Mary Washington Branch hosts Our Living Legacies

September 12-14, the Mary Washington Branch will be hosting the annual "Our Living Legacies". Titled "Characters and Craftsmen", this event will highlight people and crafts from our past.

Visit the Mary Washington House where Mary Ball Washington, mother of our first President, lived for seventeen years. An exhibit will feature a collection of late 19th-century quilts made by Dallie Belle Jennings Embrey, a local quilter. In addition, there will be an exhibit of needlework, including samplers provided by the Monticello Needlearts EGA Chapter and the Fauquier EGA Chapter.
On Saturday, members of the Rappahannock Colonial Heritage Society will provide living history interpretation in the house. Outside there will be children’s Colonial games and dancing.

The Fredericksburg Spinners and Weavers Guild will be giving demonstrations of their skills and showing finished works on Saturday and Sunday from 10 - 2 p.m.

Come view the Rising Sun Tavern From the Inside-Out. Colonial carpenter-cabinetmaker-joiner Glenn Hyatt will demonstrate methods by which the tavern was built and tools appropriate to the task. He will provide examples of joinery and pegs, period siding and roofing, doors, hinges, and other elements of colonial carpentry. There will be graphic displays of construction techniques and blueprints of the tavern. Mr. Hyatt will also lead "bare bones" tours of the basement for those interested. Glenn will be available Friday 12 - 4; Saturday 11 - 4; and Sunday 12 - 4.

In addition, discover which of Burnside’s artillery batteries shelled the tavern and see the holes they left in our rafters; Friday 12 - 4; Saturday 11 - 4; and Sunday 12 - 4.

At the Hugh Mercer Apothecary Shop, we will look at "The Many Faces of Hugh Mercer".

There are no known portraits of Hugh Mercer, but this exhibit will show you how artists of the 18th and 19th centuries envisioned his appearance.
Also tour the shop’s physic garden to learn of the medicinal plants Dr. Mercer might have employed.

The St. James' House is open 1-4 p.m. all 3 days.
Antique collectors will be available on Saturday and Sunday from 1 - 4 p.m. to give verbal evaluations of your treasures for $5 per item.
On view will be an exhibit honoring 19th-century local hero Matthew Fontaine Maury. He is known as "The Pathfinder of the Seas". This oceanographer, astronomer and Civil War Naval Commander was born in Spotsylvania County. Find out why Matthew Fontaine Maury’s portrait was turned upside down and face to the wall by the Salem Marine Society in Salem, MA.

There is a block ticket available. Adults $10, Students age 6-18 $5.

Our raffle prize this year is this beautiful reproduction of a Chippendale mirror hanging in the Rising Sun Tavern. It was crafted by Glenn Hyatt and is made from 100 year old cherry wood. You may view it in the Mary Washington House Museum Shop or www.apva.org/livinglegacies. Tickets are $1 each or 6 for $5. They may be purchased online or at any of the sites.

History Mystery at the Hollow

The APVA restoration crew discovered the initials"JHM" carved into a piece of window trim while working on the only intact 1763-1764 original window at the Hollow. Unfortunately, the trim piece was attached to the window in the 19th century, as evidenced by the cut nails used. Cheryl Sheperd, the architectural historian for the Hollow, was consulted. Her preliminary research suggests that the initials might belong to John H. Marshall, born to Elizabeth Markham Marshall at nearby Montblanc in 1866. She will further research the topic and keep us posted as to her findings.
The crew has also installed heart poplar siding to the West gable end of the Hollow. This involved setting corner trim and cutting the chimney stones against the wall back so the siding can be tucked behind them and then mortared tight. They used the original siding still intact on the Southwest corner of the Hollow and the early nail holes to reproduce the siding pattern that will be used over the whole house.

Cole-Diggs beautification

On August 21, 2008, Karl and Mike of the restoration department installed a new crawl space hatch in the courtyard of the Cole-Diggs house. The old hatch appeared to be pre- WW-II vintage, judging from it's old cut nails and the circular-sawn heart-pine construction. It had deteriorated very badly. It was no longer capable of holding paint, nor was it adequately supporting the masonry above it, as evidenced by the collapse of three of the interior bricks above it. The new hatch is all pressure-treated 3" by 9" pine, joined by mortise and tenon. Jon is still working at Smith's Fort. He has finished all of the exterior painting except for the cornice. He has also cleaned the garden fences, to give the plantation a clean, well kept appearance.

Smith's Fort Facelift et al

The restoration crew is deligently trying to diminish the deferred maintenance list before August 11th when they start the siding phase at the Hollow. They fixed the leak over Betty's head at the Cole-Digges on July 1st, which turned out to be a very poorly sealed flange for an air duct in the HVAC unit. Betty was so impressed with the aroma of the Geocel 2315 liquid rubber product we used that she is trying to find it in aerosol form to spritz in her office. The pictures you see are the exterior elements of Smith's Fort. It is our intention to repaint all of the exterior trim of the house. As you can see, it needed doing. Due to the weather and the extensive amount of scraping, sanding and window reglazing this job will take 3 men about 4 weeks to finish.

Scotchtown Monument

On the 27th of June, the restoration dept set the "Colonial Dames" plaque at Scotchtown on the brick pedestal they constructed. Scotchtown has a monument area, and this was installed in a manner as to compliment the two existing plaque monuments. This task took two men 4 days to do, mostly because there were 3 distinct phases of construction, each of which was dependent on the successful completion of the prior.

Marshall chimney works continues

Also had a chance to visit the John Marshall House on Friday to check on the ongoing roof repair. As Doug has previously reported, the chimney stack on the Courthouse side of the roof was found to have significant deterioration when the flashing was removed. As the scaffolding was in place and the time to make the repairs was right, we quickly engaged Davies Masonry to undertake the repairs. These photos were taken with my camera, but not by me. Being "height-adverse", I sent Doug up the 40 foot aluminum ladder with the camera where he enlisted one of the masons to take some photos of the work.

Tombstone Work Continues

I had a chance to visit Historic Jamestowne last Friday to check in on the ongoing restoration work on the tombs near the rear wall of the Memorial Church. Much has taken place since my last visit in early June . We choose to concentrate on the two tombs showing the most deterioration. Once the infill had been removed and the loose bricks and brick debris, there was pratcially nothing left to work with, so the tombs are being essentailly reconstructed. All usable bricks and pieces of stonework are being incorportated as possible. Davies Masonry is handling the project and Jon Miano of our restoration crew is assisting. This continues Jon's training in masonry work.