Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1895-07-15
THE OLD BRADDocK HOUSE.

houses in America. The place stands
in square on Fairfax street, and com.
prises an antique hotel known as the
Braddock House, while the real point
of interest, the old Carlisle house is not
to be seen f.om the sidewalk at all
The hotel covers the portion of two
sides of square, standing On q corner,
but within its grounds is the smaller
building, both being connected by q
high porch. At the foot of the square
is large garden oyergrown with high
weeds. A few hundred yards off flows
the Potomac river, and the houses
perch Just on the side of the hill. From
the street nothing of the Carlisle house
can be seen, but on passing down the
river full view is obtained.
Standing in rear corridor of the
| hotel one looks out at mansion that
was once the livliest of the hospitable
! abodes of olden times. The bi.cks are
still sound, but the front IS dull with
the rains and suns of fieeting years; the
stately porch of white pillars is shut
in by the towering mass of the
hotel, and the walk in ont is
high in air, the ground having
been cut away to level the new build
ing's foundation. The stone steps on
which the olden gallants whispered al; $
nothings in the moonlight, now catch
only the ceaseless sound of the ticking
wires in the telegraph office below, and
the yard where Washington and La
fayette smoked their cigars, or in ear
lier days, when Lieut.. Washington IN
ferred with Braddock, is but the site oi
business offices and stores.
The Carlisle house is built upon a
vast stone fort, of whose birth histoiy y
has no record, but it is supposed to
have been erected by the very earliest
settlers as defense against the indians,
and some place the date ofits beginning
as early as 1670-years before VIZ sh-
ington was born or any one dreamed
that new republic would spring into
life in the recently discovered world.
The stones are heavy gray ones, and
within the recesses are narrow, damp
cells, which tradition says were used as
slave pens and es stables for the cattle
when the settlers feared an attack by
the Indians. So old is this part that
the iron frame of the doorway, which
in some places is four inches, has in
others rotted off until scarcely an inch
is left. When, in 1882, John S. Car
Isle, collector of the port of AleXan-
dria, and contractor for the work on
Christ Church, made his house, he
simply turned the old fort into cellar
and above it erected mansion, which
is commodious house, even at the pre-
sent day. The first place entered IS q
large hall, into which broad st2;rr1se
curves doWl from the rea-. The wood
of the steps and newel-po3t is of solid
mahogany, and the value thus repre-
sented is said to be several hundred
dollars. On the right are several empty
rooms, which must have been used as
parlors; on the cond floor are any
number of bed chambers, while on the
left of the hall and opposite to the
parlors is room which hss seen most
of the great men who made American
history. 1t is the ball room. a rather
small apartment in contrast with the
magnificent proportions of our modern
palaces on the Hudson or Fifth avenue
but sufficient for the neods of the time.
The walls are tinted blue and the
room is of pauelings of oak. Above
the door and the mantel are elaborate
carvings, and large frame for pictures,
built in the wall like those seen at
Mount Vernon, still remain in
tact. Here it WIS that Washing
ton, then an ambitious young
man, received his commission in
the British amy from the hands of the
English general, Braddock, and 'om
this point they set out on the expedi-
ton to Fort Duquesne, an enterprise
from which Braddock never returned,
for his body wss buried near the place
OF defeat. Washington, being a Lon
tiersman, knew the methods of
warfare employed by the IN
diaDs, and warned Braddock that ii
was useless to fight savage by the mil.
itary tactics of European nations. But.
like most Englishmen, Braddock
thought he knew all that wes neces-
sary, but found too late that Washing.
TOMS advice was the only proper one,
In this house, it is said, the converse.
| ton relative TO Cne e&peuiulon aSal1St
the Indians took place. And it was
| here also that the council of five gov
ernors took place. The men present
were Gov. Dinwiddie, of Virginia; Gov
De Lancey, of New York; Gov. Nor
ris, of Pennsylvania; Gov. Sharpe, O
Massachusetts, and Gov. Shirley.
Tradition has it that it was at the
Carlisle house that Washington met hi:
fate in the person of the charming
Widow Gusts, afderward known a!
Lady Washington. There is also 6
pretty story told about a dance that
Washington had with -Sallie Fairfax
the young sister of Lord Fairfax, in the
ball room one night when they were
about to set out for ball. Washington
caught sight of her flesh, smiling face
as she came tripping down the glisten
! ing stairs, her dainty toes peeping Out
from beneath the soft folds of the huge
satin skirts, and with the gallantry of s
| Chesterfield he took her for partner
in stately minuet, where the two
bowed and curtsied to the strains of al
old violin in the han6s of dnaky