Evening star., 1935-04-20
VIRGINIA AWAITS
Garden WEEK"
100 Mansions Open to Wis.,
itors--0Id Alexandria
Homes Hold Lure.
BY HELEN FETTER COOK.

bY HELEN fEIIEh OOohs
This year, though Spring is late,
Easter week finds more than 100 love-
ly Virginia mansions with their gar.
den latches down to all who care to
enter there in garden week." begin
ming next Monday.
With Alexandria as the center,
group of eight of the most unusual Of
these homes nestle in the shadow OF
the National Capital. There's the in
viting cobbled courtyard garden of
Gadsby's Tavern. Rippon Lodge. IA
nous as the home for generations Of
Blackburns: Gunston Hall, with its
gorgeous giant boxwoods. and Wood
lawn, famous both as the home OF
Nellie Gusts, and also, much later,
Senator Underwood of Alabama-all
of these are widely known.
Less familiar to the general public
are two other gardened homes of
beauty and historic distinction fea-
tured this year in the Alexandria dis
trict. These are Wellington and
Ordleigh Both lie just off the Mount
Vernon Highway.
Two TdmUuS IlUUlVSs
Wellington's first claim to distinc-
ton lies in the fact that 1t was the
home of Tobias Lear. private secretary
and tutor to the children In the fam
lily of George Washington.
Ordleigh, built on part OF the
same land, owned by Washington. and
known as THE River Farm" has a
main entrance that adjoins that OF
WELLINGTON Yet there is as much
difference in the gardens of these two
homes so close together as there is in
the houses themselves.
wellington does not look today as
It did ITS years ago when it was built.
The present owners have glorified the
part that contains the original build
ing. making the entire first floor Of
the structure into an exquisite music
room paneled in wood painted soft
green-gray.
A feature is the huge window (5 by
3 feet in size) framing a river view.
The original front door of Tobias
Lear's home is kept, though 1t is an
incidental entrance to wide porch
above the Potomac River and soft
green hills that gently subside into it.
The old door has a quaint lock OF
brass.
Malcolm Matheson Is Owner.
Aside from this door, there is little
to remind one of Mr.. Lear's humble
dwelling in the much more pretentious
mansion that houses Mr.. Malcolm
Matheson, present owner, his wife and
family. As matter of fact, the
recently added wing that houses a
huge entertainment room for any
thing from formal balls to ping pong
looks older than the part containing
the walls of the house built before
1860 This new wing is colonnaded in
the traditional Southern fashion and
it lies nearest the lovely gardens which
are the object of garden pilgrims
next week.
An unobtrusive pool just beyond
this new wing invites the guest to
wander farther along walks where old
brick CLEANS warmly among the
largest -belled hyacinths of Virginia
In soft old blues and unusual puppies
and giant jonquils which look large
enough to trumpet carols through
There are many gay variations in reds
of the humble cowslip, usually familiar
only in yellow. There are rose gardens
and cleverly planted miniature frs and
hedges. But right now it Is the wav-
ing gold of the jonquils that carry the
visitor beyond where the sloping ter
races are walled to sleeper paths that
wind down to tennis courts and SWIM
ing pool
The entire feeling of the gardens of
Wellington is old-fashioned and
artfully casual
Modern Note at Ordleigh.
On the contrary, over at Ordleigh
. definitely modern note is struck
in the landscaping of the gardens.
Many Of the same flowers are planted
there but the emphasis at Ordleigh
is on line and massed color effect,
rather than the plants.
Col. William Ord, who built Ord
leigh in 1927, had no ancient house
to use as a nucleus, as had Mr..
Matheson. He built large, orna-
mental, spacious -roomed house. As
q result, though the house shows def
mite Georgian influence, especially In
the staircase, there is a refreshing
difference" in the furnishings that
gives 1t the distinction of a real home
and does not suggest an interior deco
rated masterpiece.
Col. Ord Is proud Of his gardens.
Flights Of brick steps, first found in
piquant semi-circular effects. later
slanting in long oblongs down to q
lower level, set the formal, modern
note for the gardens. Two little
houses where one may rest and ad-
mire the view, which Col. Ord says
are called "gazebos," point of either
side of the garden with tweedledee
and tweedledum effect that somehow
misses being comic and instead en-
phasizes dignity. However, Col. Ord
says his own private name for these