Show resto am 40 AN wash mill th I 1 2 k 1 1 an af 0 01 ift 41 A r k 0 tto abw by ELMO SCOTT WATSON A S AMERICANS prepare to W celebrate W a a h in g t 0 ns na c sass 1 4 i birthday again it should be H welcome news for them that just a century and a balf hal tatter after the christmas day Z fire which in 1780 destroyed wakefield the old colonial homestead in which the I 1 ather bather of his country was born th the e foundations had been laid for a ne new wa wakefield to rise upon the original alie ite and by the time of the great 04 washington bicentennial celebration next ext year the restoration of this his bis X ric home will haye have been completed credit tor or she the re restoration of wake IV eld Is due principally to the jakc field ald national memorial association which alch originated in the summer of 0 1923 23 among residents of westmore WO county va who felt that it was a matter of nati national conceio concern that birthplace was still comparatively unknown to most amer leans 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 gov crement officials and since that eliat time plans tor for the restoration lwe have gont gom forward steadily atthe at the start the association faced a Fer fellous lous difficulty for no one could say with certainty in what sort of house washington was born there were a wide variety of opinions some asserting that the wakefield house was only a mere cabin others that it was a real colonial mansion raid aid still others claiming that was not born at wakefield Wake neld A all student of history hoNe verC aler der the auspices of the researches which led them to what they consider the truth of the matter no stone was left unturned and this familiar baying Is literally true in this case in tile the quest and no document however remote in it its bearing was left unexamined when all the lie evidence cadence had bad been collected collect eil sifted and used in a final decision the actual plan was formulated then an architect was entrusted with the task of reproducing c the house and the plans which he drew up tip have been approved hy by th the e national fine arts aits commission the next task was to acquire the land upon which the restored home was wag to stand land and this was made possible by john jelin D rockefeller jr who purchased acres of the wakefield state estate and organized a corporation to hold the tract in trust for the wal wakefield w organization the actual site of the house where a monument wa was s erected with funds provided prodded by a congressional appropriation has been under the jurisdiction of the war department part ment but early last benr ear the war department turned it over to the national park service sen ice of the interior Int eilor department apartment part ment which has officially designated it as the george washington birthplace national monument the national park service Is operating cooperating co with the wakefield association anil the united states commission for the observance of at the two to hundredth anniversary of the birth of george washington in the plans for rebuilding wakefield the washington family first settled on a part of the present wakefield estate in march harch a full century before be fore the revolution col john washington the great grandfather of george washington had come to westmoreland va in 1 1650 ile he died and was buried there in 1076 maj lawrence washington and mil ma john washington ton his sons succeeded him in the ownership of wakefield after their marr marriages lages the family lived on separate parts of the wakefield estate Is until th the house in which george Wash washington inkton was horn born was wa burned in 1780 after that tie the gions continued in other hodies on tile land and deWend descendants ants still live on part ot of tile the same Wakefield estate a continuous possession in whole or in part for ago years eight generations I 1 I 1 it was at wakefield then that george washington was nas born bom 0 on february 22 1 1732 32 according to the modern rno d calendar between three and four fout years later the family moved to their estate of 2500 aches acres which embraced the present mount vernon there wellington passed about four more years of fals boyhood then again with his parents this time to io king george county va to an estate with a mansion house bouse which had previously belonged to william h w located approximately abely two miles distant eastward from fredericksburg this property his father augustine washington purchased kased on november 2 1738 and there augustine washington died in 1743 george washington lived ched there steadily until ills his fathers death afterward alternating ills bis stays there with his sojourns sojourne sojo urns with his brother augustine washington jr at wakefield and with ills his mother on her estate at little falls on the rappa hannock bandock when lie he was vas sixteen lie he returned to mount vernon after passing some time in several places essential to his social interests in ili the counties of fairfax staff stafford d king george westmoreland and F frad d ericksburg including a visit of ta three ee months in the besu indies and to topias his professional duties as off official lelal surveyor or for the county of culpeper and nt at large for or lord fairfax and othera in the upper northern thein nor neck of virginia as the historian expresses epi esses it he went back to mount vernon again having inherited it in 1752 and other members of the family lived on at wakefield eid until the fire on christmas day in 1780 probably owing to its comparative inaccessibility in the pat past pa t has been neglected during most of the years that it lias has been known as ing tons birthplace ills stepson step son placed a small tablet to mark the spot after the fire A farmer who later owned tile land saved it from the hands of the souvenir hunters the state of virginia planned to build a memorial but the civil war prevented presented this plan from being carried out so far as the united states govern go eminent me at Is concerned the first official action came in 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 blore years passed finally in the 00 the monument was built when the project for 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 mount vernon vemon but it is his birth that is to be commemorated in 1932 until the wakefield association began its work seven years ago this historic estate had been sadly neglected As a part of its plan for the restoration the association secured permission from the 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 had escaped the hands of visitors eager for souvenirs because it was burled buried in the ground it was established that the brick had bad been made on the wake held estate the bricks for the new Wake wakefield held will be product produced ed from the original clay pit in ili tact fact so BO 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 sh a reproof glaze which were used where the heat was greatest around fireplaces and chian chimneys ays eys will be reproduced just as they were ware in ift tit the original the exterior view of the house was decided upon only after research had established the det details alls A fronta frontage ge about double the depth was indicated by the extant foundations th these ese walls extend do down wn only a few feet below the surface and the tact fact that the surface nt at the present time averages at least a foot above the level it had when george Wash washington bigton ran across it owing to grading done tot the monument dearly de defines dewilles filles the basement story indicated by the small half windows with such a basement indicated the conclusion followed that the first floor above was topped by an attic of a height sufficient to admit of four bedi bea rooms with dormer windows and chimneys through the outer end walls providing 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 period for that type tipe of house was not uncommon in the first half of the eighteenth cen tury fury the room in which george washington ti on was born was tit at the left back I 1 orner corner of if the house that Is ti to rayj a the right front room from the other side for the house was double f faced ac in tile the custom of the period with one front toward the highway and the 0 ther other toward the lie water two front doors connected by a hall running ac across ross the house the kitchen outside will be rebuilt 0 on n tile the site of the foundation of the great chimney whose foundation I 1 la still there outside the main foundation walls indicating that it was large enough to roast an ox in the car caretaker 0 tal er will live there it was in ia that spot that the excavators excava tors found many pieces of broken crockery and bones some of these pieces are now on exhibition hibi tion in the national museum tit at washington A round table saved from wakefield at the time of the fire and which tradition in the washington family says sas was brought from england I 1 in eggo has haq been presented by mrs 11 II L rust president of the wakefield association for placing in the house 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 oilier belongings from the original house are doubtless extant in various parts of the country and the association hopps hopes by purchase liase or by gift to acquire them for the memorial these 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 1 L K graves and mrs H P woodruff another project apart from the re building and thi house which tile ithe wakefield association has hag undertaken Is tile the rebuilding of the ancient log house it will stand on the site of a log house that used to be on the estate furthermore the has purchased by formal de deed deedom edof of conveyance executed by the present washington heirs title to the family burial ground in tile the ancient a arched vault ten members of the washington family including the fp ff ther of george are burled buried the wakefield memorial has haa asked ald the united states government to dredge and improve the harbor to admit visitation by bout boat from froin the potomac river to build an adequate wharf and to landscape the grounds after the present granite shaft his has been removed from the site of the birthplace it is expected that such operation cooperation co will be given so 0 that everything wilt will bo be ready tor for the corn com atlon of the two hundredth an of Washing lions birth li it 1032 I 1 AD 0 by leitera west era Newt djs sper anlon C j |