Abingdon (plantation)
Encyclopedia
Abingdon was an 18th- and 19th-century plantation
that the prominent Alexander, Custis, Stuart, and Hunter families owned. The plantation's site is now located in Arlington County
in the U.S. state
of Virginia
.
Abingdon is known as the birthplace
of Eleanor "Nelly" Parke Custis Lewis
(March 31, 1779 – July 15, 1852), a granddaughter of Martha Washington
and a step-granddaughter of United States President George Washington
. Abingdon may also have been home to the progenitor of all weeping willows
(Salix babylonica) in the United States
. Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport
, which occupies part of Abingdon's grounds, contains indoor and outdoor displays that commemorate the plantation's history.
, was originally part of a larger holding granted in 1669 by letters patent
to a shipmaster, Robert Howson, for headright
s for settlers that he had brought to the Colony of Virginia. Howson soon sold the patent to a sea captain and surveyor, John Alexander, for 6,000 pounds of tobacco
.
Alexander was descended from the MacDonald clan of Scotland
and was a son of the Earl of Stirling
. He immigrated to Virginia in 1659 and settled in Stafford County
. When Alexander purchased the Howson patent, the patent covered an 8000 acres (3,237.5 ha) site (believed at the time of sale to contain only 6000 acres (2,428.1 ha)) on the southwestern side of the Potomac River.The site was about 2 miles (3.2 km) wide and extended along the Potomac from Hunting Creek
(the southern boundary of the present City of Alexandria
) to the present northern boundary of Arlington National Cemetery
.
After John Alexander's death in 1677, one of his sons, Robert Alexander, acquired the Howson patent by inheritance and by a gift from his brother, Phillip Alexander. In 1746, a survey map that Daniel Jennings prepared showed that Gerrard Alexander, one of Robert Alexander's grandsons, owned a house on a portion of the Howson patent that was north of Four Mile Creek
. Shortly thereafter, in 1749, the town of Alexandria was chartered on a more southerly part of the Howson patent. The town was named in honor of John Alexander and his family, who provided land on which the town was founded.
, the son of Daniel Parke Custis
and Martha Washington
and the stepson of George Washington, purchased Abingdon and its 900 acres (364.2 ha) estate from Robert Alexander, a son of Gerrard Alexander. Custis had been eager to obtain real estate in the Abingdon area on which to raise his family. However, Custis' eagerness and inexperience allowed Robert Alexander to take advantage of him in the transaction, whose £12,000 purchase price and compound interest would require the payment of over £48,000 during a 24 year period. (Some sources claim that General George Washington purchased Abingdon for Custis.) When he learned of the terms of the purchase, Washington informed Custis that "No Virginia Estate (except a few under the best management) can stand simple Interest how then can they bear compound Interest".
Custis chose Abingdon because its property was equidistant between Mount Vernon
, the home of the Washingtons, and the family home of his wife, Eleanor Calvert
, at the Mount Airy estate, whose restored mansion is now in Rosaryville State Park
in Greater Upper Marlboro
, Prince George's County
, Maryland
. Eleanor Calvert was a descendent of Cecilius Calvert, second Lord Baltimore
, a member of the Parliament of England
and the recipient of the charter for the Maryland colony.
During the year (1778) that Custis purchased Abingdon, he was elected to the Virginia General Assembly
as a delegate from Fairfax County
. Shortly after he moved to Abingdon, Custis and his wife had their third surviving daughter, Eleanor (Nelly) Parke Custis
on March 31, 1779. Custis and his wife then began to raise their children Elizabeth Parke Custis Law
, Martha Parke Custis Peter
, Nelly and George Washington Parke Custis
at Abingdon.
However, Custis contracted "camp fever" in 1781 at the Siege of Yorktown
while serving as Washington's aide and died shortly after Cornwallis
surrendered there. Soon afterwards, George Washington "adopted" Custis' two youngest children, Nelly and George, who moved from Abingdon to live with the Washingtons at Mount Vernon. The eldest children, Elizabeth and Martha, remained at Abingdon.
Custis' widow, Eleanor, remarried in the autumn of 1783 to a friend and business associate of George Washington, Dr. David Stuart
. During the period that Dr. Stuart and Eleanor resided at Abingdon, Dr. Stuart served as a delegate from Fairfax County in the Virginia General Assembly and President Washington
appointed him to be one of the three commissioners that would oversee the planning of the nation's new capital city. In 1791, Dr. Stuart and the other commissioners named the capital the "City of Washington" in "The Territory of Columbia" (see: History of Washington, D.C.
). Dr. Stuart and his wife had sixteen children, at least three of whom (Anne Calvert Stuart, Sarah Stuart and Ariana Calvert Stuart) were born while the Stuarts resided at Abingdon.
Although John Parke Custis had become well-established at Abingdon, his financial matters were in a state of disarray due to his poor business judgement and wartime taxation. After his death in 1781, it took the administrators of the Custis Estate more than a decade to negotiate an end to the transaction through which Custis had purchased Abingdon.
Because the estate had been paid for with Continental currency, the heirs of Gerrard Alexander brought suit against the Custis and Stuart families to recover their money. After years of litigation, Abingdon was returned to the Alexander family in 1792. As a result, Walter Alexander obtained ownership of Abingdon.
In 1805, George Wise acquired Abingdon. The Wise family lived at Abingdon until "General" Alexander Hunter acquired the property in 1835.
At the same time that John Parke Custis purchased Abingdon from Robert Alexander, he also purchased outright a 1100 acres (445.2 ha) tract of land from Robert Alexander's brother, Gerrard Alexander (2nd). This more northerly tract, which was separated from Abingdon by a 900 acres (364.2 ha) tract that another Alexander brother, Phillip, had inherited, remained in the possession of the Custis family. George Washington Parke Custis, who inherited this land from his father (John Parke Custis) later constructed and named Arlington House
on a plantation that he developed on the tract.
in 1775-1776 and became an emissary to the British forces there. He befriended a young British officer on the staff of General William Howe, 5th Viscount Howe
. While in Cambridge, Massachusetts
, the officer gave Custis a weeping willow
(Salix babylonica) twig
that the officer had taken from a famous tree that Alexander Pope
had planted at Twickenham
and that was first of its kind in England
. The officer had intended to plant his willow sprig wrapped in oiled silk along a stream
on land he would seize from the Americans. However, following his army's defeat, he decided to give the sprig to Custis. Custis then planted the twig at Abingdon. The resulting tree reportedly became the parent of all of the weeping willows in the United States
at the time of the account (1881).
American General Horatio Gates
planted a slip of the Abingdon willow at the entrance to his Rose Hill Farm in Manhattan
. The tree, which became known as "Gate's Willow", grew there at a site that became the corner of Third Avenue and 22nd Street. The tree was cut down in 1860.
during the War of 1812
, acquired Abingdon from the Wise family. General Hunter was a wealthy man who reportedly spent lavishly to renovate and beautify his house and estate at Abingdon. As U.S. Marshal for the District of Columbia, Hunter was a friend of United States President Andrew Jackson
. Jackson frequently left Washington City
to spend Sundays at Abingdon as Hunter's guest. Hunter reportedly had an inflexible rule that forbade office-seeking and discussions of politics during Jackson's visits. In addition to President Jackson, General Hunter also hosted Presidents John Tyler
and James K. Polk
at Abingdon.
A chamber on the northeast side of the Abingdon house was referred to as "General Washington's room" during Hunter's ownership because George Washington had usually occupied this rooom while visiting his stepson, John Parke Custis. Some authors later stated that General Hunter had told visitors that he chose not to build a more pretentious structure because a house that was good enough for Washington was good enough for him.
General Hunter died in 1849, entrusting Abingdon to his brother Bushrod Washington
Hunter, until Bushrod's son, also named Alexander Hunter, could come of age. Bushrod was a pallbearer
at the 1857 funeral
service for George Washington Parke Custis, whose house at the "Arlington Plantation" was not far from Abingdon.
began in 1861, Bushrod and Alexander Hunter (2nd) left the Abingdon plantation to join Confederate forces
. During the war, a New Jersey
regiment of the Union Army
occupied the Abingdon plantation, calling it "Camp Princeton
".
In 1864, the Federal government of the United States
confiscated Abingdon and the nearby "Arlington Plantation" after the owners of each property failed to pay their taxes in person. (A tenant had offered to pay Abingdon's taxes on behalf of the property owner (Bushrod Hunter). However, the government's tax collector
refused to accept the payment.) The government then sold the Abingdon property to Lucius E. Chittenden
, Register of the Treasury
in the Abraham Lincoln
administration. Chittenden then leased the property to Henry M. Bennett.
In 1904, Alexander Hunter (2nd) authored a book (Johnny Reb and Billy Yank) in which he recorded his recollections of the Civil War and its aftermath. In his book, Hunter stated that his father (Bushrod Hunter) had removed his family to Alexandria and in April 1861 had abandoned Abingdon. He wrote of Abingdon, whose structures and landscaping were apparently destroyed during the war:
decided on March 21, 1870 (Bennett v. Hunter) (76 U.S. (9 Wall.) 326 (1870)). James A. Garfield, a Republican
member of the United States House of Representatives
who had been a Brigadier General
in the Union Army
during the Civil War and who later became the 20th President of the United States, was an attorney
on Hunter's legal team. Congressman Garfield received 40 acres (16.2 ha) of Abingdon as his fee. After moving into the White House
upon his election to the Presidency, he began the process of establishing a country home on his holding. Garfield's heirs and an improvement company continued to hold titles to that portion of the Abingdon estate until around the 1920s.
Following the Civil War, Alexander Hunter (2nd) was employed for 40 years as a clerk in the federal General Land Office
. In 1879, he began a term in the Virginia General Assembly. In 1881, Hunter advertised Abingdon for sale. During the same year, he sold Abingdon at auction to the Alfred Richards Brick Company.
(Hunter v. Hume) that the Supreme Court of Virginia
decided on June 18, 1891. Alexander Hunter (2nd) attempted to recover from Hume a disputed strip of Abingdon land that lay between the Washington and Alexandria Turnpike (now U.S. Route 1
) to the east and the Alexandria Canal (now Eads Street) to the west. The Court ruled that the strip had rightfully passed to Hume.
beside the abandoned Alexandria Canal west of Abingdon. By 1902, the railway was distributing a booklet for tourists that described Abingdon and other historic sites along its route. The booklet illustrated a house at Abingdon (identified as the "birth-place of Nellie Custis") that reportedly stood on the bank of Potomac River, a mile east of the railway's tracks beyond a brickyard
.
In 1900, the New Washington Brick Company purchased the Abingdon property. The company used steam shovel
s to dig yellow clay
out of the fields at Abingdon for the production of brick
used in the construction of buildings in nearby Washington, D.C. In 1912, the Daughters of the American Revolution
reported in their magazine that Abingdon was "gradually being eaten away by the steam shovel before which modern invention many old landmarks must fall." Nevertheless, the Abingdon house was serving in 1922 as the residence of the brick company's superintendent and was in good condition. Vivian Allwine Ford, the supertendent's youngest child, was born in the Abingdon house in 1912 and lived there until 1922. From 1923 to 1927, members of the Beckwith family leased the Abingdon house and farmed the property's land. The property was then vacated.
in the Georgian style
that faced east and west. The house was painted white with green shutters, had a shingled hip roof
, and had a scattering grove of big trees to the front and sides. At the east front was located Abingdon's principal garden where the land sloped gradually down to the Potomac River shore about five hundred yards away. Its beams and rafter
s were of a solid oak
, two feet in diameter. It was two stories in height and exhibited red brick chimneys at the structure's north and south ends.
(RF&P) purchased Abingdon's property to extend its rail yards. By 1928, the Abingdon house was deteriorating. Visitors reported that people were tenting and enjoying a campfire nearby and that souvenir hunters had removed a cornerstone and parts of a chimney. In that year, the Washington Society of Alexandria asked the RF&P to defer the razing of the building until it could be restored. The Mt. Vernon Memorial Highway (now the George Washington Memorial Parkway
) was constructed on Abingdon's grounds between 1929 and 1932.
On March 5, 1930, a fire destroyed the unrestored Abingdon house. The Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities (APVA) (now named "Preservation Virginia") then stabilized the house's ruins. In 1933, the APVA commemorated the site and placed a historical marker there. For more than 50 years thereafter, the Abingdon ruins remained largely undisturbed, despite the surrounding construction and expansion of Washington National Airport, which opened in 1941, and the construction of the nearby "Nelly Custis Airmen's Lounge" A 1950's photograph showed the condition of a part of the ruins during that period.
of the United States Department of Transportation
and other federal agencies owned and operated Washington National Airport until 1997. In that year, the airport was transferred to the newly formed Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority
under a 50-year lease that the Metropolitan Washington Airports Act of 1986 (Title VI of Public Laws 99-500 and 99-591) had authorized. As a result, the Airports Authority obtained control of Abingdon's property, while the Federal government held title to the airport's lease.
Two years later, in 1989, the Airports Authority revealed that it was planning to replace the Abingdon ruins with a new parking garage. To comply with the provisions of Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the Authority commissioned a series of studies that described the history of Abingdon and the archaeological features of the Abingdon site and its surroundings. The final report of the series, issued in 1991, summarized the studies and examined several alternative treatments of the site. The report stated:
The 1991 report concluded with a recommendation from the Authority's engineering division that included:
The Airports Authority's actions ignited a public preservation effort that culminated in 1992 with legislation that the Virginia General Assembly
enacted and that Governor
L. Douglas Wilder approved. The legislation required the Airports Authority to "take all steps necessary to insure the preservation in place, the study, and the interpretation to the public" of the Abingdon ruins during a one year period that followed the law's enactment. During that period, James Wilding, the general manager of the Airports Authority, reported to the Authority's planning committee that multiple options had been identified that would provide adequate parking without having to excavate the Abingdon site.
In 1994, the Airports Authority entered into a Memorandum of Agreement
with Virginia and federal officials that assured, among other things, that the resources and historic setting of the site would be protected and that disturbance of the site's archaeological deposits would be avoided during the airport's redevelopment, which was then proceeding. The Authority also issued a March 1994 "Preservation Program" that summarized the measures that the Authority would take to preserve, repair and protect significant features of the site, while removing other features that the Authority did not consider to be of historic significance.
In 1998, the Airports Authority preserved and repaired some of Abingdon's remnants and removed others. The Authority relocated some of the artifact
s that it found at the site to a display in a new exhibit hall that it constructed in the airport's original 1941 terminal (Terminal A). Parts of the brick foundations of the Abingdon house and its nearby kitchen were preserved, but not all remained visible. Portions of the original foundations were restored using new building materials. In addition, previously buried ruin features were newly reconstructed above ground.
As a result, when the Airports Authority completed the Abingdon site's restoration, the ruins were reportedly gone, the main foundation looked new and a well had been covered over. Photographs of the reconstructed Abingdon house foundation and kitchen/laundry taken in 2008 illustrated the restoration's condition ten years later. A group of 2010 photographs also illustrated various features of the renovation and its surroundings.
.
Plantation
A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...
that the prominent Alexander, Custis, Stuart, and Hunter families owned. The plantation's site is now located in Arlington County
Arlington County, Virginia
Arlington County is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The land that became Arlington was originally donated by Virginia to the United States government to form part of the new federal capital district. On February 27, 1801, the United States Congress organized the area as a subdivision of...
in the U.S. state
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
of Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
.
Abingdon is known as the birthplace
Place of birth
The place of birth is the place where a person was born. This place is often used in legal documents, together with name and date of birth, to uniquely identify a person. The place of birth is not necessarily the place where the parents of the new baby live. If the baby is born in a hospital in...
of Eleanor "Nelly" Parke Custis Lewis
Eleanor Parke Custis Lewis
Eleanor Parke Custis Lewis , known as Nelly, was the granddaughter of Martha Washington and the step-granddaughter of George Washington.-Childhood:Nelly was the daughter of John Parke Custis and Eleanor Calvert Custis...
(March 31, 1779 – July 15, 1852), a granddaughter of Martha Washington
Martha Washington
Martha Dandridge Custis Washington was the wife of George Washington, the first president of the United States. Although the title was not coined until after her death, Martha Washington is considered to be the first First Lady of the United States...
and a step-granddaughter of United States President George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
. Abingdon may also have been home to the progenitor of all weeping willows
Willow
Willows, sallows, and osiers form the genus Salix, around 400 species of deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere...
(Salix babylonica) in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport
Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport
Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport is a public airport located south of downtown Washington, D.C., in Arlington County, Virginia. It is the commercial airport nearest to Washington, D.C. For many decades, it was called Washington National Airport, but this airport was renamed in 1998 to...
, which occupies part of Abingdon's grounds, contains indoor and outdoor displays that commemorate the plantation's history.
Alexander family
The land on which Abingdon was built, known as Gravelly PointGravelly Point
Gravelly Point is a park in Arlington, Virginia, United States. It is located north of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, along the George Washington Parkway, and across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C....
, was originally part of a larger holding granted in 1669 by letters patent
Land patent
A land patent is a land grant made patent by the sovereign lord over the land in question. To make a such a grant “patent”, such a sovereign lord must document the land grant, securely sign and seal the document and openly publish the same to the public for all to see...
to a shipmaster, Robert Howson, for headright
Headright
A headright system is a legal grant of land to settlers who lived in Jamestown, Virginia. Headrights are most notable for their role in the expansion of the thirteen British colonies in North America; the Virginia Company of London gave headrights to settlers, and the Plymouth Company followed suit...
s for settlers that he had brought to the Colony of Virginia. Howson soon sold the patent to a sea captain and surveyor, John Alexander, for 6,000 pounds of tobacco
Tobacco
Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...
.
Alexander was descended from the MacDonald clan of Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
and was a son of the Earl of Stirling
Earl of Stirling
Earl of Stirling was a title in the Peerage of Scotland created on 14 June 1633, along with the titles Viscount Canada and Lord Alexander of Tullibody, for William Alexander, 1st Viscount Stirling. He had already been created Viscount of Stirling and Lord Alexander of Tullibody on 4 September 1630...
. He immigrated to Virginia in 1659 and settled in Stafford County
Stafford County, Virginia
Stafford County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia, a U.S. state, and just across the Rappahannock River from the City of Fredericksburg. As of the 2000 census, the population was 92,446, increasing to 128,961 in 2010.. Its county seat is Stafford. In 2006, and again in 2009,...
. When Alexander purchased the Howson patent, the patent covered an 8000 acres (3,237.5 ha) site (believed at the time of sale to contain only 6000 acres (2,428.1 ha)) on the southwestern side of the Potomac River.The site was about 2 miles (3.2 km) wide and extended along the Potomac from Hunting Creek
Hunting Creek
Hunting Creek is a cove and tributary stream of the Potomac River between the City of Alexandria and Fairfax County in Virginia. It is formed by the confluence of Cameron Run and Hooff Run. The community of Huntington takes its name from the creek. Jones Point forms the north side. Dyke Marsh is...
(the southern boundary of the present City of Alexandria
Alexandria, Virginia
Alexandria is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of 2009, the city had a total population of 139,966. Located along the Western bank of the Potomac River, Alexandria is approximately six miles south of downtown Washington, D.C.Like the rest of northern Virginia, as well as...
) to the present northern boundary of Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, is a military cemetery in the United States of America, established during the American Civil War on the grounds of Arlington House, formerly the estate of the family of Confederate general Robert E. Lee's wife Mary Anna Lee, a great...
.
After John Alexander's death in 1677, one of his sons, Robert Alexander, acquired the Howson patent by inheritance and by a gift from his brother, Phillip Alexander. In 1746, a survey map that Daniel Jennings prepared showed that Gerrard Alexander, one of Robert Alexander's grandsons, owned a house on a portion of the Howson patent that was north of Four Mile Creek
Four Mile Run
Four Mile Run is a stream in northern Virginia that starts near Interstate 66, at Gordon Avenue in Fairfax County and proceeds southeast through Falls Church to Arlington County in the U.S. state of Virginia...
. Shortly thereafter, in 1749, the town of Alexandria was chartered on a more southerly part of the Howson patent. The town was named in honor of John Alexander and his family, who provided land on which the town was founded.
Custis and Stuart families
In 1778, John Parke CustisJohn Parke Custis
John Parke Custis was a Virginia planter, the son of Martha Washington and stepson of George Washington.-Childhood:...
, the son of Daniel Parke Custis
Daniel Parke Custis
Daniel Parke Custis was a wealthy Virginia planter whose widow, Martha, married George Washington.He was the son of John Custis , a powerful member of Virginia's Governor's Council, and Frances Parke Custis...
and Martha Washington
Martha Washington
Martha Dandridge Custis Washington was the wife of George Washington, the first president of the United States. Although the title was not coined until after her death, Martha Washington is considered to be the first First Lady of the United States...
and the stepson of George Washington, purchased Abingdon and its 900 acres (364.2 ha) estate from Robert Alexander, a son of Gerrard Alexander. Custis had been eager to obtain real estate in the Abingdon area on which to raise his family. However, Custis' eagerness and inexperience allowed Robert Alexander to take advantage of him in the transaction, whose £12,000 purchase price and compound interest would require the payment of over £48,000 during a 24 year period. (Some sources claim that General George Washington purchased Abingdon for Custis.) When he learned of the terms of the purchase, Washington informed Custis that "No Virginia Estate (except a few under the best management) can stand simple Interest how then can they bear compound Interest".
Custis chose Abingdon because its property was equidistant between Mount Vernon
Mount Vernon
The name Mount Vernon is a dedication to the English Vice-Admiral Edward Vernon. It was first applied to Mount Vernon, the Virginia estate of George Washington, the first President of the United States...
, the home of the Washingtons, and the family home of his wife, Eleanor Calvert
Eleanor Calvert
Eleanor Calvert Custis Stuart was a prominent member of the Calvert family of Maryland. Upon her marriage to John Parke Custis, she became the daughter-in-law of Martha Dandridge Custis Washington and the stepdaughter-in-law of George Washington...
, at the Mount Airy estate, whose restored mansion is now in Rosaryville State Park
Rosaryville State Park
Rosaryville State Park is a state park in Greater Upper Marlboro, Prince George's County, Maryland. It includes the restored Mount Airy Mansion, an event facility that Pineapple Alley Catering, Inc. operates...
in Greater Upper Marlboro
Greater Upper Marlboro, Maryland
Greater Upper Marlboro is a census-designated place in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States that completely surrounds Upper Marlboro, the county seat...
, Prince George's County
Prince George's County, Maryland
Prince George's County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maryland, immediately north, east, and south of Washington, DC. As of 2010, it has a population of 863,420 and is the wealthiest African-American majority county in the nation....
, Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
. Eleanor Calvert was a descendent of Cecilius Calvert, second Lord Baltimore
Cecilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore
Cecilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, 1st Proprietor and 1st Proprietary Governor of Maryland, 9th Proprietary Governor of Newfoundland , was an English peer who was the first proprietor of the Province of Maryland. He received the proprietorship after the death of his father, George Calvert, the...
, a member of the Parliament of England
Parliament of England
The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England. In 1066, William of Normandy introduced a feudal system, by which he sought the advice of a council of tenants-in-chief and ecclesiastics before making laws...
and the recipient of the charter for the Maryland colony.
During the year (1778) that Custis purchased Abingdon, he was elected to the Virginia General Assembly
Virginia General Assembly
The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the oldest legislative body in the Western Hemisphere, established on July 30, 1619. The General Assembly is a bicameral body consisting of a lower house, the Virginia House of Delegates, with 100 members,...
as a delegate from Fairfax County
Fairfax County, Virginia
Fairfax County is a county in Virginia, in the United States. Per the 2010 Census, the population of the county is 1,081,726, making it the most populous jurisdiction in the Commonwealth of Virginia, with 13.5% of Virginia's population...
. Shortly after he moved to Abingdon, Custis and his wife had their third surviving daughter, Eleanor (Nelly) Parke Custis
Eleanor Parke Custis Lewis
Eleanor Parke Custis Lewis , known as Nelly, was the granddaughter of Martha Washington and the step-granddaughter of George Washington.-Childhood:Nelly was the daughter of John Parke Custis and Eleanor Calvert Custis...
on March 31, 1779. Custis and his wife then began to raise their children Elizabeth Parke Custis Law
Elizabeth Parke Custis Law
Elizabeth Parke Custis Law was a granddaughter of Martha Dandridge Washington and the step-granddaughter of George Washington. She was a social leader of the District of Columbia and a preserver of the Washington family heritage.-Early life:Elizabeth Parke Custis was born on 21 August 1776...
, Martha Parke Custis Peter
Martha Parke Custis Peter
Martha Parke Custis Peter was a granddaughter of Martha Dandridge Washington and the step-granddaughter of George Washington.-Early life:Martha Parke Custis was born on 31 December 1777 in the Blue Room at Mount Vernon...
, Nelly and George Washington Parke Custis
George Washington Parke Custis
George Washington Parke Custis , the step-grandson of United States President George Washington, was a nineteenth-century American writer, orator, and agricultural reformer.-Family:...
at Abingdon.
However, Custis contracted "camp fever" in 1781 at the Siege of Yorktown
Siege of Yorktown
The Siege of Yorktown, Battle of Yorktown, or Surrender of Yorktown in 1781 was a decisive victory by a combined assault of American forces led by General George Washington and French forces led by the Comte de Rochambeau over a British Army commanded by Lieutenant General Lord Cornwallis...
while serving as Washington's aide and died shortly after Cornwallis
Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis
Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis KG , styled Viscount Brome between 1753 and 1762 and known as The Earl Cornwallis between 1762 and 1792, was a British Army officer and colonial administrator...
surrendered there. Soon afterwards, George Washington "adopted" Custis' two youngest children, Nelly and George, who moved from Abingdon to live with the Washingtons at Mount Vernon. The eldest children, Elizabeth and Martha, remained at Abingdon.
Custis' widow, Eleanor, remarried in the autumn of 1783 to a friend and business associate of George Washington, Dr. David Stuart
David Stuart (Virginia)
David Stuart was an associate and correspondent of George Washington. When Washington became President of the United States, he appointed Stuart to be one of the three commissioners that were in charge of siting and designing the nation's new capital city.-Private life:Born in Scotland, Stuart...
. During the period that Dr. Stuart and Eleanor resided at Abingdon, Dr. Stuart served as a delegate from Fairfax County in the Virginia General Assembly and President Washington
Presidency of George Washington
With inauguration on April 30, 1789, the presidency of George Washington initiated a significant leadership role over the United States. President Washington entered office with the full support of the national and state leadership, and established the executive and judicial branches of the federal...
appointed him to be one of the three commissioners that would oversee the planning of the nation's new capital city. In 1791, Dr. Stuart and the other commissioners named the capital the "City of Washington" in "The Territory of Columbia" (see: History of Washington, D.C.
History of Washington, D.C.
The history of Washington, D.C. is tied to its role as the capital of the United States. Originally inhabited by an Algonquian-speaking people known as the Nacotchtank, the site of the District of Columbia along the Potomac River was originally selected by President George Washington. The city came...
). Dr. Stuart and his wife had sixteen children, at least three of whom (Anne Calvert Stuart, Sarah Stuart and Ariana Calvert Stuart) were born while the Stuarts resided at Abingdon.
Although John Parke Custis had become well-established at Abingdon, his financial matters were in a state of disarray due to his poor business judgement and wartime taxation. After his death in 1781, it took the administrators of the Custis Estate more than a decade to negotiate an end to the transaction through which Custis had purchased Abingdon.
Because the estate had been paid for with Continental currency, the heirs of Gerrard Alexander brought suit against the Custis and Stuart families to recover their money. After years of litigation, Abingdon was returned to the Alexander family in 1792. As a result, Walter Alexander obtained ownership of Abingdon.
In 1805, George Wise acquired Abingdon. The Wise family lived at Abingdon until "General" Alexander Hunter acquired the property in 1835.
At the same time that John Parke Custis purchased Abingdon from Robert Alexander, he also purchased outright a 1100 acres (445.2 ha) tract of land from Robert Alexander's brother, Gerrard Alexander (2nd). This more northerly tract, which was separated from Abingdon by a 900 acres (364.2 ha) tract that another Alexander brother, Phillip, had inherited, remained in the possession of the Custis family. George Washington Parke Custis, who inherited this land from his father (John Parke Custis) later constructed and named Arlington House
Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial
Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial, formerly named the Custis-Lee Mansion, is a Greek revival style mansion located in Arlington, Virginia, USA that was once the home of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. It overlooks the Potomac River, directly across from the National Mall in Washington,...
on a plantation that he developed on the tract.
Weeping willow
According to one account, John Parke Custis served on George Washington's staff during the Siege of BostonSiege of Boston
The Siege of Boston was the opening phase of the American Revolutionary War, in which New England militiamen—who later became part of the Continental Army—surrounded the town of Boston, Massachusetts, to prevent movement by the British Army garrisoned within...
in 1775-1776 and became an emissary to the British forces there. He befriended a young British officer on the staff of General William Howe, 5th Viscount Howe
William Howe, 5th Viscount Howe
William Howe, 5th Viscount Howe, KB, PC was a British army officer who rose to become Commander-in-Chief of British forces during the American War of Independence...
. While in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
, the officer gave Custis a weeping willow
Willow
Willows, sallows, and osiers form the genus Salix, around 400 species of deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere...
(Salix babylonica) twig
Twig
A twig is a small thin terminal branch of a woody plant. Twigs are critically important in identification of trees, shrubs and vines, especially in wintertime. The buds on the twig are an important diagnostic characteristic, as are the abscission scars where the leaves have fallen away...
that the officer had taken from a famous tree that Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope was an 18th-century English poet, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. He is the third-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson...
had planted at Twickenham
Twickenham
Twickenham is a large suburban town southwest of central London. It is the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and one of the locally important district centres identified in the London Plan...
and that was first of its kind in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. The officer had intended to plant his willow sprig wrapped in oiled silk along a stream
Stream
A stream is a body of water with a current, confined within a bed and stream banks. Depending on its locale or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to as a branch, brook, beck, burn, creek, "crick", gill , kill, lick, rill, river, syke, bayou, rivulet, streamage, wash, run or...
on land he would seize from the Americans. However, following his army's defeat, he decided to give the sprig to Custis. Custis then planted the twig at Abingdon. The resulting tree reportedly became the parent of all of the weeping willows in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
at the time of the account (1881).
American General Horatio Gates
Horatio Gates
Horatio Lloyd Gates was a retired British soldier who served as an American general during the Revolutionary War. He took credit for the American victory at the Battle of Saratoga – Benedict Arnold, who led the attack, was finally forced from the field when he was shot in the leg – and...
planted a slip of the Abingdon willow at the entrance to his Rose Hill Farm in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
. The tree, which became known as "Gate's Willow", grew there at a site that became the corner of Third Avenue and 22nd Street. The tree was cut down in 1860.
Hunter family
"General" Alexander Hunter, a descendant of the Alexander family who had served at the Battle of BladensburgBattle of Bladensburg
The Battle of Bladensburg took place during the War of 1812. The defeat of the American forces there allowed the British to capture and burn the public buildings of Washington, D.C...
during the War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
, acquired Abingdon from the Wise family. General Hunter was a wealthy man who reportedly spent lavishly to renovate and beautify his house and estate at Abingdon. As U.S. Marshal for the District of Columbia, Hunter was a friend of United States President Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States . Based in frontier Tennessee, Jackson was a politician and army general who defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend , and the British at the Battle of New Orleans...
. Jackson frequently left Washington City
History of Washington, D.C.
The history of Washington, D.C. is tied to its role as the capital of the United States. Originally inhabited by an Algonquian-speaking people known as the Nacotchtank, the site of the District of Columbia along the Potomac River was originally selected by President George Washington. The city came...
to spend Sundays at Abingdon as Hunter's guest. Hunter reportedly had an inflexible rule that forbade office-seeking and discussions of politics during Jackson's visits. In addition to President Jackson, General Hunter also hosted Presidents John Tyler
John Tyler
John Tyler was the tenth President of the United States . A native of Virginia, Tyler served as a state legislator, governor, U.S. representative, and U.S. senator before being elected Vice President . He was the first to succeed to the office of President following the death of a predecessor...
and James K. Polk
James K. Polk
James Knox Polk was the 11th President of the United States . Polk was born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. He later lived in and represented Tennessee. A Democrat, Polk served as the 17th Speaker of the House of Representatives and the 12th Governor of Tennessee...
at Abingdon.
A chamber on the northeast side of the Abingdon house was referred to as "General Washington's room" during Hunter's ownership because George Washington had usually occupied this rooom while visiting his stepson, John Parke Custis. Some authors later stated that General Hunter had told visitors that he chose not to build a more pretentious structure because a house that was good enough for Washington was good enough for him.
General Hunter died in 1849, entrusting Abingdon to his brother Bushrod Washington
Bushrod Washington
Bushrod Washington was a U.S. Supreme Court associate justice and the nephew of George Washington.Washington was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, and was the son of John Augustine Washington, brother of the first president. Bushrod attended Delamere, an academy administered by the Rev....
Hunter, until Bushrod's son, also named Alexander Hunter, could come of age. Bushrod was a pallbearer
Pallbearer
A pall-bearer is one of several funeral participants who helps carry the casket of a deceased person from a religious or memorial service or viewing either directly to a cemetery or mausoleum, or to and from the hearse which carries the coffin....
at the 1857 funeral
Funeral
A funeral is a ceremony for celebrating, sanctifying, or remembering the life of a person who has died. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember the dead, from interment itself, to various monuments, prayers, and rituals undertaken in their honor...
service for George Washington Parke Custis, whose house at the "Arlington Plantation" was not far from Abingdon.
American Civil War
When the American Civil WarAmerican Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
began in 1861, Bushrod and Alexander Hunter (2nd) left the Abingdon plantation to join Confederate forces
Military of the Confederate States of America
The Military of the Confederate States of America comprised three branches:* Confederate States Army - The Confederate States Army the land-based military operations...
. During the war, a New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
regiment of the Union Army
Union Army
The Union Army was the land force that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. It was also known as the Federal Army, the U.S. Army, the Northern Army and the National Army...
occupied the Abingdon plantation, calling it "Camp Princeton
Princeton, New Jersey
Princeton is a community located in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It is best known as the location of Princeton University, which has been sited in the community since 1756...
".
In 1864, the Federal government of the United States
Federal government of the United States
The federal government of the United States is the national government of the constitutional republic of fifty states that is the United States of America. The federal government comprises three distinct branches of government: a legislative, an executive and a judiciary. These branches and...
confiscated Abingdon and the nearby "Arlington Plantation" after the owners of each property failed to pay their taxes in person. (A tenant had offered to pay Abingdon's taxes on behalf of the property owner (Bushrod Hunter). However, the government's tax collector
Tax collector
A tax collector is a person who collects unpaid taxes from other people or corporations. Tax collectors are often portrayed in fiction as being evil, and in the modern world share a somewhat similar stereotype to that of lawyers....
refused to accept the payment.) The government then sold the Abingdon property to Lucius E. Chittenden
Lucius E. Chittenden
Lucius Eugene Chittenden was a Vermont author, banker, lawyer, politician and peace advocate who served as Register of the Treasury during the Lincoln administration.-Early life:...
, Register of the Treasury
Register of the Treasury
The Register of the Treasury was an office of the United States Treasury Department. In 1919, the Register became the Public Debt Service which, in 1940, became the Bureau of the Public Debt....
in the Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
administration. Chittenden then leased the property to Henry M. Bennett.
In 1904, Alexander Hunter (2nd) authored a book (Johnny Reb and Billy Yank) in which he recorded his recollections of the Civil War and its aftermath. In his book, Hunter stated that his father (Bushrod Hunter) had removed his family to Alexandria and in April 1861 had abandoned Abingdon. He wrote of Abingdon, whose structures and landscaping were apparently destroyed during the war:
We lived on a splendid estate of 650 acres, lying on the Potomac, between Alexandria and Washington. I doubt whether in the whole Southland there had existed a finer country seat; the house was built solidly, as if to defy time itself, with its beautiful trees, fine orchards, its terraced lawns, graveled walks leading to the river a quarter of a mile away; the splendid barns, the stables with fine horses (for which my father, a retired naval officer, had a special fondness), the servants quarters, where dwelt the old family retainers and their offspring, some fifty or more. ... The land was there after the war, but that was all.
Post-Civil War
After the Civil War ended, Alexander Hunter (2nd), who by that time had inherited Abingdon, succeeded in recovering his land in a case that the Supreme Court of the United StatesSupreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
decided on March 21, 1870 (Bennett v. Hunter) (76 U.S. (9 Wall.) 326 (1870)). James A. Garfield, a Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
member of the United States House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
who had been a Brigadier General
Brigadier general (United States)
A brigadier general in the United States Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps, is a one-star general officer, with the pay grade of O-7. Brigadier general ranks above a colonel and below major general. Brigadier general is equivalent to the rank of rear admiral in the other uniformed...
in the Union Army
Union Army
The Union Army was the land force that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. It was also known as the Federal Army, the U.S. Army, the Northern Army and the National Army...
during the Civil War and who later became the 20th President of the United States, was an attorney
Attorney at law
An attorney at law in the United States is a practitioner in a court of law who is legally qualified to prosecute and defend actions in such court on the retainer of clients. Alternative terms include counselor and lawyer...
on Hunter's legal team. Congressman Garfield received 40 acres (16.2 ha) of Abingdon as his fee. After moving into the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
upon his election to the Presidency, he began the process of establishing a country home on his holding. Garfield's heirs and an improvement company continued to hold titles to that portion of the Abingdon estate until around the 1920s.
Following the Civil War, Alexander Hunter (2nd) was employed for 40 years as a clerk in the federal General Land Office
General Land Office
The General Land Office was an independent agency of the United States government responsible for public domain lands in the United States. It was created in 1812 to take over functions previously conducted by the United States Department of the Treasury...
. In 1879, he began a term in the Virginia General Assembly. In 1881, Hunter advertised Abingdon for sale. During the same year, he sold Abingdon at auction to the Alfred Richards Brick Company.
Hunter v. Hume
Abingdon became the subject of a legal caseLegal case
A legal case is a dispute between opposing parties resolved by a court, or by some equivalent legal process. A legal case may be either civil or criminal...
(Hunter v. Hume) that the Supreme Court of Virginia
Supreme Court of Virginia
The Supreme Court of Virginia is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It primarily hears appeals from the trial-level city and county Circuit Courts, as well as the criminal law, family law and administrative law cases that go through the Court of Appeals of Virginia. It is one of...
decided on June 18, 1891. Alexander Hunter (2nd) attempted to recover from Hume a disputed strip of Abingdon land that lay between the Washington and Alexandria Turnpike (now U.S. Route 1
U.S. Route 1 in Virginia
U.S. Route 1 in the U.S. state of Virginia runs north–south through South Hill, Petersburg, Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Alexandria on its way from North Carolina to the 14th Street Bridge into the District of Columbia...
) to the east and the Alexandria Canal (now Eads Street) to the west. The Court ruled that the strip had rightfully passed to Hume.
Industrialization
In 1896, the Washington, Alexandria and Mount Vernon Railway began to run electric trolleysTram
A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...
beside the abandoned Alexandria Canal west of Abingdon. By 1902, the railway was distributing a booklet for tourists that described Abingdon and other historic sites along its route. The booklet illustrated a house at Abingdon (identified as the "birth-place of Nellie Custis") that reportedly stood on the bank of Potomac River, a mile east of the railway's tracks beyond a brickyard
Brickyard
A brickyard is a place or yard where the earthen building material called bricks are made, fired, and stored, or sometimes sold or otherwise distributed from.-See also:...
.
In 1900, the New Washington Brick Company purchased the Abingdon property. The company used steam shovel
Steam shovel
A steam shovel is a large steam-powered excavating machine designed for lifting and moving material such as rock and soil. It is the earliest type of power shovel or excavator. They played a major role in public works in the 19th and early 20th century, being key to the construction of railroads...
s to dig yellow clay
Clay
Clay is a general term including many combinations of one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter. Geologic clay deposits are mostly composed of phyllosilicate minerals containing variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure.- Formation :Clay minerals...
out of the fields at Abingdon for the production of brick
Brick
A brick is a block of ceramic material used in masonry construction, usually laid using various kinds of mortar. It has been regarded as one of the longest lasting and strongest building materials used throughout history.-History:...
used in the construction of buildings in nearby Washington, D.C. In 1912, the Daughters of the American Revolution
Daughters of the American Revolution
The Daughters of the American Revolution is a lineage-based membership organization for women who are descended from a person involved in United States' independence....
reported in their magazine that Abingdon was "gradually being eaten away by the steam shovel before which modern invention many old landmarks must fall." Nevertheless, the Abingdon house was serving in 1922 as the residence of the brick company's superintendent and was in good condition. Vivian Allwine Ford, the supertendent's youngest child, was born in the Abingdon house in 1912 and lived there until 1922. From 1923 to 1927, members of the Beckwith family leased the Abingdon house and farmed the property's land. The property was then vacated.
Structural and landscape architecture
The house at Abingdon that existed during the early 20th century had a wood-frameTimber framing
Timber framing , or half-timbering, also called in North America "post-and-beam" construction, is the method of creating structures using heavy squared off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs . It is commonplace in large barns...
in the Georgian style
Georgian architecture
Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1720 and 1840. It is eponymous for the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover—George I of Great Britain, George II of Great Britain, George III of the United...
that faced east and west. The house was painted white with green shutters, had a shingled hip roof
Hip roof
A hip roof, or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope. Thus it is a house with no gables or other vertical sides to the roof. A square hip roof is shaped like a pyramid. Hip roofs on the houses could have two triangular side...
, and had a scattering grove of big trees to the front and sides. At the east front was located Abingdon's principal garden where the land sloped gradually down to the Potomac River shore about five hundred yards away. Its beams and rafter
Rafter
A rafter is one of a series of sloped structural members , that extend from the ridge or hip to the downslope perimeter or eave, designed to support the roof deck and its associated loads.-Design:...
s were of a solid oak
Oak
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...
, two feet in diameter. It was two stories in height and exhibited red brick chimneys at the structure's north and south ends.
Deterioration, burning and stabilization
In 1924, the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac RailroadRichmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad
The Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac Railroad was a railroad connecting Richmond, Virginia, to Washington, D.C. It is now a portion of the CSX Transportation system....
(RF&P) purchased Abingdon's property to extend its rail yards. By 1928, the Abingdon house was deteriorating. Visitors reported that people were tenting and enjoying a campfire nearby and that souvenir hunters had removed a cornerstone and parts of a chimney. In that year, the Washington Society of Alexandria asked the RF&P to defer the razing of the building until it could be restored. The Mt. Vernon Memorial Highway (now the George Washington Memorial Parkway
George Washington Memorial Parkway
The George Washington Memorial Parkway, known to local motorists simply as the "G.W. Parkway", is a parkway maintained by the U.S. National Park Service. It is located mostly in Northern Virginia, although a short section northwest of the Arlington Memorial Bridge passes over Columbia Island,...
) was constructed on Abingdon's grounds between 1929 and 1932.
On March 5, 1930, a fire destroyed the unrestored Abingdon house. The Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities (APVA) (now named "Preservation Virginia") then stabilized the house's ruins. In 1933, the APVA commemorated the site and placed a historical marker there. For more than 50 years thereafter, the Abingdon ruins remained largely undisturbed, despite the surrounding construction and expansion of Washington National Airport, which opened in 1941, and the construction of the nearby "Nelly Custis Airmen's Lounge" A 1950's photograph showed the condition of a part of the ruins during that period.
Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority
The Federal Aviation AdministrationFederal Aviation Administration
The Federal Aviation Administration is the national aviation authority of the United States. An agency of the United States Department of Transportation, it has authority to regulate and oversee all aspects of civil aviation in the U.S...
of the United States Department of Transportation
United States Department of Transportation
The United States Department of Transportation is a federal Cabinet department of the United States government concerned with transportation. It was established by an act of Congress on October 15, 1966, and began operation on April 1, 1967...
and other federal agencies owned and operated Washington National Airport until 1997. In that year, the airport was transferred to the newly formed Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority
Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority
Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority is an independent airport authority, created by the Commonwealth of Virginia and the District of Columbia with the consent of the United States Congress to oversee management, operations, and capital development of Washington, D.C.'s two major airports:...
under a 50-year lease that the Metropolitan Washington Airports Act of 1986 (Title VI of Public Laws 99-500 and 99-591) had authorized. As a result, the Airports Authority obtained control of Abingdon's property, while the Federal government held title to the airport's lease.
Two years later, in 1989, the Airports Authority revealed that it was planning to replace the Abingdon ruins with a new parking garage. To comply with the provisions of Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the Authority commissioned a series of studies that described the history of Abingdon and the archaeological features of the Abingdon site and its surroundings. The final report of the series, issued in 1991, summarized the studies and examined several alternative treatments of the site. The report stated:
... the Virginia Department of Historic Resources (State Historic Preservation Office) concluded that there was insufficient evidence to link the existing "ruins" with any of the important historic individuals or families reported to have lived on the property. At the present time, there is no concrete evidence on the construction date or history of occupation of the structure represented by the existing ruins.
The 1991 report concluded with a recommendation from the Authority's engineering division that included:
..... the undertaking of an appropriate archaeological data recovery program at the site and the construction of a "museum quality" interpretive exhibit to be located within the terminal complex. Once data recovery was performed, parking structure construction would follow. That basis for this recommendation was the intention to avoid an adverse effect to the Abingdon Site (through comprehensive archaeological data recovery and public interpretation program) while at the same time providing the desired amount of parking in the near-terminal area.
The Airports Authority's actions ignited a public preservation effort that culminated in 1992 with legislation that the Virginia General Assembly
Virginia General Assembly
The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the oldest legislative body in the Western Hemisphere, established on July 30, 1619. The General Assembly is a bicameral body consisting of a lower house, the Virginia House of Delegates, with 100 members,...
enacted and that Governor
Governor of Virginia
The governor of Virginia serves as the chief executive of the Commonwealth of Virginia for a four-year term. The position is currently held by Republican Bob McDonnell, who was inaugurated on January 16, 2010, as the 71st governor of Virginia....
L. Douglas Wilder approved. The legislation required the Airports Authority to "take all steps necessary to insure the preservation in place, the study, and the interpretation to the public" of the Abingdon ruins during a one year period that followed the law's enactment. During that period, James Wilding, the general manager of the Airports Authority, reported to the Authority's planning committee that multiple options had been identified that would provide adequate parking without having to excavate the Abingdon site.
In 1994, the Airports Authority entered into a Memorandum of Agreement
Memorandum of Agreement
A memorandum of agreement or cooperative agreement is a document written between parties to cooperatively work together on an agreed upon project or meet an agreed objective. The purpose of an MOA is to have a written understanding of the agreement between parties.An MOA is a good tool to use for...
with Virginia and federal officials that assured, among other things, that the resources and historic setting of the site would be protected and that disturbance of the site's archaeological deposits would be avoided during the airport's redevelopment, which was then proceeding. The Authority also issued a March 1994 "Preservation Program" that summarized the measures that the Authority would take to preserve, repair and protect significant features of the site, while removing other features that the Authority did not consider to be of historic significance.
In 1998, the Airports Authority preserved and repaired some of Abingdon's remnants and removed others. The Authority relocated some of the artifact
Artifact (archaeology)
An artifact or artefact is "something made or given shape by man, such as a tool or a work of art, esp an object of archaeological interest"...
s that it found at the site to a display in a new exhibit hall that it constructed in the airport's original 1941 terminal (Terminal A). Parts of the brick foundations of the Abingdon house and its nearby kitchen were preserved, but not all remained visible. Portions of the original foundations were restored using new building materials. In addition, previously buried ruin features were newly reconstructed above ground.
As a result, when the Airports Authority completed the Abingdon site's restoration, the ruins were reportedly gone, the main foundation looked new and a well had been covered over. Photographs of the reconstructed Abingdon house foundation and kitchen/laundry taken in 2008 illustrated the restoration's condition ten years later. A group of 2010 photographs also illustrated various features of the renovation and its surroundings.
Historical markers at the Abingdon Plantation site
The Airport Authority's Abingdon Plantation site contains a sequential series of nine historical markers that describe the history of the plantation, its occupants and its site. The Airports Authority erected all but two of these. The markers are:- The Ages of Abingdon
- The Alexander Family
- Abingdon and John Alexander
- The Custis Family
- Abingdon Plantation
- The Hunter Family
- The Industrial Age
- Abingdon
- Abingdon Plantation Restoration
Location
The Abingdon Plantation site is located on a knoll between the airport's parking Garage A and Garage B/C. It can be reached by walking from either garage, from the south end of the nearby Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport Metrorail station and from the Mount Vernon Bike-Hike TrailMount Vernon Trail
The Mount Vernon Trail is a popular running and bike path in Northern Virginia that follows the west bank of the Potomac River from near Theodore Roosevelt Island to Mount Vernon. The northern, urban half is open and has views of Washington, D.C. across the river. The southern below Alexandria is...
.