Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1910-02-23
HOMES OF FAMOUS FAMILIES A
DISAPPOINTMENT TO THE
PRESENT GENERATION.
GEORGE WASHINGTON BORN IN A
SMALL FARMHOUSE, AS WERE
MANY NOTABLE PERSONS.

has been the experience or most Amer
leans who hunt up early ancestral
houses.
williamsburg, Va, which has more
early eighteeath century and late
seventeenth century srrvivals than
most towns, has hardly a single great
house, and not one of elaborate archi-
lecture The in1pr sion that the arts
tocratic homes Of Williamsburg made
upon All Il IAN soUsh Of the mid
eighteenth century period is embodied
in his reported exclamation IL ION looA'
ing round he beauties q stance
How can such angels live IN such
hovels?"
Some OF the biggest OF the early
colonial houses still stand on the
banks of the Potomac and the James,
but many of the houses once occupied
by famous Virginia families are
neither very large nor OF distinguished
architecture. White house, the home
OF Widow Curtis, who brought George
Washington fortune, is a good sized
wooden house of plain aspect. George
Washington himself was born in
rather small and very plain farm
house. and the house to which he was
taken as an infant, on the plantation
on the Rappahanock opposite Freder-
icksburg, was just such. another.
! One OF the early Lee homesteads
on the Potomac not far from Wake
field, the birthplace Of Washington, is
plain and rather small house. The
famous Nelson house at yorktown is
fine example of Georgian domestic
architecture belonging to the middle
of the eighteenth century but it is not
a great house tried by the standard of
well-to-do persons today. In fact, it
has but twelve rooms.
| All over Virginia are late seven
teenth and early eighteenth century
houses the bomesteads Of disting
uishea families, but hardly one in five
4 is a great house, Few seventeenth
century houses are left in Maryland,
and the early eighteenth century
houses, whether on the eastern or
western shore, are mostly Of moderate
size.
/ Only the great landowners built
i large houses even in the eighteenth
century. There are a Few large houses
two hundred years old or more in and
about Annapolis. but some of the ia.
nous brick mansions in that little cap,
/ ital are distinguished for symmetry
and for the beauty of their woodwork
/ rather than TO. their size
There stands in Montgomery county
Maryland, one of the seventeenth
century mansions of the Calverts. The
house is historic. Here George Wash.
/ ington was a frequent visitor in Co
/ lonian times and there IS a tradition
/ that upon one occasion he took too
much teddy when visiting the Calvert
Of his day.
! Famous men frequentod the house
| for a century and a half Clay often
visited the Calyerts. and it used to be
said that he wrote in one of the bed
rooms Of his house. The mansion is
a symmetrical building of brick and
stucco, handsomely panelled within
and roomy withal, but families today
! that live on 100000 a year or less are
building houses quite as large.
Beverley, on the Pocomoke river, il
one OF the noblest of eastern shore
mansions. but it dates from the period
| of the revolution not from the seven.
teenth century, and, handsome and
| dignified as it is. it does not rank in
size with the eighteenth century
homes of local magnates. would not
comfortably house a moderately well
to do family of this time
There are a few great old houses
| left standing in Pennsylvania and al
most none that goes back much be
yond the middle of the eighteenth
| century. Stenton. the historic man.
/ sion on the edge of Philadelphia, IN
sight from the Baltimore and Ohio
railroad. is an imposing eighteenth
1 century house, with dieni6ed rooms
and beautiful woodwork. but there are
/ half Dozen modern country houses
of much greater size within few
I miles OF Stenton.
1 Van Courlandt manor house. in
Courtlandt park, IS not a great house.
and Phiiipsa manor house at Yonllers
is hardly larger. In New York. as
elsewhere in this country, there are
/ few great houses that date much he
fore the revolution The New Yorl
Dutch did not build big houses becauzs
ta1y were not rich enough, and tbei
/ case was that Of most New England
ers and OF most soutberners. Ths
carry settlers got to cover as soon a
they could and there were few even Is
tie second generation that could az
ford great houses
New Euglanders became enriched
by trade in the period between the
middle Of the eighteenth and the FIRST
quarter OF the nineteenth century
they began to build big. comfortable
houses. Many We're merely enlarged
from the early houses. others like tn
huge black structures at Salem and
other seaports. were built new from
The foundations up.
Warned By the fires rat DESTROYED
many seventeenth century mang .ons
the New Engianders wto enriched
themselves in whale oil rum. slaves
and the China trade, then built their