Part 25 (1/2)
Dr. Fairfax has returned to Alexandria, and is ready to resume the practice of his profession in the town and its neighborhood. His office is at the N.W. corner of Pitt and Cameron Streets.
Dr. Fairfax in his late absence of five months, has been constantly engaged at Philadelphia in increasing his medical acquirements.
[1831]
Dr. Fairfax has returned to Alexandria and is ready to resume the practice of his profession. He has, during his late absence from Alexandria, witnessed many cases of the epidemic cholera. [1832]
In 1829 Dr. Fairfax had married Mary Randolph Cary, daughter of Wilson Jefferson Cary. They had nine children.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Arch and staircase in the Yeaton-Fairfax House]
In a deed of April 14, 1864, the fact is revealed that this property was condemned according to an act of Congress in 1862 ”to suppress insurrection, to punish treason and rebellion to seize and confiscate property of Rebels and for other purposes.”[184] It further records that on the preceding day, April 13, 1864, Gouverneur Morris, attorney for Patsy J. Morris, of Westchester County, New York, purchased for four thousand dollars, he being the highest bidder therefor, all the right, t.i.tle, interest and estate of Dr. Orlando Fairfax.
Gouverneur Morris was a brother-in-law of Dr. Orlando Fairfax, and while living in France sent the Fairfaxes from the palace at Versailles a very large and elegant mirror which hung in the drawing room, filling one of the alcoves from floor to ceiling. This mirror is still in existence and in the possession of Dr. Fairfax's granddaughter, Mrs. Donald MacCrea.
Mrs. Burton Harrison in her _Recollections, Grave and Gay_, relates the wartime experiences of her uncle and his family who were forced to seek refuge in Richmond, of their sufferings and privations, and of the death of the young son of the family, Randolph, barely twenty, killed in action in mid-December 1862.
During the years of Fairfax occupancy, this mansion was one of the social and cultural centers of the town; the Fairfaxes were the important n.o.ble family of the ”upper reaches of the Potomac.” They intermarried with the Carlyles, Was.h.i.+ngtons, Herberts, and Carys. Their contribution to Alexandria cannot be overrated, for in their personal lives and public service, they set an example of chivalry and courage.
They have been distinguished by handsome men and beautiful women, by gentleness and courtly bearing. They have had great wealth and used it generously; have lost great wealth and borne it n.o.bly. The family is represented in England today by Thomas Brian, Thirteenth Lord Fairfax, great-great-grandson of Thomas, Ninth Lord Fairfax.
Let us return to William Yeaton, builder of the mansion on Cameron Street. It is of vital interest that he was the designer and contractor for the inclosure of the Tomb of the _Pater Patriae_.[185] The archives at Mount Vernon contribute a number of papers dealing with this construction. Here is the proposal which Yeaton addressed to Major Lawrence Lewis, of Woodlawn, General Was.h.i.+ngton's nephew and the executor who supervised the work:
Alex April 4th 1835.
Dear Sir
I have sent you a sketch of the wall & have antic.i.p.ated a _Gate_ way on one of the sides which I expect will be necessary.
If you wish the Gate, one something like the sketch will be appropriate, you may have the gate made solid--or open as you prefer, to releive the dead wall, between the arch and copen there may be placed a slab of stone 4 Feet long & one foot wide, or a pannell may be formed in the wall.
I will engage to have the wall erected and find all materials, say Forty Five Feet square, ten Feet high, from the bottom of the foundation, which is to be two Bricks thick 2 feet high, the peirs to continue the same thickness to the copen, the pannells between the piers to be one brick & one half thick, the copen to be formed with best Brick three courses above the square--the Gateway & Gate similar to the sketch the work to be well done, & materials of the best quality--For Six hundred dollars,--
Very respectfully Your Obed Servt
W. YEATON
This addition was completed by the end of the year at a cost just slightly in excess of the original six-hundred-dollar estimate. Designed primarily as a protective wall to inclose the burial vault built in 1831, it contributed an appropriate architectural character to the tomb lot. The Gothic arch of the completed entrance was in sympathy with a funereal scene enhanced by willowlike foliage observable in certain views of the period.
Alterations were made in 1837 which created a vestibule between the vault and the outer wall and gateway constructed by William Yeaton. It is not known whether Yeaton again partic.i.p.ated in the construction. It was in 1837 that the bodies of General and Mrs. Was.h.i.+ngton were removed from this closed vault behind and permanently entombed in marble sarcophagi, which the visitor views today in the outer chamber at Mount Vernon.
[Ill.u.s.tration: William Yeaton, builder and ”undertaker” (architect) of Alexandria. By Saint Memin. (_Courtesy Corcoran Gallery of Art_)]
[Ill.u.s.tration]
Chapter 25
The La Fayette-Lawrason-Cazenove House
[301 South St. Asaph Street. Owners: Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Wallack.]
The presence of La Fayette was nothing new to Alexandria, yet his official visit in 1824, as the nation's guest, created a turmoil in the town. As soon as the news was received of his arrival in New York (it took two days to reach Alexandria) Captain A. William's company of artillery arose before dawn to fire a national salute at sunrise, and at noon the same company fired seventy-six rounds. During the day the harbor presented the spectacle of all s.h.i.+ps displaying their flags at masthead. When the Marquis reached Baltimore, on October 8, representatives from the Alexandria city council were on hand to extend an invitation (in the form of an address) to visit the town, which the distinguished visitor was pleased to accept.
He was met on the south side of the Potomac River on the 16th by that same Captain Williams and his company, firing a salvo in salute, and was addressed in a ”neat and handsome” manner by General Jones and suite.