Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-07-06
Wakefield Workme1l.

One READS IN the daily press how a
foreman and several skilled journeymen
Drickmakers will go to Wakefield Planta-
ton, on the lower Potomac, there to
manufacture the handmade bricks which
are to be so essential a part of the
restored manor house where the Father
OF His Country first saw the light.
These skilled workers have been making
similar bricks for the restored ancient
houses at Williamsburg, Colonial capital
OF the Old Dominion. They are being
loaned by John D. Rockefeller, jr,
angel" of the latter project.
The bricks will be made on the spot
and Of fine clay there available, which
was utilized to make the first house Of
Wakefield. Similar splendid clay de-
posts were scattered at frequent inter-
walls throughout Virginia and Maryland,
which leads to the fact-one often con-
tradicted by fanciful tradition-that
practically all the bricks used in the
Middle Atlantic colonies did not have to
be and were not imported from Eng
land, Holland or anywhere else. In
the early chronicles Of these colonies
occur frequent references to fine clays
and requests for the importation Of
skilled brickmakers to use them.
Those who have delved into the rec
ords and the facts make frequent men
ton OF this beneficial situation. In
The Chesapeake Bay Country by
Swepson Earle, conservation commits
sioner Of Maryland, occur such items as
To making bricks, as per agreement"
such and such an amount per thousand.
There Is pleasing but improbable
tradition that the bricks of this-and-
that house or church in Tidewater were
brought from England" states Paul
Wilstach in his "Tidewater Virginia"
but such importations were few; nom
significant by both the records and the
logic Of the situation. Nearly every
where in Tidewater are deposits Of ex-
cellent brick clay and such material
was, literally, as cheap as dirt Ships
out Of England were small and in them
every inch Of space was needed for
the stowage Of manufactured articles
OF every character" They went out
laden with tobacco and came back
loaded with f1neries and luxuries. furni-
ture, books, wines, spinets, huntsmen's
saddles, coaches and all the parapher-
MALTA Of dignified and cultured luxury"
Mistakes prevail in regard to these
and similar reservations" says Charles
Moore, chairman of the Fine Arts Com
mission, in his latest book, Washing
ton, Past and Present" in a discuss
sion Of the reservations Of certain of
the old structures Of William and Mary
College, Williamsburg, Va. THE bricks
we're not brought from England, but
were made in this country, usually
not far from the spot where the build
ing was erected. Again, Hessian pris-
oners did no decorations in America,
so far as is known. 1t is too bad that
persons showing historic buildings to
visitors cannot seem to keep to the
truth, which is much more interesting
than their fiction"
In another chapter, describing the
first opening under President Jefferson
Of Pennsylvania avenue. until then only
designated by lines on L'Enfant's plan
map, he tells how the ukase Move
your brick-yards" went forth to the
occupants Of the territory to be in
cluded within the street. Notice the
plural. And yet one hears at recurrent
intervals the yarn that a certain build
ing in Georgetown, or the "Foggy Bot
tom," was built with bricks brought
from Europe.
In the cases Of future persistent
claims as to this that ancient struc-
ture having been built Of imported
bricks, 1t Is advisable that documentary
proof be presented. For there were,
indeed. very occasional instances. If
such proof be not forthcoming, the
chances Of the truth of the assertion
are perhaps 1000 to /; the matter
should be laughed or by the listener,
while the teller Of the story ought never
to repeat 1t.