[201 South Washington Street.]
Benjamin Hallowell, our Quaker pedagogue, was not content with improving the minds of the young. He soon realized the necessity of furbishing up the cranial contents of his associates.
An able propagandist, Hallowell set himself to interest his friends in founding a lyceum. This was accomplished in 1834, just ten years after his entrance as a schoolmaster. Naturally he was the first president and naturally the early lectures were held in his school. Here the erudite of the town were wont to gather to express themselves in lecture and debate. Hallowell does not give the date of the actual building of the lyceum, saying merely:
At length a lot was purchased on the Southwest corner of Washington and Prince Streets, on which was erected a fine building, a little back from the street, with a pediment front supported by four fluted Doric columns with a triglyph cornice, and surrounded by an iron railing, and a beautiful yard of flowers and ornamental shrubbery. In this building was placed the Alexandria Library, and there was besides, on the first floor a large reading room, and a room for a cabinet of minerals, and specimens in Natural History. On the second floor was a well arranged and handsome lecture room, with marble busts of Cicero and Seneca, one on each side of the President's desk and seat. In this room lectures were given by John Quincy Adams, Caleb Gushing, Dr. Sewell, Samuel Goodrich (Peter Parley), Daniel Bryan, Robert H. Miller, William H. Fowle and several others. I gave the introductory lecture (which was published) and several others afterwards. Attending the Lyceum was a very interesting and improving way of spending one evening in the week (Third-day evening), and the citizens would adapt their visiting and other arrangements so as not to have them come on Lyceum evenings.[191]
Thus came into being one of the finest examples of the Classical Revival in American architecture. When the portico was under construction, bricks salvaged from old St. Mary's Catholic Church were used for the columns (afterwards plastered). This is an interesting fact, but another Quaker-Catholic relationship merits recalling here. Old St. Mary's Church stood on South Washington Street on land donated by Robert Townsend Hooe, a Quaker. Built in 1793, it was abandoned in 1826 when the new church on Royal Street was opened, but the early graveyard which adjoined the old church continues in use. A small detail this of the bricks—yet it commemorates the friendly ties ever maintained in Alexandria between the two congregations.
It was appropriate that the new lyceum should provide facilities for the Alexandria Library Company, the city's first organization for the advancement of learning dating back to 1794. Insight into the early efforts to establish a library and the bid made for its public support is revealed through announcements of the type which follow. This one appeared in the local gazette for the year 1797:
ALEXANDRIA LIBRARY COMPANY
The President and Directors of the Alexandria Library Company desirous of promoting the influence which they conceive eminently calculated to diffuse useful knowledge, establish the morals of the rising generation, and afford rational entertainment for a vacent hour, earnestly recommend it to the attention and support of their fellow citizens. The utility of a public circulating library is too obvious to need arguments to demonstrate it. The friends of Literature, of Virtue, and refinement of manners, will, no doubt duly appreciate its value, and interest themselves in its advancement.
The addition of a number of valuable books has lately been made to the former selections; to which the American edition of the Encyclopoedia is directed to be super added as soon as it can be procured.
The President and Directors have ordered a catalogue of all the books in the library forthwith to be printed, with their respective prices annexed; to which will be prefixed the existing laws of the company, together with the names of all the actual subscribers to the institution. As they can determine between real and nominal members only by the fulfillment of their engagements, they solicit those who are in arrears to come forward and pay their respective balances to Samuel Craig, Treasurer, before the fifteenth of the next month, otherwise their names will be omitted in the list and their shares, agreeably to the condition, will be deemed forfeited to the company without respect of persons. Also all such as incline to become subscribers are desired to call on Mr. Craig on or before the above date, and pay their subscriptions, that their names may be inserted with the rest.
Signed by order
James Kennedy, Librarian.
That the Alexandria Library Company merited and met with cordial and generous support is shown by the fact of its perpetuation to this day within the structure of the Alexandria library system. The Library Company has been called one of the "time-honored heirlooms of the town."[192]
The Alexandria Library has had a nomadic existence from the time it was called into existence in 1794 until it was moved into its new home on Queen Street in 1937. At least five buildings other than the lyceum have doubled for home during this period; but the lyceum is the first location mentioned in the extant minutes of the company. The author nostalgically hopes the lyceum may know a renaissance and that it may again serve as the city's library and a historical museum.
Hallowell tells us that the books were housed on the first floor. His autobiography also contributes an interesting note on the busts of Cicero and Seneca which stood in the lecture room upstairs: "The marble busts spoken of above," he added, "were purchased in Italy in the time of Cromwell by one of the Fairfax family; they were brought to this country by Lord Fairfax, and had come into the possession of Daniel Herbert, whose mother was a Fairfax. I purchased them of him for the price he asked (one hundred and twenty-five dollars), but permitted them to remain in the Lyceum while it continued in operation." Benjamin Hallowell served as president of the lyceum until 1842.
After the War Between the States, the lyceum was abandoned, the society dissolved. The town was rife with rumors that a Negro organization was making plans to acquire the building. By order of the court in 1867, the stockholders of the Alexandria Lyceum Company were compelled to sell the property. Advertisements were set up in the Gazette. W. Arthur Taylor and Reuben Johnston were appointed commissioners, and having given thirty days' notice of the time and place of sale, the building was offered at public auction in front of the mayor's office on May 16, 1868 and "struck off" to John B. Daingerfield for the sum of $6,800.00, being the highest bid. The sale was confirmed by the court and the deed ordered executed, describing the lot of ground with buildings and improvements, southwest corner of Prince and Washington Streets, commonly called the Lyceum Hall, fronting on Washington Street 92 feet 7 inches and on Prince 101 feet 5 inches and bounded on the south by the property of H.W. Vandergrift and on the West by Mr. Henry Daingerfield's estate.[193] John Bathurst Daingerfield and his brother, Henry, owned almost the entire square bounded by Prince, Duke, Columbus and Washington streets, where now stands the Alexandria Hospital.
lyceum
The old Lyceum and Library
John B. Daingerfield turned the lyceum into a residence for his daughter, Mary, at the time of her marriage to Captain Philip Beverly Hooe, 17th Virginia Regiment, C.S.A. The house remained in the Hooe family until 1900, when John Daingerfield Hooe and his wife, Mary, the daughter of Colonel Arthur Herbert, sold the property to Sara J. McGuire. In 1913 Mrs. McGuire transferred the property to her husband, the late Dr. Hugh McGuire. The lyceum was used for many years as a private residence by Dr. and Mrs. McGuire, and the interior has been much changed. The exterior is quite untouched, triglyph cornice, Doric columns, all well past the century mark. It stands today one of the best examples of the Classical Revival in architecture, not only in Alexandria but in America.
The corner of Prince and Washington Streets is hallowed ground to Alexandria. From here the 17th Virginia Regiment, C.S.A., marched gallantly off to war, and when the fighting and turmoil died, the remnant of this regiment was wont to gather on Confederate Memorial Day and hold services for those left behind on Virginia's bloody battlefields. This custom continued long after the bronze monument of a Confederate soldier was placed in the center of the street. If, today, hurrying automobiles are forced to slow up to pass the circle enclosing the Confederate warrior, it is well. For this spot, while marking a lost cause, does not mark a forgotten one.
ship
thingo
The Sea Captain's Daughter and Her House
[617 South Washington Street. Owners: Mr. and Mrs. Malcolm Westcott Hill.]
This large, almost square house, rises three stories in a stately pile of soft red brick, flanked by two ancient tulip trees towering twenty-five feet above the pavilion roof, while a great box hedge partially hides the front façade and large garden. Five generations of the same family have called it home.
It is a romantic and interesting house. Built prior to 1853 by Reuben Roberts on a half-acre of unimproved ground, it lay "in the country" for some years. Roberts, a Quaker of the family of Cameron Farms, died in 1853; his widow moved to New Jersey, and the house stood new and tenantless until 1857, when it was purchased by Captain Samuel Bancroft Hussey of Portland, Maine, as a bridal gift for his only daughter, Melissa Ann. And thereby hangs a tale.
Gallant Captain Hussey is reported to have been a descendant of that Christopher Hussey who arrived in Charlestown, Massachusetts, in 1630 and became one of the large proprietors. Intended for the Navy at an early age he ran away to sea and became a master of Clipper ships that raced the seas in the China trade. Captain in succession of the Reindeer, the Strabo, earlier and smaller vessels, he became Captain of the Westward Ho on which, in 1854, he made a record trip of eighty-five days from Canton to New York. In 1857 he speeded the same vessel from Boston around the Horn to San Francisco in a hundred days. Two years later he died on the Stag Hound of which he was master and part owner.
ship
The Stag Hound, one of the great clipper ships in the China trade
The Westward Ho was a great and beautiful ship of sixteen hundred tons, outfitted with every comfort and luxury of her day, including crystal, books, silver, and a melodeon on which to while away the hours at sea. Captain Hussey was frequently accompanied on his voyages by his wife, and for a time they lived in India, as well as many other far-off and curious ports.
Melissa Ann Hussey[194] after her graduation from the Charlestown Female Seminary, near Boston, made the grand tour with her father. This was not her first voyage, as he had entrusted her to Captain Creesy, master of the Flying Cloud on a long journey from China. But on the occasion of this grand tour graduation gift, he directed the Westward Ho up the Potomac and anchored in the then busy port of Alexandria. The city of Washington was not very sophisticated in those days, so the official and social set of the capital sought the theatres, taverns, and balls of Alexandria. Statesmen had apartments at the new and elegant Braddock House or Green's Mansions on Fairfax Street, and at this hotel the Captain engaged a suite for himself and daughter.
house
To this house came the Portsmouth bride, Melissa Ann Hussey Wood, with parakeets and nonpareils
While in Alexandria, a romance developed which resulted, in 1857, in the marriage of Melissa Hussey and Robert Lewis Wood. Their wedding took place in New York, and the young couple returned to take up life in Alexandria. No colonial house was desired by this bride of nineteen. She must have something new and fresh and modern, and as though preordained, they came upon the large red brick house at Franklin and Washington Streets, much like those so well known to her in Portland, Longfellow's "beautiful town that is seated by the sea."
With Melissa came to her new home a collection of rare birds in such numbers that the room over the kitchen was devoted to the cages of cockatoos, parakeets, parrots and nonpareils. Here these feathered friends in spectrum-hued plumage lived among the potted plants and charmed the little bride with their beauty and sweet tricks. Other appendages included a chimpanzee, and a small Chinese slave boy, bought by her father from one of the innumerable sampans in the harbor of Canton. "Chinese Tom" was reared and educated by Melissa Wood and after the War Between the States she gave him his freedom. For years he was the only Chinaman in Alexandria. Mrs. Wood's granddaughter remembers the visits of this man to her grandmother. He would station himself at the entrance to her door and a long conversation would go on between the guttural-voiced Oriental and the gentle little "Missey" whom he adored.
Almost unchanged is Melissa Hussey Wood's house. Her exquisite wax flower arrangements, colored and molded by her hands, her mother's tête-à-têtes, made in England and purchased in India, paintings of her father's ships and his ivory chessmen, her silver wedding bouquet holder, her baby's shoulder clips, her brass and crystal girandoles, her pictures, books and chairs, have all been used by her two daughters, her granddaughter, and her great-granddaughters. Old pressed brass cornices decorate the windows above the lace curtains. Unusual, too, are the very large silver daguerreotypes, made in California for the new house, and the haircloth "pouf" rocking chairs. An Italian clock, bought by her father in Florence, which arrived in Bangor, Maine, on the day Melissa Ann was born in 1838, stands on its original music box base upon the dining-room mantel. Strangest contrast of all, above the doors of this high-ceilinged room are steel engravings in their contemporary oval frames of Generals Joe Johnston, Stonewall Jackson, and Robert E. Lee, placed there by the Yankee bride, who after three years in Alexandria became an ardent champion of the Confederacy and never took the oath of allegiance while Alexandria was under Union jurisdiction.
It would be impossible to write a book of this kind without a great deal of help from many sources. This help was given by very busy people with knowledge or documents, which inspired the historian to further impositions upon their useful persons.
An expression of appreciation, always banal, is nevertheless an attempt to express gratitude—and this is my only means of acknowledging my obligations to friend and stranger. Without such help this book, such as it is, would never have been written and so my lasting gratitude goes:
First, to my father, who said I would never finish it, and to my husband, who said I would.
To Mr. Walter Wilcox, American Photographical Society, and Royal Photographical Society, for his labors and beautiful photographs which illustrate this book.
To Mrs. George Kirk, for endless and patient typing and sustained enthusiasms.
To Miss Virgila Stephens, for intimating that I might be able to write anything that anybody would ever care to read, and to Mrs. Worth Bailey, who said I had.
To Mr. Worth Bailey, curator of Mount Vernon, for numerous historical contributions, rare and authentic, for the finished seal of Alexandria, the endpapers, the charming drawings, for editing; and lastly, for wise and useful advice. Mr. Bailey's historical knowledge and artistic training have been invaluable.
To Mrs. Louis Scott, for permission to see the scrapbook of her mother, Mrs. Mary G. Powell, and family papers; for the Harper family records, for her gracious assistance and advice, and for the use of her late mother's The History of Old Alexandria, Virginia.
To Mrs. Robert M. Reese, for long and helpful hours and the generous use of the Ramsay family records, and historical documents.
To the Lady Regents of Mount Vernon and to Mr. Wall, the superintendent, for the use of the Mount Vernon library, the photograph of Lawrence Washington, the choice bill of lading, and Dr. Dick's George Washington.
To Miss Frances Herbert, for information about the Carlyle, Herbert and Fairfax families, and for the photograph of John Carlyle's mother, Rachel Carlyle.
To the late Mrs. Charles R. Hooff, for loan of the Carlyle genealogy and for permission to photograph John Carlyle's snuffbox.
To Mrs. William Boothe, for Lee family notes and Christ Church anecdotes.
To Mrs. Charles Baird, and her sister, Mrs. Gerhard Dieke, for permission to quote from the books of their father, the late Fairfax Harrison, and from the books of their late grandmother, Mrs. Burton Harrison; for photographs of Sally Gary, George William Fairfax and Ben Dulany.
To Mr. Taylor Burke, for the anecdote of the purchase money for Mount Vernon.
To Judge Walter T. McCarthy, for permission to open court-sealed deed books.
To the late clerk and assistant clerk of the Fairfax Court House, Messrs. F.W. Richardson and Alton R. Holbrook, and to the present clerk, Mr. Thomas P. Chapman Jr., for documents, photostats and unfailing patience and courtesy.
To the attendants of the manuscript division, the map room and the rare book room of the Library of Congress.
To the attendants of the Virginia state archives in Richmond, for assistance in uncovering Alexandria records.
To the ladies at the Alexandria library.
To Miss S. Frances Leary, for the Michael Swope family notes.
To the late Mr. Charles Callahan, and to Mrs. Callahan, for permission to quote from Mr. Callahan's works and for many inspirational talks with Mr. Callahan.
To Captain George H. Evans for old photographs.
To Mrs. Arthur Herbert, for photographs of Herbert furniture from the Carlyle house.
To Mr. Courtland Davis, for generous aid and valuable Alexandria records and the use of his personal manuscripts and to Mr. Davis and the Reverend Doctor William B. McIllwayne, for access to the old Presbyterian meetinghouse session books.
To Miss Cora Duffy, for the records of the Sun Fire Company.
To Mrs. Margaret Gill Davis, for use of an old customs house journal.
To the late Mr. Ward Brown, for loan of architectural documents.
To Messrs. I.D. Matthews and Milton Grigg, for floor plans.
To Mrs. Howard Tolley, for the photograph of Dr. Brown and his obituary.
To Mr. Gardner L. Boothe and the vestry of Christ Church, for permission to photograph the church.
To Mrs. Helen Lawrason Kirkpatrick, Miss Margaret Lawrason and Mrs. Edward Butler, for a wonderful day at the Lawrason plantation, Greenwood, in Louisiana, and the photographs of the Lawrason portraits.
To the Misses Carne, for the loan and use of valuable Alexandria documents.
To Miss Belle da Costa Green, of the Pierpont Morgan Library, for use of an important Martha Washington letter.
To Dr. St. George L. Sioussat, chief of the division of manuscripts of the Library of Congress.
To Mr. Allen L. Reese, for exciting finds among the Washington papers in that library.
To Mrs. Andrew Pickens, for notes on the Fowle family.
To Mr. Louis de Cazenove, for information on the Cazenove family.
To the late Mr. Cazenove Lee, for the story of General Robert E. Lee and the Edmund I. Lee house.
To Mr. W.B. McGroarty, for the letters and biographical information on Dr. Dick and permission to quote from his works.
To the Corcoran Gallery of Art for photographs of St. Mèmin's Alexandrians.
To Mr. John O. Brostrup, Mr. Thomas Neil Darling, Mr. Lewis P. Woltz, and others, for the use of photographs.
And last but not least, to Lena Harris, my old and faithful maid, who made it all possible.
An Account of the First Century of the Seaport of Alexandria.
[1] Caton, Jottings from the Annals of Alexandria, 3-4; and Powell, The History of Old Alexandria, Virginia, 25.
[2] Hening, Statutes at Large, IV, 268.
[3] Journals of the House of Burgesses of Virginia, Session 1727-34, 1736-40, 204.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid., Session 1742-47, 1748-49, 30.
[6] Fairfax County was formed from Prince William in 1742 (Journals of the House of Burgesses, Virginia, 1742-47, 70; and Hening, V, 207-8) after numerous petitions to this effect had been presented to the Burgesses, beginning as early as 1732 (Ibid., 1727-34, 1738-40, 146), with a request to divide the county into two parishes.
[7] Journals of the House of Burgesses of Virginia, 1748-49, 1742-47, 265.
[8] Ibid., 375.
[9] Ibid., 404-5.
[10] Hening, Statutes at Large, VI, 214; and Caton's Jottings, 6-8.
[11] Caton's Jottings.
[12] Ibid.
[13] Ibid.
[14] Ibid.
[15] Ibid.
[16] In 1748 George Washington made a survey of the site of Belle Haven, and the following year, 1749, a plan of the town, doubtless for his brother, Lawrence, who purchased lots. Now with the Washington papers in the Library of Congress.
[17] Minutes of the Trustees of Alexandria, 1749-1767.
[18] Ibid.
[19] From data contributed by Robert C. Gooch, Chief of General Reference and Bibliography Division, Library of Congress, Letter dated April 11, 1947.
[20] Minutes of the Trustees of Alexandria, 1749-1767.
[21] Ibid.
[22] Ibid.
[23] Journals of the House of Burgesses of Virginia, 1752-1755, 1756-1758, 21, 24 and 31.
[24] Ibid., 27.
[25] Ibid., 34.
[26] Analoston Island, formerly My Lords Island, was part of the Alexander purchase.
[27] Minutes of the Trustees, Recorded Deeds; and Carne's Tiny Town notes.
[28] Fitzpatrick, Diaries of George Washington, I, 74.
[29] Ibid.
[30] Fitzpatrick, Writings of George Washington, I, 148-150, Washington's Report to Governor Dinwiddie, July 18, 1755.
[31] Burnaby, Through the Middle Settlements in North America (1759-60), 40.
[32] Fitzpatrick, Diaries of George Washington, I, 163.
[33] Ibid., 294.
[34] Ibid., 294.
[35] Fitzpatrick, Writings of George Washington, II, 338.
[36] Minutes of the House of Burgesses, November 5, 1762, 76, (Vol. 1761-1765); Minutes of the Trustees of Alexandria, 1749-1767.
[37] Minutes of the Trustees of Alexandria, 1749-1767.
[38] House of Burgesses Journal, 1761-1765, 246.
[39] Minutes of the Trustees of Alexandria, 1749-1767.
[40] Order Book, Fairfax Court House, 1768-1770, 338.
[41] The Charter and Laws of Alexandria, Va., 78.
[42] Harrison, Landmarks of Old Prince William, II, 416, note 46.
[43] Letter to George Washington from Lund Washington, April 28, 1792. Toner Transcripts, Library of Congress. Copied from notes in Mount Vernon Ladies Association Library.
[44] Wilstack, Mount Vernon, 138.
[45] Ibid.
[46] Fitzpatrick, Diaries of George Washington, II, 209.
[47] Letter of Olney Winsor to his wife in Providence, Rhode Island. Original in archives, State Library, Richmond, Virginia.
[48] Harrison, Landmarks of Old Prince William, II, 409.
[49] Morse, The American Geography, 381.
[50] Harrison, Landmarks of Old Prince William, II, 408.
[51] Ibid.
[52] Ibid.
[53] A Stranger in America (Anonymous), 213.
[54] Snowden, The Laws of the Corporation of the Town of Alexandria from 1779 to 1811, 32.
[55] Fitzpatrick, Writings of George Washington, III, 18.
[56] Caton, Jottings, 115.
Chapter 1. WILLIAM RAMSAY: Romulus of Alexandria.
[57] Harrison, Landmarks of Old Prince William, II, 371, quoting President Madison in 1827.
[58] Harrison, Landmarks of Old Prince William, II, 406.
[59] Ibid., 663. Alexandria, 1749. Record Hening, I, 214, C.O. 5, 1895, No. 20. Description: "60 Acres ... parcel of the land of Philip Alexander, John Alexander, and Hugh West, situate ... on the south side of Potomack River about the mouth of Great Hunting Creek in the county of Fairfax." Trustees: Thomas, Lord Fairfax, William Fairfax, George William Fairfax, Richard Osborne, Lawrence Washington, William Ramsay, John Carlyle, John Pagan, Gerard Alexander, Hugh West, Philip Alexander.
[60] Hamilton, Letters, II, 164.
[61] Harrison, Landmarks, II, 414; Hayden, Virginia Genealogies, 88; William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine, IV, 17; Maryland Gazette (Copy in Ramsay Family records).
[62] Maryland Gazette, December 1761, Ramsay Family records.
[63] Lipscomb, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, IV, 90, Memorial Edition.
[64] Letter of Martha Washington to Betty Ramsay, dated Cambridge, December 30, 1775. Courtesy Pierpont Morgan Library.
[65] Ramsay Family records.
[66] See reference No. 8, supra.
[67] Deed Book P, 365, December 20, 1784. Fairfax Court House.
[68] Deed Book B, 168, July 14, 1785. Alexandria Land Records.
[69] Fitzpatrick, Diaries of George Washington, II, 342.
[70] From a newspaper clipping in Ramsay Family records.
[71] Fitzpatrick, Diaries, II, 356.
[72] From a newspaper clipping in Ramsay Family records.
Alexandria Deed Book F, 331.
Alexandria Will Book 4, 92.
Fairfax Deed Books: D, No. 1, Part I, 436; D, 380; M, No. 1, 286.
Chapter 2. JOHN CARLYLE AND HIS HOUSE.
[73] Will Book I-D, 368. Fairfax Court House.
[74] Minute Book, 1753 Fairfax Court House.
[75] Will Book, I-D, 368. Fairfax Court House.