maj lawrence washington and maj john washington his sons succeeded him in the ownership of after their marriages the family lived on separate parts of the wakefield estate the house in which george washington was born was burned in 1780 after that the continued in other bouses on the land and descendants still live on part of the came wakefield estate a continuous possession in whole or in part tor years eight generations it was at wakefield then that george washington was born on peb auary 22 1732 according to the rood ern calendar between three and tour years liter the family moved to their estate of 2500 acres which embraced the present mount varnon there washington pa ased about four more years of his boyhood then he moved again with his parent this time to king george county va to an estate with a mansion house which had previously belonged to william ft located approximately two miles 1 A distant eastward from fredericksburg ahls property his father augustine washington purchased on november 2 1738 and there augustine washing ton died in 1743 george washington alv ed there steadily until his fathers death aft erward alternating his stays there with his sojourne sojourns sojo urns with his brother augustine washington jr at wakefield and with his mother on her estate at little falls on the hannock when he was sixteen he returned to mount vernon after passing some time in several places essential to his social interests in the counties of stafford king george westmoreland and fred ericksburg erichsburg erichs burg including a visit of three months in the west indies and to his professional duties as official surveyor for the county of culpeper and at large for lord and others in the upper northern neck of vir glela as the historian expresses it he went back to meant vernon again having inherited it in 1752 and other members of alie family lived on at wakefield until the firc on christmas day in 1780 probably owing to its comparative inaccessibility in alie past wakefield has been neglected during most of the years that it has been known as wash Ing tons birthplace ills step son placed a small tablet to mark the spot after the fire A farmer who later owned the land saved it from the hands of the souvenir hunters the state of virginia planned to build a memorial but the civil war prevented this plan from being carried out so far as alie united states government Is concerned the first action came in 1879 when congress appropriated for a monument two years passed then the resola uon was re drafted making the appropriation pria tion ten times as much more years passed finally in the 00 the monument vis built when alie project tor the bicentennial commemoration was formulated it was at once pointed out that the event should take into consideration the birthplace of the man whose birth Is to be celebrated great importance has attached to the place where he died but it Is his birth that is to be commemorated in 1932 until the wakefield association began its work seven years ago this historic had been sadly neglected As a part of its plan for alie restoration the association secured permission from alie war department to make excavations on the site of the house and these excavations established the fact that the house was of brick not as had ben erroneously reported of wood quantities of brick biad escaped the hands of visitors aag er for souvenir because it w as burled in the ground it was established that the brick had been made on the wake field estate the bricks for the new wakefield will be produced from the clay pit in fact so close will be the adherence to alie model of the past that bricks of a peculiarly mot tied surface burned with a liquid acid that forms a grayish fireproof glaze which were used where the heat was greatest around fireplaces and chimneys will be reproduced just as they were in the original the exterior view of he house was decided upon only after research had established the details A frontage about double alie depth was indicated by the extant foundations these walls extend down only a few feet below the surface and the fact that the surface at the present time averages at least a foot above the level it had when young george washington ran ass mss across it owing to grading done lot the monument really defines the basement story indicated by the small half windows with such a basement indicated conclusion followed that the first floor above was topped by an attic of a height sufficient to admit of tour bedrooms with dormer windows and ahlm through the outer end malls providing fireplaces the comparative lightness at the foundations govern the height of the building of course all this moreover Is strictly in the virginia tradition of the period for that type of house was not uncommon in the first half of the eighteenth cen tury the room in which george washington was born was at the left back corner of the house that Is to say the right front room from the other side for the house was double faced in alie custom of the period with one front toward the highway and the other toward the water two front doors connected by a liall running across the lionie the kitchen outside will be rebuilt on the site of the foundation of the great chimney eliose foundation Is still there outside the main foundation walls indicating that it was large enough to roast an ox in the caretaker will live there it was in that spot that the excavators excava tors found many pieces of broken crockery and bones some of these pieces are now on exhibition hibi ashington tion in the museum at A round table saved from wakefield at the time of the fire and w alch tradition in the washington family says was brought from england in 1000 hai been presented by mrs II 11 L bust president of the wakefield association for placing in the bouse when it Is restored the broken washington platter in the salt glaze in vogue in 1735 has been restored by potters and duplicates will be soon available other pieces of furniture and other belong ings from the original house are doubtless extant in various parts of the country and the association hopes by purchase or by gift to acquire them tor the memorial will be entered in the golden book of wakefield as a record of the donor among the pictures that will be placed on the walls are a replica of gilbert stuarts portrait of washington as president and rembrandt peales lafayette painted in paris which have already been presented by mrs L K graves and mrs H P woodruff another project apart from the rebuilding and re furnishing of the house which the association has undertaken Is the rebuilding of tho ancient log house it will stand on the elte of a log house that used to be on the estate t furthermore urther more the has purchased by formal deed of conveyance executed by the present washington heirs title to the family burial ground in the ancient arched vault ten members of the washington family including the fa ther of george are burled the wakefield memorial association has asked alie united states government to dredge and improve the bar bor to admit visitation by boat from the ac river to build an adequate wharf and to landscape lind the grounds after the present granite ehatt has been removed from the site of the birthplace it Is expected that such operation cooperation co will be given so that everything will be reada for the corn of the two hundredth anniversary niver sary of birth it 1932 0 by ablon |