Brigadier General Evelyn P. Foote Commanding General Fort requests the pleasure of your company at a reception to present and Lady Fairfax on Friday, the third of March at half after two o'clock Fairfax Room Officers' Club Fort Belvoir,

R.S.V.P. Military: Army Green 664-1096 Civilian: Informal [,,, (; I

~Lord Fairfax visits-site of famed ancestor's Virginia home Army boasts plan to refurbish historical location with paths, markers Situated on a grassy knoll on the mili• ~ ~r1~~~~~~~~~~~ tary reservation In southern Fairfax ")' More than 200 years ago Col. WillJam County. all that Is left of Belvoir Mansion ~ ·Fairfax and his famJly llved on a grassy The manslon was Inhertted Jn 1757 by spokeswoman. dent of the then British colony, collect• his son. Col. George WJllJam Fairfax. Fairfax praised the restoration efforts lrtg customs levies for England In the are rows of stone and brick outlJntng the ~ spot of land overlooking the Potomac building's foundation. ~ River. who returned to England In 1773 upon by the U.S. Army during a tour of the south Potomac area. He was a presiding -<.. Hlstory and the present seemed to fallJngheir to ancestral estates there. grounds Friday. justice of the Fakfax court. Brig. Gen. Evelyn P. Foot, commander c..> fuse Friday when Lord Nicholas John A fire partially destroyed Belvolr Man• "It Is a great sadness to the famJly that In 1741. as burgess from Prince Wil• of Fort Belvotr, Invited Lord and Lady ~ Albert Fairfax. a direct descendant of the sion 10 years later. The remaining walls the house was destroyed," Fairfax said. liam County serving on the governor's Fairfax to the Army Installation to In• £ colonel, and Lady Fairfax walked about bf the structure fell vtctim to British "It ls entirely appropriate that Belvolr ls council of Vtrglnla,- WJllJamFairfax hel• spect plans to restore the grounds where the foundation of the house where the cannon during the . occupied and enjoyed by the U.S. Army ped craft legtslatron that carved the new the mansion once stood. County of Fairfax from the northern sec• colonel once IJved. The U.S. Army recently developed pre• In view of the fam!ly's military hlstory." "It Is not a matter of just preserving WJllJam Fairfax, whom historians ere• TheFairfax family played a major role tion of Prince Wl!IJamCounty . the site. but I want to Insure that people ~ lJminary plans to refurbish the the The American grandfather of the pre• ~ dlt as being among young George Wa• grounds of mansion site with new paths, In shaping VJrglnla during the 17th and who IJve and work here are educated on shington's earlJest mentors, erected the 18th centuries. sent Lord Fairfax re-established claim to 'the history of the grounds." Foot said. hlstortc markers and 18th-century style the Fairfax peerage In England In 1906. mansion about 1741. gardens, said Martha Rudd, Ft. Belvoir WillJamFairfax became a l~dlbg rest- He entered the In 1908. - See VISIT, Page AS

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By Ron Sinfelt-F5'otornac News Fort Belvoir museum curator John Dervan, center, describes Belvoir Mansion to Lord and Lady Fairfax, left. Lord Fairfax is a descendant of the house's owner, 's mentor:

VISIT From Page Al "Sometimes when Lwalk on the focused interest on the archl- ; grounds, I can almost swear that tectural design of the mansion, I hear George Washington on Dervan said, asking questions "History tells us this was one of horseback." Foot said. about the mansion's rooms. George Washington's favorite ' Ft. Belvoir museum curator places to come." John Dervan led the Fairfaxes on "It was a flesh and blood con• Belvoir Mansion was visited a walking tour of the site, ex• nection to figures I've been study• often by young George Washing- plaining the mansion's former ing and reading about," Dervan ton, who resided at the nearby. grandeur to the couple. said. "It created a link between Plantation. During the tour, the Fairfaxes the past and the present." THLRSOAl, MARCH 9, 1989 43 44 VIRGINIA WEEKLY

LORD OF ALL HE SURVEYS Nicholas John Albert Fairfax, the 14th Lord Fairfax of Cameron, last week visited the county that bears the family name. Al right, Lord Fairfax and Fort Belvoir commander Brig. Gen. Evelyn P. Foote unveil a sign marking the site of Belvoir Manor, home of Col (1691-1757). The ruins of the manor, accidentally burned in 1783 and shelled by the British during the War of 1812, are now a national historic site.

BY GEAALO MARTINEAU-lHE. WASHINGTON POST Lord Fairfax and Lady Annabel Fairfax examine a riding chair, a type of carriage, once owned by Thomas, the sixth Lord Fairfax (1693-1781), and now on display at Mount Vernon.

BY GERALD MARTINEAU-THE WASHINGTON POST Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Audrey Moore and James Scott, president of Fairfax Corporation, present Lord and Lady Fairfax a map of the Fairfax family lands in the 18th century. An earlier Lord Fairfax once owned all of Northern Virginia between the Rappahannock and Potomac rivers.

er LARRY MORRtS-TH( WASHINGTON POST Gazette Pocket/Stephenl onkenou Lord Fairfax, accompanied by his wife Annabel, review the honor guard at Fort Befvoir while visitingth e grounds his ancestors once owned. Lord Fairfax visits ancestral home

By STEPHEN LAN KE NAU William Fairfax and his wife, Gazette Pocket Stoff Deborah, are buried. Beyond the severe military ''I tis entirely Brig. General Evelyn P. Foot, structures of the Fort Belvoir who also spoke at the ceremony, Army installation, Nicholas appropriate, in view became interested in the historic John Albert Fairfax, the 14th site soon after becoming com• Lord Fairfax of Cameron, toured of my family's mander of Fort Belvoir in early the Belvoir mansion grounds and military history, October 1988, according to Lt. presented a short speech at a Col. James E. Van Sickle, Fort rededication ceremony held that the military Belvoir public affairs officer. March 3 at a wooded site over• "Preserving the historic site is looking the . connection should not only a matter of preser• A grand Georgian-style home vation, but also involves edu• built by Col. William Fairfax in be maintained here cating the people that live here of .. 1741 once rose above the remain• today at Fort the site's tremendous historical ing brick and stone foundation wealth," Foot said. outlines. Col. Fairfax built the Belvoir. '' "There are times, I swear, I estate while serving as land can almost hear George Wash• agent for the 6th Lord Fairfax, - Lord Fairfax ington coming in on horseback," who inherited 5.3 million acres of she said. Virginia land from his mother, Washington, whose Mount Catherine Culpeper. The Belvoir Lords member cited ties be• Vernon estate lies 3 miles to the (meaning "beautiful to see") tween his family and the Fort north, was a frequent visitor at mansion was destroyed by an Belvoir area in his brief speech. the Belvoir mansion, and was accidental fire in 1783. moved by its destruction. "Bel• The March 3 ceremony marks "It is entirely appropriate, in voir is no more' ... ruins indeed the beginning of expanded inter• view of my family's military his• they are ... When I viewed est in the the historic site, ac• tory, that the military con• them, when I considered that the cording to Martha Rudd, Fort nection should be maintained happiest days ofmy life had been Belvoir's public information here today at Fort Belvoir," he spent there ... I was obliged to officer. Rudd said plans for the said. fly from there," he wrote. site include professionally sur• Lord Fairfax linked his most The Belvoir mansion grounds, veying the foundations to ensure notable military ancestor, the now a National Historic Site, proper preservation, revamping 3rd Lord Fairfax, to the U.S. once consisted of the main house, foot paths surrounding the site, Army installation that dwarfs a detached office, a kitchen and a restoring the grounds in the Belvoir mansion property. smokehouse. 18th-century fashion, and de• The third lord commanded Eng• The grounds were excavated veloping interpretive signs and a lish parliamentary forces during twice. In 1931, a group cleared brochure for the site. A com• the civil war in England in 1642; away brush that covered the pletion date has not yet been set, Fairfax County, created in 1741, foundation and took some steps according to Rudd. was named for the sixth lord. to preserve it, according to Van Lord Fairfax, who arrived in Fairfax said he looks forward Sickle. Between 1971 and 1976, Virginia with his wife, Annabel, to revisiting Fort Belvoir to see Fairfax County students and March 2, has traveled through• the completed project firsthand. teachers. under the direction of out the United States on previous After the speech, Lord and Lady an archaeologist, made more ex• trips, but this was his first visit to Fairfax received a walking tour tensive excavations and un• Fort Bel voir. The 32-year-old of the grounds, ending at the earthed numerous artifacts, maritime lawyer and House of Fairfax gravesite, where Col. according to Rudd. • Wednesday, March 8, 1989 • • :· 'J ~. ~ ' ,:...- ( ;=- ! :- • THUISD.U, M~llOl 9, 1989

I.HD OF ALL Ht SURVEYS Nicllow .Job Albert F¢u. t.M 14~ Lord Fairfu Of Ca•eroa. lut week vili&M die eouty tlaat bean th r.. OJ u•e. At ri1llt. Lord Pairfu &Dd Fort Belvoir eo1miauder Bf'il. GeL ln1J11 P. Foote uveil a sip markial l.H 1i&e of Belvoir Manor, i.o.e of Col Williaa Fairfu (lltl·l757). Tiie..,... of tM llUOI', aeriiint.allY bane4 1111783 ... tlwUecl by tM BritWi •.n.c tM w., of 1112. an ..., a utioul rie tiw.