Tal Day, Editor Fall 2018

The Trust for Historic Preservation and The Lee-Fendall House Museum and Garden: Celebrating Fifty Years Carter B. Refo

Introduction the Lee-Fendall House with Harry and the Lee As new social perspectives on American family in Alexandria were reasons, among history have evolved, the Lee-Fendall House others, that she believed the home should be has proven to be an unusually rich resource for saved and should become a historic house mu- understanding how social change and seum. historic events were experienced in Alexan- John L. Lewis, founder of the United Mine dria.1 Fifty years ago, on July 14, 1968, Jay Workers and one of the most historically sig- W. Johns, a wealthy Pennsylvanian and leader nificant labor leaders in American history, was in preserving eminent Virginians’ homes, then the occupant of the property that is now founded the Virginia Trust for Historic Preser- known as the Lee-Fendall House Museum and vation at the urging of Frances Shively, a do- Garden. Lewis, then 88 years old, was alone cent in the Lee Boyhood Home house mu- and in ill health, estranged from his son, John seum,2 which Johns had previously helped L. Lewis, Jr., the legal owner of the property purchase and establish through his Lee-Jack- subject to his father’s life estate. son Memorial Foundation. Shively feared that the historic property, Francis Shively had over many years de- now acclaimed for its distinctive architecture veloped great admiration for Henry “Light incorporating rural vernacular, Horse Harry” Lee III, the father of Robert E. Greek Revival and Italianate influences, Lee, and a one-time owner of the land that the would be sold and demolished after Lewis’s Lee-Fendall House sits on. The connection of death. By enlisting Johns’ support for the

 Carter Refo has been on the VTHP board since 2004. He graduated from St Stephens School and from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1965. During his 30-year career in the Navy, he served as a Naval Aviator, commanding a squadron, airwing and two ships, retiring in 1995. After the untimely death of Dr. Paul Reber in 2015, Carter was asked to be the executive director of Stratford Hall while a replacement was found, a position he held for nearly a year. Carter and Paula, his wife of 53 years, make their home in Warrenton, Va. John Christiansen, the Director of The Lee-Fendall Museum and Garden, has assisted in locating materials in Museum files cited in this article. establishment of The Virginia Trust for His- few part-time assistants helped with tours and toric Preservation as an acquisition vehicle,3 other matters. Shively intended to prevent that. Tours were 50 cents. Only the first floor Thanks to Shively’s initiative and the sup- was open for visitors, and it was essentially port from Jay Johns, the Lee-Fendall House empty of furnishings. All of Lewis’s personal Museum and Garden now exists as a distinc- possessions, including the antiques collected tive and unique resource illuminating both its by Myrta Lewis, his wife, had been shipped to connections with the and the inter- Milwaukee and sold at auction. ests in broader social issues affecting Alexan- To help furnish the Museum, Shively dria and the Nation that have evolved since reached out to The Society of the Lees of Vir- then. The early history of the Museum is a tes- ginia, the family most closely connected with tament to Francis Shively’s imagination and the home from 1785 through 1903. With the perseverance. With the passage of time since help of the membership, the Museum acquired then, the significance of the home in the saga furniture with Lee Family connections, but in of the Lee Family in Alexandria that was the only a few instances were those connections to original inspiration for the Trust has been en- Lee family members who had actually lived in riched and extended through a growing appre- the home.6 In the years since, the collection ciation for the roles of the home’s owners and was first refined to interpret the home as it occupants throughout national and Alexandria might have been furnished in the early 1850s history. following its purchase and renovation in then fashionable taste by the wealthy Alexandria Acquisition and Early Challenges merchant, Louis Cazenove and his wife, Har- Four years after John L. Lewis’s death in riet Stuart, one of the many residents of the June 1969 and just after the last tenants va- home with Lee Family connections.7 Cur- cated the house, with financial assistance from rently, the Museum is being furnished to en- 4 the Commonwealth and the City, the Trust compass the whole history of the house. acquired the Lewis property with the aim that Adding to the challenge during those early it operate as the Lee-Fendall House Museum years was that the Museum, notwithstanding and Garden. It opened to the public one year its historic significance, was not listed on the later, in 1974.5 National Historic Register. Ultimately with From the beginning, the Museum experi- help from Clement Conger, a member of the enced unexpected challenges. When the Trust Trust board and curator of the White House was established, it was understood that Johns and the State Department Diplomatic Recep- intended to endow the upkeep and operations tion Rooms, the necessary paperwork was of the Museum. Johns died, however, without eventually submitted to the Department of In- having executed the necessary codicil to his terior, and the Museum gained its listing, will; and the Trust received nothing from his in 1979. estate. The Museum accordingly was forced The application narrative,8 substantially from the outset to operate on a financial basis drafted by Frances Shively, noted the promi- that was austere, even for house museums. nent role of Philip Richard Fendall in Federal The first director of the Museum was Period Alexandria as a friend and attorney for Frances Shively. She served without compen- , a founder of the Bank of sation and lived in what had been John L. Alexandria, and a Director of “Washington’s Lewis’s home office, on the second floor. A Potomac Canal Company,” and brother-in-law of Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee. The

2 narrative particularly noted that it was in The Lee Family in Federalist Alexandria Fendall’s home that Harry had written the In April 1789, in the home of his good farewell address to Washington from his fel- friend and cousin, Philip Fendall, Harry Lee low-citizens of Alexandria that was then deliv- wrote out the farewell address to George ered when Washington left to Washington from his Fellow Citizens of Alex- be inaugurated as the Nation’s first President andria that was later delivered at Wise’s Tav- in April 1789. ern on the eve of Washington’s departure from In addition to noting other Lee family con- Mount Vernon to be inaugurated as the Na- nections with the home during the years tion’s first President under the new Constitu- through 1903, the applica- tion.9 Fendall had built the home tion noted the sale to Robert four years earlier on one of three F. Downham, “of a promi- half-acre lots purchased in Alex- nent Alexandria family,” andria by Harry on November and the sale in 1937 to 13, 1784. It was only three “Mrs. John L. Lewis.” The weeks later that he sold one of narrative omitted mention the lots purchased from Baldwin of seizure of the home dur- Dade, an Alexandria merchant, ing the Civil War and its to Philip Fendall, on December conversion into a Union 4, 1784. hospital. Alexandria’s growing econ- With its entry onto the omy may not have been the only National Historic Register, impetus for the Fendalls’ move the Museum at last became to Alexandria from Stratford eligible for grants from Hall. In 1784, Philip Richard sources that had previously Fendall and Elizabeth Steptoe denied assistance to the Mu- Fendall, the widow of Philip seum during those early Ludwell Lee, were living at years of especially difficult Stratford Hall together with her Figure 1. Francis Shively in the Lee-Fendall struggle. As with other House. Credit: Washington Star daughter, Matilda, and her hus- house museums that are not Photographer Ray Lustig band Harry. Philip Richard operated by government en- Fendall was a grandson of tities, support for the Museum’s operations Philip Lee, an older brother of Thomas Lee continues to come from tour admissions, rent- and . He and Harry were second als for private events, and a modest gift shop. cousins. When Harry married Matilda, Fendall However, without grant support and member- became his father-in law.10 Setting up a sepa- ship donations, the Museum would be unable rate household may have had great appeal, and to continue to operate. In this respect, as its Alexandria’s economy was growing.11 programs evolve to reach new generations and Philip Ludwell Lee, son of Thomas Lee, incorporate new understandings of the history the builder of Stratford Hall, had died intestate illuminated by the Museum, the Lee-Fendall in 1775 with unsettled debts, which had com- House Museum and Garden shares the chal- plicated settlement of the estate and transfer of lenges of most historic house museums nation- title to Stratford Hall. Sometime during 1783- wide. 84, Harry and Matilda had reached an agree- ment that Stratford Hall would be transferred to them conditioned on their assumption of

3 debts that had entangled the property since significantly; by 1787 the number of slaves well before 1750. The settlement cleared the owned by Fendall on the tax record was 17. way for Harry and Matilda to take clear title.12 The smallest section of the main dwelling, The Fendalls were among several members adjacent to the kitchen, was designated as liv- of the Lee Family to migrate up the Potomac ing space for household servants. As late as to Alexandria. Construction of their home 1820, when Mary Bland Lee Fendall most likely started in the spring of 1785 and (“Molly”) occupied the home as a widow, must have gone very quickly. George Wash- seven enslaved people lived on the property ington’s diary records that he dined at the who were enumerated in the Federal Census home on November 10, 1785, less than a year by name.16 The Museum in recent years has after Fendall’s purchase of the lot. No extant been able to cooperate effectively with the Al- records indicate the name of an architect or the exandria Black History Museum because it builder of the house. has relatively good In its form and foot- records both for print, the home re- numbers of enslaved sembles vernacular people living on the three-section “tele- site and for where scopic” farmhouses they lived and surviving in Mary- worked. land from that pe- Phillip Fendall’s riod. As the home relationship with was contemplated to Figure 2. Schematic of Lee-Fendall House and Outbuildings George Washington function as a self-sus- Source: Mutual Assurance Company 1796 was especially taining manor with close. Throughout additional produce from a small kitchen farm their lives, they frequently dined at one an- nearby,13 the form was appropriate. other’s homes. When Elizabeth grew ill in The earliest extant plan of the house and 1787, Washington offered the use of one of property appears on a 1796 Fire Assurance his jennies to provide asses milk for Mrs. map that shows the three sections of the main Fendall. This remedy may have been among dwelling and a number of wooden outbuild- those featured along with Lee family recipes ings respectively designated as a stable, an of- in some of the first Museum programs con- fice building, a pigeon house, a rabbit house, ceived by Frances Shively.17 and an unlabeled building that was probably a Elizabeth Steptoe Fendall died in May of privy.14 1789 while on a trip to Stratford.18 Two years We can presume that the home was con- later in 1791, Fendall married Mary Bland Lee structed with skilled slave labor. Fendall may (“Molly”), another Lee cousin. Born at have owned some of these slaves himself. Tax , Molly was the eldest daughter of records indicate that Fendall owned 51 slaves Henry Lee II and Lucy Grymes.19 In order, her in 1785.15 Given the speed with which the older brothers were Henry Lee III, Charles home was constructed, Fendall may also or al- Lee and Lee. ternatively have contracted with other slave The years following the Revolutionary War owners for labor as well. It is notable that were a time when Philip Fendall and his Lee within two years of the home’s completion, family in-laws were well-positioned both fi- the number of Fendall-owned slaves dropped nancially and politically. Fendall became Sec- retary of the Potomac Canal Company when it

4 was formed by George Washington in 1785. Remarkably, the family was able to send In April 1793, Fendall became the first Presi- Philip Jr. to Princeton, where he was in attend- dent of the Bank of Alexandria; he was as well ance during the summer of 1814 when the Al- an active investor in “western” lands. Philip’s exandria City Fathers’ capitulation to the good friend, George Washington, was Presi- Royal Navy saved Molly’s home and other dent under the newly ratified Constitution; private homes in Alexandria from destruction. Molly’s brother, Light Horse Harry, was Gov- By 1825, Molly was completely destitute and ernor of Virginia (1791-1794); another moved across the River to a rooming house, brother, Charles Lee, became Attorney Gen- dying there on November 10, 1827. She was eral (1795-1801); and another younger buried in the family plot set aside in the family brother, , was a Congress- farm. man from Virginia (1789-1795). Despite the hardship, Philip Jr. graduated Life in the Fendall home was joyful as from Princeton and entered law practice. On well. Molly was mother to two young chil- March 31, 1827, a few months before his dren, Philip Richard Fendall, Jr., and a mother’s death, he married Elizabeth Mary younger sister, Lucy Eleanor. The Fendalls en- Young of Alexandria.22 Lucy Eleanor Fendall, tertained, with George Washington a frequent his younger sister, appears to have lived with guest, and their home became a center for the her brother and his wife until her marriage at extended Lee family in .20 42 to Bernard J. Miller on January 21, 1837. The good fortune did not last. With the lift- ing of British restrictions on westward expan- Purchase by Edmund Jennings Lee sion beyond the Alleghenies and into Ohio, One year following Molly’s death, her Philip Fendall and Harry Lee were among the home was sold at public auction, on Novem- many who speculated in the newly opened ber 10, 1828. The purchaser was Edmund Jen- western lands. Commerce along the upper Po- nings Lee, Molly’s youngest brother. At the tomac River was also expanding, and busi- time of purchase, he and his family lived nessmen were eager to develop land along its across from the home at 428 North Washing- shore. Both Fendall and Lee invested heavily ton Street. in these perceived opportunities. Both ulti- Edmund Jennings Lee was then a promi- mately became hopelessly financially entan- nent legal and political figure in Alexandria. A gled and went to debtors’ prison.21 Fendall graduate of Princeton, he had entered Alexan- died in 1805, financially ruined. dria politics not long after starting his law Fendall’s death did not compel Molly to practice. In 1809, he was elected to the Alex- leave their home. In November 1791, as part andria Common Council and served briefly as of the marriage settlement, Philip had estab- Mayor in 1810. In March 1815, he was again lished a trust for her that included the House elected Mayor and served in that capacity for and the 12-acre farm. The trust was adminis- the next three years. At the end of that second tered by two of her brothers, Charles Lee and term, he was appointed Clerk of the Circuit Richard B. Lee, and Richard M. Scott. So, Court for Alexandria County and served until when her husband died, she had a beneficial his retirement in 1840. interest in the house and farm, but little else in Lee was also active in community religious the way of resources. Raising two children as and educational affairs. He served for many 23 a single mother with no income, she quickly years on the vestry of Christ Church, on the went into debt. board of the Alexandria Academy, a free pub- lic school that had been established with an

5 endowment in George Washington’s will, and daughters, who chose not to live in it. It was in other civic organizations. rented until it was sold to Louis Cazenove. Within the Lee family, Edmund became an unofficial guardian for Robert E. Lee. Ann Purchase by Louis Cazenove and the Italian- Carter Lee, living across the street from Molly ate Renovation at 609 Oronoco Street with her younger chil- On January 1, 1850, Louis Albert Ca- dren, including Robert, was for all practical zenove, the son of Antoine Charles Cazenove, purposes a single mother. Harry and several an immigrant from Geneva, Switzerland, pur- other Federalists who were opposed to what chased the house and then married Harriet Eu- became known as the were genia Stuart,25 his second wife, in October of mauled and badly injured by a mob in Balti- that year. more while protecting a newspaper publisher. Harriet was a descendant of Thomas Lee of Harry’s doctors recommended that he might Stratford Hall through two separate lines. She do better in a warmer climate, so he spent the was a great granddaughter of Richard Henry next five or so years wandering through the Lee, and, through a second line, descended as Caribbean Islands. He never recovered and well from , the eldest died on his way home at , daughter of Thomas Lee. Four years earlier, Ga. Cassius, one of Edmund Jennings Lee’s on April 15, 1846, Cassius Lee, son of Ed- sons, born in 1808, was from boyhood on a mund Jennings Lee, had married Ann Eliza playmate and lifelong friend of his cousin Gardner, Louis Cazenove’s niece.26 Robert E. Lee. The Cazenove family occupied a prominent As with Philip Fendall, social and political place in Alexandria society. Antoine Charles prominence did not prove insulation against fi- Cazenove, as Swiss Consul in the city and nancial adversity. Forced to mortgage the agent for the Dupont commercial interests, home, Edmund Lee was in 1833 unable to had become by 1830 one of the town’s chief meet payment terms and was forced to sell the importers and the proprietor of large tracts of home at auction. Three years later, Lee’s son, commercial real estate. His world-wide trade Edmund Jennings Lee, Jr., was able to recover in hides, cotton wraps, wine, and other goods the home and allowed his father, mother, and made him wealthy and influential in local sister Sarah to live there. By 1839, Edmund commercial and industrial affairs. Among Jennings Lee was able to repurchase the prop- other things, he provided capital for both The erty from his son, and he lived in the house Alexandria Water Company27 and The Mount until his death in 1843. Vernon Manufacturing Company. His son, Even in his straitened circumstances, Ed- Louis, was an organizer of The Potomac Flour mund Jennings Lee continued to occupy a Mill Company and continued his father’s in- prominent place in Alexandria society. In terests in Alexandria’s corporate and political 1841, when former President John Quincy Ad- affairs.28 ams visited Alexandria to deliver a lecture at Even by the cultural standards of Alexan- the Alexandria Lyceum, Lee arranged a party dria’s prominent families, Louis was excep- for family and friends in connection with Ad- tionally well educated. At 17, he had been sent ams’s visit, and Adams lodged in the home to Geneva to continue his schooling. He ob- during his visit.24 tained a classical education, traveled in Eu- After Edmund’s death in 1843, the title to rope, and was also tutored in the arts, includ- the Lee-Fendall House passed to two of his ing music, drawing, and dancing. He was, in addition, familiar with the latest trends in

6 architecture and landscape design. With that thereafter until its seizure by the Union in background, the changes the family contem- 1863 for use as a hospital. Harriet continued to plated for the home were not merely repairs or claim title to the property. haphazard additions. Keeping the footprint of the main dwelling, Seizure in the Civil War Cazenove expanded the dwelling upward by In 1863, the Lee-Fendall house was seized raising the roofline to ena- by Surgeon Edward Bently rd ble two full bedrooms on of the 3 Division General the home’s third level with Hospital of the diamond-shaped windows. Army of the Potomac. It was To update the first floor, he converted into a wing of the lengthened the windows to Grosvenor House Hospital, reach the floor. It is be- which was one of several lieved that the front and hospital complexes in Alex- back porches of the struc- andria kept full by the Army ture also date from this ren- of Virginia.31 A building in ovation.29 For comfort, Ca- the southeast corner of the zenove installed a hot-air garden was the site of a dead furnace and central heating house for discarded limbs system and a system of and corpses awaiting burial. bell-pulls to summon serv- Recently, it has been discov- ants. By 1855, the home ered that one of only two had running water as well. successful blood transfusion Given the family’s wealth, in Union hospitals during Lee-Fendall curators have surgery occurred on the inferred that the house was premises during the occupa- 32 furnished in a style con- Figure 3. North Porch of Lee-Fendall House tion. This milestone and sistent with the improve- Credit: Lee-Fendall House Museum and Garden the features of Civil War ments.30 medicine have been the Sadly, the Cazenove family had very little subjects of Museum exhibitions and programs time to enjoy their home. Harriet became in recent years. pregnant shortly after the family moved into Reacquisition and the Last Years of Occu- the home, which they shared with her father- in-law, Antoine. But within a year both her pancy by Lee Family Members husband and father-in-law had died; Louis in At the end of the Civil War, the U.S. Army March 1852 after a sudden illness from which relinquished the home to Harriet, who held the he was expected to recover; and Antoine in property subject to a deed of trust dating from October 1852. That same month, Harriet gave Louis Cazenove’s purchase of the property birth to a son, named after his father. With her from Edmund Jennings Lee’s trustees. Harriet new-born son and two step-children, Harriet again leased the property, between 1865 and also became a single mother occupying the 1870. By 1870, the deed of trust had gone into home. default and the trustees forced a sale. In 1855, Harriet decided to move to a new The purchaser at the sale also had a Lee home on Seminary Hill, which she called family connection: Dr. Robert Fleming Flem- 33 “Stuartland.” Her old home was leased ing who had married Mary Elizabeth Lee,

7 the eldest daughter of Richard Bland Lee II.34 performing popular musicals and light opera, At the time of the purchase, Richard Bland including works by Gilbert and Sullivan. Myra Lee, II, and his wife Julia had been living in seems also to have been quite entrepreneurial. Alexandria since 1867. After the purchase, At age 15, she advertised in the Alexandria Mary Elizabeth Lee Fleming and her family Gazette that she would be conducting calis- moved into the Lee-Fendall House across the thenics and dancing classes at the Lee-Fendall street from her parents. House. Throughout the 1890s, Myra hosted Just over a parties in the Lee- year after ac- Fendall House gar- quiring the den to raise funds house Dr. Flem- for various causes. ing died, on Au- Of note, the Trust gust 19, 1871, follows in her foot- and Mary Eliza- steps today and re- beth became an- cently hosted a most other in the sad successful fund-rais- series of single ing party to help pay mothers raising for foundation re- children in the pairs. home. In spring Following the 1879, Mary Eliz- death of Mary Eliza- abeth Fleming beth Fleming in moved into 1902, her heirs put Figure 4. A Downham Party in Their Garden: Henry and E.E. Downham Washington, are seated at right. Credit: Lee-Fendall House Museum and Garden the house on the D.C. and at- market, in early tempted to lease the Lee-Fendall House. 1903. Sometime thereafter, Mary Elizabeth’s youngest brother, Robert Fleming Lee, and Robert and Mai Downham three of his older sisters, moved in and lived in In 1903, Robert Downham was courting the house until it was sold in 1903.35 The most Mai Greenwell, who also performed with notable of the residents during that time was “Sharps and Flats” with her friend Myra Lee Myra Lee Civalier, the younger daughter of Civalier. Myra was heard to be encouraging Myra Gaines Lee and Charles Napoleon Ci- Mai to buy the property. The story at the time valier, a native of Bordeaux, France, who had was that Robert proposed to Mai saying that immigrated to North Carolina. During the he would buy the property if she would marry Civil War, Civalier enlisted in the 3d North him. She said “yes.” and he purchased the Carolina Regiment at Tarboro and resigned in Lee-Fendall House on October 3, 1903 for October 1863 after he was twice wounded. He $5,500. and Myra Gaines Lee married a year later, in Fifty years after the Cazenove renovations, October 1864.36 the home was again in need of repairs and Myra Lee Civalier was active in the com- much needed modernization as well. The munity as a singer. She performed often with Downhams replaced the roof, replaced the local church groups and with various amateur hot-air furnace with a hot-water heating sys- singing groups, most notably the “Sharps and tem, and installed bathrooms on the second Flats.”37 The group was locally famous for and third floors in the main section of the

8 house. During the renovations, they leased the Jersey cow so that they could make butter and house for a few years. The Downhams moved cheese. Every morning the cow was let out to to their new home in 1907, where they re- graze along Washington Street.39 mained until 1931. During their years of occu- In 1931, the Downhams moved to a smaller pancy, the house was painted yellow with home they built at the southwest corner of white trim. Oronoco and St. Asaph Streets.40 Between Throughout the Downhams’ years of resi- 1931 and 1936, the house was leased again. dence, the home was well-maintained and a social center in the community. Robert Down- Myrta and John l. Lewis ham was the son of E.E. Downham, a liquor In March of 1938, the Downhams sold the merchant and leader in the business commu- Lee-Fendall House to Mryta Lewis, the wife nity who served as Mayor between 1887 and of John L. Lewis, for $27,000. Reportedly, the 1891. As Mayor, E.E. Downham had been in- home was titled in her name to shield the strumental in modernizing Alexandria’s infra- home from lawsuits, a measure that was no structure.38 Robert continued to operate a dis- doubt appropriate because of his controversial tillery business until Prohibition, when he in- leadership as President of the United Mine stead opened a haberdashery. In 1914, the Workers Union.41 Downhams hosted President Woodrow Wil- Myrta, a former schoolteacher, was an avid son, who watched Alexandria’s George Wash- collector of antiques and an inspiration for her

Figure 5. Lee-Fendall House as Seen from Garden, Showing Glassed-in Porch and Relocated Entrance Credit: Lee-Fendall House Museum and Garden ington Day parade from a glassed-in stand on husband’s continued self-education. The Washington Street adjacent to their lot. building structure as it now exists reflects the Mai Downham relied on two domestic changes made during their occupancy. The servants as housekeepers, sisters from Win- porch off the south side of the home was ston Salem. At their request, Mai purchased a glassed in as a conservatory and its entrance

9 was moved to its east end. Reflecting that certain level. At one point, the Museum was change, the address was changed from 429 within five to six months of closing its doors North Washington Street to 614 Oronoco to the public. It was only through careful man- Street, the address to this day. Myrta also had agement and the generous donations of several the home repainted white. benefactors that the Museum remained open. Their daughter, Kathryn, lived in the house Over those same years, as more research on much of the time. She was a diabetic with a the Lee-Fendall House and its occupants was weight problem. John L. Lewis also had heart undertaken by professional staff and volun- issues that affected his use of the stairs. As an teers, the scope of Alexandria and national accommodation, a metal frame elevator was history that the Museum helps to illuminate installed in the central hallway that has since expanded to encompass the experiences of en- been disassembled. slaved people in Alexandria, the experience of For the most part, the home served as a pri- Alexandrians during the Union occupation, the vate retreat for John L. Lewis. Myrta put on development of medicine, and social change two invitation-only open house events in 1939 in the aftermath of the Civil War and early that were well-attended, but there was little 20th Century. The mission that this historic else recorded in the way of social life. After house museum serves has continued to grow Myrta died in 1942, Lewis’s life was rather in relevance. lonely. Kathryn passed away in 1962, two Fortunately, as the Lee-Fendall House Mu- brothers and a sister shortly later, and John L. seum and Garden approaches its second 50 Lewis ultimately died alone at the Lee-Fendall years, the future is more secure. In 2015, Col. House on June 11, 1969. He was 89. Bill Fendall, USAF (ret.) left his entire estate The house was then empty for a few for the benefit of the Lee-Fendall House. For months and again put on the rental market. the first time in the Museum’s history, there is This time the renters were Albert N. Votaw a modest endowment for the Museum’s long- and his family. He was a Foreign Service of- term support. The income from this endow- ficer and was transferred in 1972. As a sad ment is certainly not enough to pay all operat- conclusion to the people who had lived in the ing expenses, let alone fund the deferred Lee-Fendall House, Mr. Votaw was killed in maintenance that has accrued over 50 years, the U.S. Embassy bombing in Beirut in 1983. but with careful investment and management, the Museum should be on a more solid finan- Looking Forward cial foundation that it was just a few years The Lee-Fendall House Museum and Gar- ago. den opened just before the Nation’s Bicenten- As over the first 50 years, the Museum’s nial, a time when general interest in historic board members and staff will continue to work house museums and historic preservation were dilligently to raise money to pay operating ex- at a high. Even in that era, when the Museum penses and to fund deferred maintenance and opened to visitors in April 1974 its financial much needed improvements. Over the next 50 status was precarious and remained so for years, the dedication of board, staff and volun- many years. A few years back, the Museum’s teers and community support will remain criti- Board made contingency plans to close the cal if the Lee-Fendall House is to continue to Museum if the financial accounts declined to a be an asset for Alexandria and its people.

1 The principal sources for the history of The Preservation and a comprehensive history of the Lee- Lee-Fendall House Museum and Garden are docu- Fendall House, Visitors from the Past, A Bi-Centen- ments and minutes of the Virginia Trust for Historic nial Reflection on Life at the Lee-Fendall House,

10 Because Harry had to be away on business at Strat- 1785–1985 (manuscript), drafted by T. Michael Mil- ford Hall, his address was delivered by Dennis Ram- ler, at one time Executive Director of the Museum. say, Alexandria’s Mayor. Harry wrote separately to Miller’s history contains a wealth of research on who Washington to express his regrets. Miller, Visitors owned and lived in the house and captures as well from the Past pp. 52-53. some of the details of life over its history. Copies of 10 Later, when Elizabeth Steptoe Lee Fendall Miller’s manuscript are in Lee-Fendall House files passed away, and Fendall married Harry’s sister, and in the Special Collections Branch of the Alexan- Mary Bland Lee (“Molly”), he became Harry’s dria Library. Additional genealogical information on brother-in-law. the Lees of Virginia is also available in files at the 11 Ludwell Lee Montague, The Early History of Special Collections Branch. The Alexandria Histori- 614 Oronoco Street (Lecture Notes, March 19, 1970) cal Society has named its annual history award in (in Museum files); Miller, Visitors from the Past p. 9 honor of T. Michael Miller, https://alexandriahistori- (“fortuitous”). cal.org/t-michael-miller-alexandria-history-award/. 12 There is a court record of the assumption of 2 The Potts-Fitzhugh House, which was leased to debts, but none has been found to record the actual ti- Light Horse Harry and his family in 1812, operated tle transfer. as a historic house museum during the years 1967 to 13 Fendall’s 12-acre farm was located approxi- 2001. The Lee Boyhood Home Museum closed when mately ¼ mile away near what is now the south end it was sold into private hands. of the Potomac Yard shopping center on Route 1, just 3 The Virginia Trust for Historic Preservation north of Alexandria’s Old Town Historic District. continues to function as the legal owner of the Lee- 14 Mutual Insurance Company (1796), in J. Shel- Fendall House; operations of the Museum are gov- lenhamer & J. Bedell, Archaeological Issues for Res- erned by its Board. Members of the VTHP Board are toration of the Lee-Fendall House Garden, Alexan- volunteers and receive no compensation. dria, Virginia, Final Report (“Berger Group Re- 4 The total purchase price for the property was port”), The Louis Berger Group, Inc. p. 17 (Decem- $175,000. The Trust obtained an option to purchase ber 2011), in Museum files; for the distinction be- from John L. Lewis, Jr., for $10,000, but did not tween privies and outhouses see J. Tercha, The Ori- begin public fundraising until after receiving a gins of the Alexandria, Virginia, Sewerage System: $65,000 appropriation from the Virginia General As- Part I: Challenges and Improvements before the Civil sembly and a $35,000 appropriation from the City in War (“Tercha, Part I”), The Alexandria Chronicle, 1972. Two further payments of $55,000 were due Fall 2017. Privies were common only at homes of January 14, 1973, and July 14, 1973. An additional more affluent Alexandrians. $65,000 was raised from other sources before the 15 Most likely, many of this number had come July 14, 1973, payment came due. Johns personally from Stratford Hall. guaranteed that sum. Regarding his guarantee, Johns 16 Berger Group Report p. 18. wrote to the Virginia Historic Landmarks Commis- 17 Linda Hasert, A True Taste of Our History, sion stating that the Trust was “persuaded to go into Washington Star (n.d. [1970s]), in Museum files. this project due to the forthcoming Bicentennial” and 18The body of Elizabeth Steptoe Lee Fendall was was therefore confident of its ability to raise the addi- likely returned to Alexandria and buried in a reserved tional funds. Letters from Jay W. Johns to the Vir- section of the farm one quarter mile north of the ginia Historic Landmarks Commission (July 10, home at the south end of what was later the rail yard. 1972; July 17, 1972) (in Museum file). There is a good description of the location of this 12- 5 Interview with Marilyn Moll, an early docent. acre farm, in Wesley Pippenger’s Tombstone Inscrip- According to Moll, the Museum opened to visitors in tions of Alexandria Virginia, Volume 3. 1974. 19 Mary Bland Lee (Fendall)’s mother, Lucy 6 One notable exception is a silver tea service Grymes, before her marriage to Henry Lee II was that belonged to the family of Mary Elizabeth Lee quite the belle in Williamsburg. Known as the “Low- Fleming. land Beauty,” she attracted many suitors, among 7 Harriet’s great grandfather was Richard Henry them a young George Washington. Lee, who had made the motion for independence in 20 Starting from the Northern Neck, the Lees the . Through another line, she generally followed the colonial migration up the Po- was descended from Hannah Lee Corbin, the eldest tomac and on to lands in the west. By 1800 there daughter of Thomas and Hannah Lee, of Stratford were numerous Lee relatives living in the Alexandria Hall. area alone. Two of Molly’s siblings from Leesylvania 8 Copy of application in Museum files. married daughters of . Charles Lee 9 Gadsby’s Tavern was then known as Wise’s (1758-1815), the U.S. Attorney General, married Tavern, the name of its proprietor, John Wise.

11 of the Museum has been broadened to encompass all Anne Lee and Molly’s youngest brother, Edmund of the history connected with Lee-Fendall’s occu- Jennings Lee (1772 – 1843), married Sarah Lee. Lud- pants. well Lee (1760-1836), son of Richard Henry Lee, 31 Not to be confused with the Confederate Army lived on Shuters Hill. Portia and Cornelia, daughters of Northern Virginia commanded by Robert E. Lee. of , brother of Richard Henry, married 32 Surgeon General’s Office, two Alexandria men, plus there were several other Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Re- more distant relatives as well. bellion, Pt. III, Vol. II (Washington, D.C.: 1883), 21 T. Michael Miller, Visitors from the Past Cases 1186-1187; (manuscript at 26-29); among the lawsuits relating to 33 Not a typo: his middle name and surname were Fendall’s financial collapse was an action against the the same. court officer who had levied on his assets. The litiga- 34 Richard Bland Lee, II, was a graduate of West tion ultimately went to the U.S. Supreme Court Point, Class of 1817, who had an early career as an where Chief Justice John Marshall issued the deci- explorer in the West. During the Civil War, he served sion deciding the case. Turner v. Fendall, 5 U.S. 117 in the Confederate Army Commissariat. Elizabeth (1801) (directing turnover of the assets to Fendall). Fleming Rhodes, On the Fringe of Fame: The Career 22 Philip Jr. and Elizabeth had 11 children, 10 of of Richard Bland Lee II in the South and West, 1797 whom survived to adulthood. Two of their sons – 1875 (1990). served in the Marine Corps during the Civil War, one 35 The three sisters were Julia Estes Lee, who on the Confederate side and one on the Union side. never married, Evelina Prosser Lee Morgan, and Philip died in 1868 and is buried with many of his Myra Gaines Civalier. Their brother, Robert Fleming family in a large plot in the Presbyterian Cemetery Lee, graduated from Virginia Military Institute in off Wilkes Street. 1867. He was among the VMI cadets who mustered 23 One of Lee’s most celebrated cases was his de- to fight in the Battle of New Market and was one of fense of the Christ Church Glebe against the Com- four members of the Lee family who fought in that monwealth of Virginia. He prevailed on a procedural battle. He never married. It is not known when he argument, pointing out that the state did not have ju- moved from the home to Richmond, where he died in risdiction because Alexandria and what is now Ar- 1913 lington were then part of the District of Columbia. 36 Myra Lee Civalier was the younger of two sis- Edmund J. Lee, (1853-1922) Lees of Virginia, 1642- ters; two brothers had died in infancy. Julia, the older 1892, pp. 375. sister, married William Pinckney Holmes at Christ 24 Berger Group Report p. 19, quoting Adams Church and lived in Baltimore, but she returned to Diary, 1841: 293. the Lee-Fendall House to give birth to her first child, 25 Harriet’s first name is variously spelled. Mil- Julia Anna Marion Holmes. Julia Anna, born October ler, Visitors from the Past, spells her name as Har- 18, 1892, was the last person with a Lee family con- riott, but one reference that Miller quotes spells her nection to be born in the Lee-Fendall House. name as Harriet and another quoted reference spells 37 Berger Group Report p. 23, in Museum files. her name as “Harriett.” Her grandson spelled her 38 J. Tercha, “The Origins of the Alexandria Vir- name as “Harriet.” ginia Sewerage System: Part II: New Challenges, Op- 26 Both Eliza and Cassius Lee are buried in the portunities, and Professionalization, 1870 – 1914,” Christ Church Cemetery. The Alexandria Chronicle (Spring 2018); J. Sullivan, 27 For more on The Alexandria Water Company, “E.E. Downham and Frank Hume: Whisky Men of see Tercha, Part I. Alexandria,” The Alexandria Chronicle (Spring 28 Harold W. Hurst, Alexandria on the Potomac: 2018). The Portrait of an Antebellum Community (1991) pp. 39 A poor-quality photo of the cow grazing along 23-24. North Washington Street is in the photography col- 29 Denys Peter Myers, The Architectural Charac- lection of the Alexandria Public Library. ter of the Lee-Fendall House, A Stylistic and Partial 40 Miller, Visitors from the Past p. 298. Structural Analysis (1988), in Museum files. 41 A lecture to the Alexandria Historical Society 30 An inventory of the home’s contents was filed on April 24, 1984, by Marilyn Moll, a historian and with the Alexandria County Court on April 27, 1852, Museum docent, is the source for what follows. Moll following Louis’s untimely death. The home was Lecture Notes (in Museum files) well furnished throughout with walnut and mahogany furniture and an abundance of china and crystal. Al- exandria Will Book 6 at 120. Currently, interpretation

12 A Chinese Slave in Alexandria? Melissa Ann Hussey’s Eclectic Trousseau

Krystyn R. Moon*

In 1857, Captain Samuel Bancroft Hussey To answer these questions, I first looked purchased a three-story, red brick house (then for more information on Captain Samuel B. standing at 617 South Washington Street) as a Hussey, who had reportedly purchased the wedding gift for his only daughter, Melissa child. Born around 1811in Vasselboro, Maine, Ann Hussey, and her bridegroom, Robert Hussey was the fourth son of Nathaniel Lewis Wood. The home had been vacant since (Huzzey) Hussey and Hannah Lovejoy.43 Hus- 1853, when its builder, Reuben Roberts, had sey was most likely named after one of two died and his widow moved to . Af- Captain Samuel Bancrofts, both of whom had ter a society wedding in New York, the couple prominent military and political careers during returned to Alexandria to live in the home, lo- the 18th Century.44 By 1835, he had married cated on the edge of town. Gay Montague Sybil Hawkes of Durham, Maine and set up Moore’s bicentennial history of Alexan- household near his family. The 1850 U.S. dria, Seaport in Virginia, profiles the Hussey Census, reports the Husseys, including their property, including fascinating information two children, Melissa and Francis, living in about the objects that Durham next door to his the bride brought with father and an older her from her travels brother. His occupation abroad. Moore noted was listed as a “mari- that Melissa Ann had ner.”45 “cages of cockatoos, Hussey, however, was parakeets, parrots, … a more than the average chimpanzee, and a small sailor. By the early 1850s, Chinese slave boy, he captained some of the bought by her father largest and fastest clipper from one of the innu- ships ever constructed in merable sampans in the New England.46 These harbor of Canton.”42 ships were used to bring The last phrase star- goods and people from Figure 6. Painting of the Westward Ho from S.E. Mori- tled me. Was this story son, The Maritime History of Massachusetts 1783- the Northeast to the Pa- true? Was there a Chi- 1860 cific and back again. On nese child enslaved in at least one occasion, Alexandria? What was his legal status? And Hussey transported Chinese immigrants to San how does this boy’s experience relate to ante- Francisco on the extreme clipper ship, the bellum debates surrounding “coolie” labor, a Westward Ho. A few months later, the West- system of indentured servitude established to ward Ho arrived in Alexandria, Va., probably replace slavery in the Americas?

* Krystyn Moon is a Professor in History and Director of American Studies at the University of Mary Washing- ton. Her teaching and research focus on several topics in American history, including popular culture, consumerism, the American West, race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, immigration, and foodways. Krystyn and her family live in Del Ray. In May 2018, she was elected President of the Alexandria Historical Society.

13 with the Hussey family and their “Chinese sugar plantations. His son, Francis, his second slave boy” aboard.47 mate on the Stag Hound, had died a couple of During the 1850s, European Americans de- months earlier during a mutiny.49 Within two bated the pros and cons of introducing Chi- years, President Abraham Lincoln banned nese indentured servitude to the coun- American participation in the trafficking of try. White planters saw this system—which Chinese indentured laborers, ensuring that the was growing in popularity in the Caribbean “coolie” trade would never be used as an alter- and South America—as a way of fulfilling the native to slavery in the United States after the South’s labor needs. Critics, however, saw the Civil War.50 “coolie” trade as another If Moore had only form of slavery and crit- mentioned the “Chinese icized shipping compa- slave boy” in passing, the nies that participated in above information might the transportation of be all that was availa- Chinese indentured ble. Perhaps also in- workers. Meanwhile, trigued, she wrote almost nativists in , half a paragraph on “Chi- who adamantly opposed nese Tom," also known Figure 7. Painting of the Stag Hound from Moore, Sea- Chinese immigration, port in Virginia as Tom Jefferson. Moore used the term “coolie” went on: to describe all Chinese immigrants. Chinese “‘Chinese Tom’ was reared and educated who immigrated to the U.S., however, did not by Melissa Wood and after the War Between participate in the “coolie” trade, but borrowed the States she gave him his freedom. For years money from friends and family to pay for their he was the only Chinaman in Alexandria. Mrs. travel. A large number also used the credit- Wood’s granddaughter remembers the visits ticket system, in which brokers paid for one’s of this man to her grandmother. He would sta- travel with the expectation to be paid back tion himself at the entrance to her door and a plus interest. Unlike the “coolie” trade, an em- long conversation would go on between the ployer did not own their labor as collateral for guttural-voiced Oriental and the gentle little the cost of transportation and other inciden- ‘Missey’ whom he adored.”51 tals, such as food, medicine, and housing.48 Both the 1860 and 1870 U.S. censuses in- Most Chinese immigrants worked in the gold cluded a Tom Jefferson from China living in fields of California as independent prospectors the Hussey/Wood household. In 1860, he was or opened small businesses; within a decade, eleven years old and attending school, but his they were role in the also found household on railroads was un- and in facto- clear.52 ries. The 1860 The de- Census bates about Figure 8. U.S.Census 1870, Alexandria, Va. (excerpt) Note “correction” of Tom Jeffer- included son’s race on second line from bottom Chinese la- him be- bor continued throughout the mid-to-late-19th tween the family and two free African Ameri- Century; however, Hussey’s participation was can servants with his race left blank. Neither short-lived. He died aboard the Stag Hound, the Husseys nor the Woods were listed on the another extreme clipper ship, in August 1860 1860 Slave Schedule, which (if he had been while transporting “coolie” laborers to Ha- enslaved) would have included his age, sex, vana, Cuba, where they were likely to work on and race (enumerators rarely gave the names

14 of slaves on Slave Schedules). If the Husseys phrase reinforcing his supposed foreignness had purchased Jefferson and viewed him as a and inferiority. The obituary writer embraced slave, the local census taker did not recognize the belief seen in the writings of missionaries his status. that Chinese children could become Western- Ten years later, Jefferson was a machinist, ized (and Christian) if introduced to certain probably working for the Orange, Alexandria, cultural practices at an early age.55 and Manassas Railroad.53 Interestingly, the The two articles, however, conflict in de- census taker initially listed his race as “C” for scribing his occupation. The first obituary Chinese; however, he crossed it out and put noted that he “was employed in the house [of “W” for white. Perhaps the census taker chose the late Captain Hussey] until he reached early to embrace local custom, emphasizing a black- manhood when he was apprenticed in the ma- white divide, as opposed to the racial catego- chine shop of the Southern Railway Company ries mandated by the federal government, and later was a fireman on that road.” After which treated “Chinese” as a race. leaving Alexandria, Jefferson seems to have Tom Jefferson’s Chinese origin and his become a drifter. In another brief article that connections to the Husseys/Woods made him was published the following day, the author a local celebrity, in spite of his working-class noted that Jefferson had left Alexandria to status. But beyond what can be culled from his work as an engineer for the Southern Railway two obituaries, little is known. One obituary is Company in Newport News, Va. although he clear that some residents viewed him as quin- frequently visited his friends in Alexandria.56 tessentially American. An anonymous writer This latter livelihood was a more respectable described Jefferson as “in every respect an Al- one--although still working class--for someone exandrian, knowing no language but Eng- connected to the Woods/Husseys. lish. He was good-natured and played when a Tom Jefferson died on November 14, 1899 boy with the children of his adopted city as at the Alexandria Infirmary from complica- though native and to the manner born.”54 This tions related to a stroke. He was buried in an comment contradicts Moore’s later description unmarked grave at Bethel Cemetery, a non-de- of Jefferson as a “guttural-voiced Oriental,” a nominational cemetery in Alexandria.57

42 Gay Montague Moore, Seaport in Virginia: 48 Lucy M. Cohen, Chinese in the Post-Civil War George Washington’s Alexandria (1949), 262. South: A People without a History (1999), 41-42; 43 Clarence E. Lovejoy, The Lovejoy Genealogy Moon-Ho Jung, Coolies and Cane: Race, Labor and with Biographies and History, 1460-1930 (C. E. Sugar in the Age of Emancipation (2006), 11-38. Lovejoy, 1930), 92; Everett Schermerhorn Stackpole, 49 “Death of Captain Hussey,” Evening Star History of Durham, Maine (Press of Lewiston Jour- (Washington, D.C.) 24 Aug. 1860, 3; “Law Reports: nal Company, 1899), 199. United States District Court,” New York Times 20 44 Genealogical and Family History of the State April 1861, 2. of Vermont: A Record, ed. Hiram Carleton, vol. 1 50 Jung 36. (Lewis Publishing Co., 1903), 700. 51 Moore 262. 45 1840 U.S. Census, Waterville, Kennebec 52 1860 U.S. Census, Alexandria, Virginia, 129. County, Maine, 4; 1850 U.S. Census, Durham, Cum- 53 1870 U.S. Census, Alexandria, Virginia, 84. berland County, Maine, 238. All Census data at 54 “Death of ‘Chinese Tom’,” Alexandria Gazette www.ancestry.com (accessed August 11, 2013). 14 Nov. 1899 {“Chinese Tom’s Death”), 2. 46 Helen LaGrange, Clipper Ships of America 55 Krystyn R. Moon, Yellowface: Creating the and Great Britain, 1833-1869 (1936), 185; Richard Chinese in American Music and Popular Culture, C. McKay, Donald McKay and His Famous Sailing 1850s-1920s (2005), 18-19. Ships (2011), 207. 56 Chinese Tom’s Death, 2; “Funeral,” Alexan- 47 “Alexandria Correspondence,” Evening Star dria Gazette 15 Nov. 1899, 2. (Washington, D.C.) 18 Sept. 1856, 3; “The Slave 57 Wesley E. Pippenger, Tombstone Inscriptions Trade,” Daily Dispatch (Richmond, Va.) 24 April of Alexandria, Virginia, vol. 4 (Heritage Books), 127. 1856, 1.

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