Show res to a aft wh 0 aam agm ach to ro I 1 rs MIM wm 1 g a J th I 1 C cam HiE ij 1 K 1 9 e i lH bals BM 7 1 lS 1 t r ZA cr or afe aa ORG r alff av ZA I 1 T by ELMO SCOTT WATSON 8 AMERICANS prepare to celebrate wa IV a a h it t 0 its birthday again it should tip he welcome news nes tor for them that jit a century and a half tidier the file christmas day tire fire which in 1784 destroyed wafefield Wale neld field the old colonial homestead in which the father of his country was born the foundations had been laid for or a new nev wakefield to rise upon the original nul site and by the tinie time of the great washington washing ton bicentennial celebration next bear 3 ear the restoration of this historic home will have been completed credit for or the elie restoration ot of wakefield is due principally to the jakc idela national memorial association which originated in the summer of 0 1923 among retA residents dents of 0 westmoreland county va who oho felt that it was a matter of national concern that birthplace was stilt stid comparatively unknown to most americans and that pictures of houses falsely represented as the birthplace were being published their cause ww x taken up by leaders in various patriotic organizations and high government officials slid and since that time plans for the restoration have hae gont conr forward steadily at the start the association faced a sarious difficulty for no one could say with certainty in what sort of house washington was born boim there were a wide variety of opinions s some aser asserting t that the Wake fit ll 11 house was only a mere cabin others that eliat it was a real colonial mansion and still others claiming that washington was not born bom at wakefield at all students of history however under the auspices of the as association beran began researches which led them to what they consider the truth of the matter no stone was left unturned and this familiar dang Is literally true in this case in the quest and no document however remote in its bearing m was left unexamined when all the evidence had apen collected sifted and used in 10 a final decision the actual plan was formulated then an architect was entrusted with the task of reproduce reproducing the house bouse and the plans which he drew up have been approved by the national fine arts commission the next task was to acquire the land upon which the restored home was to stand and this was made possible by john D rockefeller jr who purchased 2 acres ot of the wakefield estate and orga organized sized a corporation to hold the tract in trust for the wakefield organization the actual site of the house where a monument was waa erected with funds provided by a congressional appropriation has been under file jurisdiction of the war department part ment but early last sear the war department turned it over to the national park service of the interior department part ment which has officially designated it as the george washington birthplace national monument the national paik service Is operating cooperating co with the wakefield association and the united states commission for the observance of the two Anver adversary sary of the birth of george washington in fit the plans for rebuilding the ton family first settled on oil a part of the present pre wakefield Wake neld estate ef ante in march 1015 a fult full century before the revolution col john washington the great grandfather of if george washington ton had come to westmoreland va in akki lie died and was burled buried there in 1676 maj lawrence washington and maj john his sons succeeded him in hie elie ownership of wakefield after their marriages the family bied on separate ports parts of the wakefield estate until the house in which george washington was born bora was burned in after that the continued in other houses on the land and descendants still live on part of the same wakefield estate a continuous possession in whole or in part for aw years eight generations it was at wakefield then that grorge george washington was born on february 22 1732 according to the modern calendar 11 between eteen three and four years later inter the family moed to their estate of 2500 acres which embraced the present mount vernon there washington passed pas sed about tour four more years of his boyhood then lie he moved again with his parents this time to king george county ya va to an estate with a mansion house which had previously belonged to william strother located approximately two tva miles 75 I 1 I 1 V I 1 a it i ib j J t A 4 WA 57 ff distant eastward from fredericksburg this property his father augustine washington purchased on november 2 1738 and there augustine washington died in 1743 george washington lived there steadily until his fathers death att aft erward alternating its his stas there with his sojourns sojourne sojo urns with his big brother augustine washington jr at wakefield and with his mother on h her er estate at little falls on the rappa ha bandock bano ock when he was sixteen he be returned to mount vernon after passing some time in several places to his social interests in the counties of fairfax stafford king george westmoreland and fredericksburg including a visit of three months in the west indies and to ills his probes professional ional duties as off official iclal surveyor tor for the county of 0 culpeper and at large for lord fairfax and other in the upper northern neck of virginia as the historian expresses it he fie went back to mount vernon again having inherited it in 1752 1730 and other members mp tubers of the family lived on at wakefield until the fire cre on christmas day d ay iy in 1780 probably owing to its iti comparative inaccessibility in the past wakefield Wake neld has been neglected during most of the years that it has been known as ing tons birthplace ills his stepson step son placed a small tablet to mark the spot after the fire A farmer who ho 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 the united states government is concerned the first official action came in fit 1879 when congress appropriated for a monument two years passed then the resolution was re drafted making the appropriation pria tion ten times as much more bears passed finally in the the monument was built when the project tor for the bicentennial commemoration was formulated it was wag at once pointed out that the event evelia should take into consideration the alie birthplace of the roan man nhjose birth la is to be celebrated great importance has atta attained hed to the place where he died mount vernon but it is his birth that la Is to be commemorated in 1932 until the wakefield association began its work seven years yeara ago this historic estate luid had been sadly neglected As a part of its plan for the restoration the association secured permission from the war department to muke make excavations oo on the site of the house and these excavations established the fact that the house was of brick not as had be bc erroneously reported of wood quantities of brick had bad escaped the hands of visitors aag er for souvenirs because it was burled buried in the ground it was established that the brick had been made on the wakefield estate the bricks tor for the new wakefield will be produced from the original clay pit in fact so close will be the adherence to the model of the past that bricks of a peculiarly mottled surface burned with a liquid acid that forms a grayish grayl h fireproof glaze which were used where the heat was wa greatest around fireplaces and chimneys will be reproduced just as they v were ere in the original the exterior view of the house was decided upon only after research had established the details de det laila alls A f frontage about double the depth was indicated by the extant foundations these walls extend duin doun only a few feet below the surface and the fact that the surface at the present time averages ut at least a toot foot aboe elie level it had wheat young george ran across it owing to grading done for the monument clearly dehaes the basement story indicated by the small halt balf windows with such a basement indicated the conclusion followed that the first floor above was topped by an attic of a height sufficient clent to admit of four our bedrooms with dormer windows and chimneys through the outer end walls pro fireplaces the comparative lightness at af the foundations govern the height of the building of course all this moreover Is strictly in the virginia tradition of the perlo period d for that type of house was not uncommon in the first halt half of the eighteenth century the room in which george washington was aas born was at the I 1 left eft back corner of the house that Is to say the right front room from the other side for the house was double faced in the custom of the period with one front toward the highway and the other toward the water two front doors connected by a liall hall running across the house the kitchen outside will be rebuilt on the site of the foundation of the great chimney whose foundation Is still there outside the alie main foundation walls indicating that it was large enough to roast an ox in the care iker 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 ou exhibition hibi tion in the national museum tit t washington b A round table saved from wakefield at t the time of the fire and u which hach tradition in the washington family says was brought from england in lias has been presented by mrs 11 II L rust president of the wakefield association for placing in the house when it is reb restored the broken washington platter in the elie salt glaze in vogue in 1735 has been restored by potters and duplicates wilt will be soon available other piece of furniture and other belongings from the original house are doubtless extant to in various parts of the country and the association hopes by purchase or by gift to acquire them for the memorial these will be entered in the golden book of wakefield us as a recoil of the donor among the pictures that will be placed on oil the walls are a replica of gilbert stuarts portrait of washington asi as president and rembrandt peales lafayette painted in parts paris which have already been presented by sirs mrs L K graves and mrs H P W woodruff oo druff another project broje et apart from the rebuilding and re furnishing of the house which the wakefield association has undertaken Is the rebuilding of the ancient log house it will stand on the site bite of 0 a log house that used to be on the estate furthermore the association has ha 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 gIon family including the father ther of george we are burled buried the wakefield memorial association has asked the united states goern goi emment eminent to dredge and improve the harbor to admit visitation isi tation by boat from the potomac river to build an adequate wharf and to landscape the grounds ground after the present granite shaft has been removed from the site of the birthplace it Is expected that such operation cooperation co wilt will be given so that everything will be ready for the commemoration me mei of the lite two hundredth anniversary niver sary of 0 birth in 1932 1032 oft A by western wera newspaper paper alok |