| Show wakefield made shrine worthy its memory the birthplace of NV washington ashIngton long remained a desolate and deserted spot on the banks of the P potomac sot set in the most beautiful environment viron ment of nature but with no one there save a few simple negro folk and ghosts of the past to tell its significance in the past the site has not been easy to find end lying some rolles miles south of tile the national capital wakefield was not shown on the maps there was little or no information available about this historic spot where washington was born and where he spent the greater part 0 of f his boyhood known by few it was difficult to get to except by water in the colonial era civilization followed the waterways and the homes of the plantation owners along the potomac were built upon some inviting spot close to its shores the broad river was their artery of commerce comfore wakefield burned be before fore railroads and high highways ways supplanted tho the river it was never rebuilt so when highways came they passed wakefield by so the birthplace remained neglected and forlorn until only a few years tears ago when the wakefield national memorial association was formed with the purpose of building on the original site as exact a replica of the house in which washington was born ns as painstaking research and tedious study would enable it and to restore the vast acres of the plantation to something mole moie of its condition in the days of ing tons boyhood house a mansion to reconstruct the home was a task of no easy proportion for many years very little reliable information was anas obtainable as to the size and character of the old structure there were a variety of opinions extant some contended it had been a cabin others a mansion some thought it was made of wood others that it was of brick and still others that it was a structure of combined wood aud and brick construction after considerable study however experts of the association arrived at what they believe to be the truth that the structure was of colonial brick of home manufacture excavations on the site established the nature of the construction and the type of brick used the bricks for the new wakefield are being produced from the original clay pit on the wakefield estate research also established that the house was a mansion of considerable proportions 1 after tile the style of the big virginia plantation homes of that period old colonial family many ot of the original furnishings saed fiam tile the fire are still in the hands of descend descendants ants of the family remaining in the neighborhood of the old mansion these have been turned over to the association the state of virg virginia enla has constructed a road to the site and the federal government has been asked to dredge and improve the harbor and to reconstruct the wharf in order to accommodate I by boat from the file potomac the washington family first t settled at wakefield in 1065 a full century before the fhe revolution col john washington great grandfather of the president had come to westmoreland va a in 1650 he died and was burled buried there in G maj lawrence washington and maj john washington his sons succeeded him after their marriages the family lived on separate parts of the wakefield estate until the house in which george washington was born bom burned after that the continued in other houses on the same land and descendants still live on part of the same wakefield estate a continuous possession in whole or in part for years eight generations mount vernon estate it was at wakefield then that george washington was born february 22 holi between three and |
