Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1926-01-27
TO RESTORE WASHINGToN's
OFFICE

The New York Times of recent
date carried an interesting story of
the effort being made by Graham +.
Blandy of New York and Clarke
county and his committee in the in
terest of the proposed restoration of
the George Washington office build
ing at Greenway near White Post, as
follows:
A neglected scene of George
Washington's youthful labors is now
coming in for its share of public at
tention. The little stone Office will
soon become show spot of Clarke
county, Va.
A hundred and seventy-seven
wears ago George Washington might
have been found there any day fig
uring busily and pouring over out
stretched charts and maps. In the
neighborhood he made his first ac-'
quaintance, as a surveyor, with a
country he was later to know as a
soldier. Here he became accustom-
ed to hardships and privations such
as were to be his lot in the Revolu-
tionary War; The little Office is only
some sixty miles or so from Wash
ington, D. C. When the young sur
veyor worked there it was on wild
frontier.
Henry, Lord Fairfax, was once
visiting his relative, William Fair
fax. When George Washington had
married William Fairfax's daughter.
The great man took fancy to the
boy, just past his seventeenth birth
day. Finding in him abilities and
attainmente beyond his years, he en-
gagged him to survey his vast tracts
of land in the rich valley of the AL
leghanies.
Washington set out in March,
1748, together with George William
Fairfax; and, through Ashby's Gap
in the Blue Ridge Mountains, the
western frontier of inhabited Vir-
ginia, they passed into the valley. In
the wilderness near the Shenandoah
river, about twelve miles from the
present town of Winchester, they
stopped at lodge where Lord Fair.
fax's land bailiff, or steward, dwelt
with as many negroes were neces-
sary to farm the new1y-cleared land.
This first arduous expedition last
ed five weeks. with results of such
satisfaction to Lord Fairfax that he
himself moved across the Blue Ridge
soon afterward, taking up his quar-
tiers at the lodge He laid out a
manor for the place, which he called
Greenway Court, after his ancestral
home in England; but the house was
never built. The master himself
slept in a wooden structure about
twelve feet square. On the lawn
nearby he built a one-storv office.
where his deeds were drawn and quit
rents collected. There the boy Wash
ington did his work, remaining for
three years in the service of Lord
Fairfax. Many of the now famous
plats of his surveys and sub-divi-
sions were made under this roof.
The office has been left largely to
the ravages of time and the elements
in recent years. 1t is almost hidden
from view by a long stretching arm
of a giant locust tree. One window
is concealed behind a screen of
bushes, and over its roof clinging
creeper climbs, its windows broken
and it's single roof is leakv in spots,
But repairs and restoration are now
at hand.
A committee has formed, of which
Graham F. Blandv. of New York, is
chairman, to collect funds for re-
shingling the roof. relaying the floor,
enclosing windows and door, replast-
tering the inside and repainting the
outside walls. By next spring. it is
thought all will be in readiness for
visitors.