Seaport in Virginia Part 27

The President and Directors of the Alexandria Library Company desirous of promoting the influence which they conceive eminently calculated to diffuse useful knowledge, establish the morals of the rising generation, and afford rational entertainment for a vacent hour, earnestly recommend it to the attention and support of their fellow citizens. The utility of a public circulating library is too obvious to need arguments to demonstrate it. The friends of Literature, of Virtue, and refinement of manners, will, no doubt duly appreciate its value, and interest themselves in its advancement.

The addition of a number of valuable books has lately been made to the former selections; to which the American edition of the Encyclopoedia is directed to be super added as soon as it can be procured.

The President and Directors have ordered a catalogue of all the books in the library forthwith to be printed, with their respective prices annexed; to which will be prefixed the existing laws of the company, together with the names of all the actual subscribers to the inst.i.tution. As they can determine between real and nominal members only by the fulfillment of their engagements, they solicit those who are in arrears to come forward and pay their respective balances to Samuel Craig, Treasurer, before the fifteenth of the next month, otherwise their names will be omitted in the list and their shares, agreeably to the condition, will be deemed forfeited to the company without respect of persons. Also all such as incline to become subscribers are desired to call on Mr. Craig on or before the above date, and pay their subscriptions, that their names may be inserted with the rest.

Signed by order

JAMES KENNEDY, Librarian.

That the Alexandria Library Company merited and met with cordial and generous support is shown by the fact of its perpetuation to this day within the structure of the Alexandria library system. The Library Company has been called one of the "time-honored heirlooms of the town."[192]

The Alexandria Library has had a nomadic existence from the time it was called into existence in 1794 until it was moved into its new home on Queen Street in 1937. At least five buildings other than the lyceum have doubled for home during this period; but the lyceum is the first location mentioned in the extant minutes of the company. The author nostalgically hopes the lyceum may know a renaissance and that it may again serve as the city's library and a historical museum.

Hallowell tells us that the books were housed on the first floor. His autobiography also contributes an interesting note on the busts of Cicero and Seneca which stood in the lecture room upstairs: "The marble busts spoken of above," he added, "were purchased in Italy in the time of Cromwell by one of the Fairfax family; they were brought to this country by Lord Fairfax, and had come into the possession of Daniel Herbert, whose mother was a Fairfax. I purchased them of him for the price he asked (one hundred and twenty-five dollars), but permitted them to remain in the Lyceum while it continued in operation." Benjamin Hallowell served as president of the lyceum until 1842.

After the War Between the States, the lyceum was abandoned, the society dissolved. The town was rife with rumors that a Negro organization was making plans to acquire the building. By order of the court in 1867, the stockholders of the Alexandria Lyceum Company were compelled to sell the property. Advertis.e.m.e.nts were set up in the _Gazette_. W. Arthur Taylor and Reuben Johnston were appointed commissioners, and having given thirty days' notice of the time and place of sale, the building was offered at public auction in front of the mayor's office on May 16, 1868 and "struck off" to John B. Daingerfield for the sum of $6,800.00, being the highest bid. The sale was confirmed by the court and the deed ordered executed, describing the lot of ground with buildings and improvements, southwest corner of Prince and Was.h.i.+ngton Streets, commonly called the Lyceum Hall, fronting on Was.h.i.+ngton Street 92 feet 7 inches and on Prince 101 feet 5 inches and bounded on the south by the property of H.W. Vandergrift and on the West by Mr. Henry Daingerfield's estate.[193] John Bathurst Daingerfield and his brother, Henry, owned almost the entire square bounded by Prince, Duke, Columbus and Was.h.i.+ngton streets, where now stands the Alexandria Hospital.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The old Lyceum and Library]

John B. Daingerfield turned the lyceum into a residence for his daughter, Mary, at the time of her marriage to Captain Philip Beverly Hooe, 17th Virginia Regiment, C.S.A. The house remained in the Hooe family until 1900, when John Daingerfield Hooe and his wife, Mary, the daughter of Colonel Arthur Herbert, sold the property to Sara J.

McGuire. In 1913 Mrs. McGuire transferred the property to her husband, the late Dr. Hugh McGuire. The lyceum was used for many years as a private residence by Dr. and Mrs. McGuire, and the interior has been much changed. The exterior is quite untouched, triglyph cornice, Doric columns, all well past the century mark. It stands today one of the best examples of the Cla.s.sical Revival in architecture, not only in Alexandria but in America.

The corner of Prince and Was.h.i.+ngton Streets is hallowed ground to Alexandria. From here the 17th Virginia Regiment, C.S.A., marched gallantly off to war, and when the fighting and turmoil died, the remnant of this regiment was wont to gather on Confederate Memorial Day and hold services for those left behind on Virginia's b.l.o.o.d.y battlefields. This custom continued long after the bronze monument of a Confederate soldier was placed in the center of the street. If, today, hurrying automobiles are forced to slow up to pa.s.s the circle enclosing the Confederate warrior, it is well. For this spot, while marking a lost cause, does not mark a forgotten one.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Chapter 28

The Sea Captain's Daughter and Her House

[617 South Was.h.i.+ngton Street. Owners: Mr. and Mrs. Malcolm Westcott Hill.]

This large, almost square house, rises three stories in a stately pile of soft red brick, flanked by two ancient tulip trees towering twenty-five feet above the pavilion roof, while a great box hedge partially hides the front facade and large garden. Five generations of the same family have called it home.

It is a romantic and interesting house. Built prior to 1853 by Reuben Roberts on a half-acre of unimproved ground, it lay "in the country" for some years. Roberts, a Quaker of the family of Cameron Farms, died in 1853; his widow moved to New Jersey, and the house stood new and tenantless until 1857, when it was purchased by Captain Samuel Bancroft Hussey of Portland, Maine, as a bridal gift for his only daughter, Melissa Ann. And thereby hangs a tale.

Gallant Captain Hussey is reported to have been a descendant of that Christopher Hussey who arrived in Charlestown, Ma.s.sachusetts, in 1630 and became one of the large proprietors. Intended for the Navy at an early age he ran away to sea and became a master of Clipper s.h.i.+ps that raced the seas in the China trade. Captain in succession of the _Reindeer_, the _Strabo_, earlier and smaller vessels, he became Captain of the _Westward Ho_ on which, in 1854, he made a record trip of eighty-five days from Canton to New York. In 1857 he speeded the same vessel from Boston around the Horn to San Francisco in a hundred days.

Two years later he died on the _Stag Hound_ of which he was master and part owner.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _The Stag Hound_, one of the great clipper s.h.i.+ps in the China trade]

The _Westward Ho_ was a great and beautiful s.h.i.+p of sixteen hundred tons, outfitted with every comfort and luxury of her day, including crystal, books, silver, and a melodeon on which to while away the hours at sea. Captain Hussey was frequently accompanied on his voyages by his wife, and for a time they lived in India, as well as many other far-off and curious ports.

Melissa Ann Hussey[194] after her graduation from the Charlestown Female Seminary, near Boston, made the grand tour with her father. This was not her first voyage, as he had entrusted her to Captain Creesy, master of the _Flying Cloud_ on a long journey from China. But on the occasion of this grand tour graduation gift, he directed the _Westward Ho_ up the Potomac and anch.o.r.ed in the then busy port of Alexandria. The city of Was.h.i.+ngton was not very sophisticated in those days, so the official and social set of the capital sought the theatres, taverns, and b.a.l.l.s of Alexandria. Statesmen had apartments at the new and elegant Braddock House or Green's Mansions on Fairfax Street, and at this hotel the Captain engaged a suite for himself and daughter.

[Ill.u.s.tration: To this house came the Portsmouth bride, Melissa Ann Hussey Wood, with parakeets and nonpareils]

While in Alexandria, a romance developed which resulted, in 1857, in the marriage of Melissa Hussey and Robert Lewis Wood. Their wedding took place in New York, and the young couple returned to take up life in Alexandria. No colonial house was desired by this bride of nineteen. She must have something new and fresh and modern, and as though preordained, they came upon the large red brick house at Franklin and Was.h.i.+ngton Streets, much like those so well known to her in Portland, Longfellow's "beautiful town that is seated by the sea."

With Melissa came to her new home a collection of rare birds in such numbers that the room over the kitchen was devoted to the cages of c.o.c.katoos, parakeets, parrots and nonpareils. Here these feathered friends in spectrum-hued plumage lived among the potted plants and charmed the little bride with their beauty and sweet tricks. Other appendages included a chimpanzee, and a small Chinese slave boy, bought by her father from one of the innumerable sampans in the harbor of Canton. "Chinese Tom" was reared and educated by Melissa Wood and after the War Between the States she gave him his freedom. For years he was the only Chinaman in Alexandria. Mrs. Wood's granddaughter remembers the visits of this man to her grandmother. He would station himself at the entrance to her door and a long conversation would go on between the guttural-voiced Oriental and the gentle little "Missey" whom he adored.

Almost unchanged is Melissa Hussey Wood's house. Her exquisite wax flower arrangements, colored and molded by her hands, her mother's tete-a-tetes, made in England and purchased in India, paintings of her father's s.h.i.+ps and his ivory chessmen, her silver wedding bouquet holder, her baby's shoulder clips, her bra.s.s and crystal girandoles, her pictures, books and chairs, have all been used by her two daughters, her granddaughter, and her great-granddaughters. Old pressed bra.s.s cornices decorate the windows above the lace curtains. Unusual, too, are the very large silver daguerreotypes, made in California for the new house, and the haircloth "pouf" rocking chairs. An Italian clock, bought by her father in Florence, which arrived in Bangor, Maine, on the day Melissa Ann was born in 1838, stands on its original music box base upon the dining-room mantel. Strangest contrast of all, above the doors of this high-ceilinged room are steel engravings in their contemporary oval frames of Generals Joe Johnston, Stonewall Jackson, and Robert E. Lee, placed there by the Yankee bride, who after three years in Alexandria became an ardent champion of the Confederacy and never took the oath of allegiance while Alexandria was under Union jurisdiction.

Acknowledgments

It would be impossible to write a book of this kind without a great deal of help from many sources. This help was given by very busy people with knowledge or doc.u.ments, which inspired the historian to further impositions upon their useful persons.

An expression of appreciation, always ba.n.a.l, is nevertheless an attempt to express grat.i.tude--and this is my only means of acknowledging my obligations to friend and stranger. Without such help this book, such as it is, would never have been written and so my lasting grat.i.tude goes:

First, to my father, who said I would never finish it, and to my husband, who said I would.

To Mr. Walter Wilc.o.x, American Photographical Society, and Royal Photographical Society, for his labors and beautiful photographs which ill.u.s.trate this book.

To Mrs. George Kirk, for endless and patient typing and sustained enthusiasms.

To Miss Virgila Stephens, for intimating that I might be able to write anything that anybody would ever care to read, and to Mrs. Worth Bailey, who said I had.

To Mr. Worth Bailey, curator of Mount Vernon, for numerous historical contributions, rare and authentic, for the finished seal of Alexandria, the endpapers, the charming drawings, for editing; and lastly, for wise and useful advice. Mr. Bailey's historical knowledge and artistic training have been invaluable.

To Mrs. Louis Scott, for permission to see the sc.r.a.pbook of her mother, Mrs. Mary G. Powell, and family papers; for the Harper family records, for her gracious a.s.sistance and advice, and for the use of her late mother's _The History of Old Alexandria, Virginia_.

To Mrs. Robert M. Reese, for long and helpful hours and the generous use of the Ramsay family records, and historical doc.u.ments.

To the Lady Regents of Mount Vernon and to Mr. Wall, the superintendent, for the use of the Mount Vernon library, the photograph of Lawrence Was.h.i.+ngton, the choice bill of lading, and Dr. d.i.c.k's _George Was.h.i.+ngton_.

To Miss Frances Herbert, for information about the Carlyle, Herbert and Fairfax families, and for the photograph of John Carlyle's mother, Rachel Carlyle.

To the late Mrs. Charles R. Hooff, for loan of the Carlyle genealogy and for permission to photograph John Carlyle's snuffbox.

To Mrs. William Boothe, for Lee family notes and Christ Church anecdotes.

To Mrs. Charles Baird, and her sister, Mrs. Gerhard Dieke, for permission to quote from the books of their father, the late Fairfax Harrison, and from the books of their late grandmother, Mrs. Burton Harrison; for photographs of Sally Gary, George William Fairfax and Ben Dulany.

To Mr. Taylor Burke, for the anecdote of the purchase money for Mount Vernon.

To Judge Walter T. McCarthy, for permission to open court-sealed deed books.

To the late clerk and a.s.sistant clerk of the Fairfax Court House, Messrs. F.W. Richardson and Alton R. Holbrook, and to the present clerk, Mr. Thomas P. Chapman Jr., for doc.u.ments, photostats and unfailing patience and courtesy.