Travels with General Lee

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You might say we’ve been stalking Bobby Lee. In the last year, Old House Authority has been invited to a number of historic sites associated with Confederate Genera Robert E. Lee to discuss care and maintenance of old windows. Fortunately, those in charge of maintaining the buildings on these historic sites understand the character-defining importance of original windows. Our travels took us to Stratford Hall in Westmoreland Co. VA, the ancestral home of the Lees; Appomattox Court house, in Appomattox Co. VA., where Gen. Lee surrendered to Gen. Grant; and Washington and Lee University, in Lexington, VA, where the retired general served as college president.
W&L has a collection of 19th century red brick buildings nestled in a picturesque small town setting. They’ve been carefully renovating academic buildings with an eye to energy efficiency without sacrificing character. We applaud them for not jumping on the replacement window bandwagon.
Unless you live or work in Westmoreland Co., Stratford Hall will be a hike, but your efforts to get there will be well rewarded. This extraordinary 18th century Great House, which occupies 1900 acres along the Potomac River, is still farmed. You can walk through the restored gardens and view the cliffs from an overlook high above the Potomac. It has recreated rudimentary slave dwellings that offer a vivid contrast to the opulent life style of the upper classes that enjoyed cushioned carriages embellished with coats of arm. We were invited to a Restoration Fair. Every other person who visited our booth told the same story: “I live in an old house. Years ago, we replaced the leak, creaky old windows. They’ve never looked right. How can we get the old windows back?” At least they recognized they’d made a mistake! The short answer is: “you can’t get those windows back.” We can recommend capable craftsmen who can custom build windows, but no matter how good they look, they’re never going to age along with your house. The likelihood of finding a large number of windows in the exact size you need at an architectural salvage shop is nil. Please heed the warning of these homeowners who regret discarding one of the most important architectural features of their house for a short-term solution.
The last leg of our Bobby Lee tour took us to hauntingly beautiful Appomattox Court House. Operated by the National Park Service, the site is a small village with a court house, tavern, law office, store, post office and residences. General Lee surrendered to General Grant in the parlor of Wilmer McLean, an impressive brick structure, which had been –believe it or not–disassembled after the Civil War for the purpose of being shipped to Washington DC as a tourist attraction. The entrepreneur with this spectacularly bad idea ran out of the money after the house was dismembered. The bones of the structure lay in a heap where they were picked over by scavengers. One more casualty of the war. The McLean house was reconstructed based on architectural drawings. While it is a powerful and stirring place, you mourn for the loss of the actual building–the floorboards, hand rails, and windows –touched by the figures who shaped history. Too bad the village was allowed to fall to ruin and much of it had to be replaced. It’s up to all of us to be vigilant about the buildings around us, even when they evoke memories some would rather forget. A highlight of our trip to Appomattox Court House was meeting John Spangler, Facility Manager for the National Park Service. John is passionate about restoration and restoration techniques. He shared a link to a site with old catalogues of tools and how-to books for home workshops. We think you’ll enjoy it. Go to http://www.wkfinetools.com/ and look under catalogs & Manuals. Let us know about any old catalogues you’ve come across.
We sense a war on windows today, funded and fought by the sellers of replacement window. Before you make a decision about your windows, take a historic tour of your own. Visit some old houses and look closely at the quality of their vintage glass and aged wood.

2,020 thoughts on “Travels with General Lee”

  2. Several yrs ago my neighbor with an 1830s cottage that he had restored reluctantly moved b to another city. He recognized the transition his neighborhood and house had gone through and wanted to record it for future residents. He hired a videographer and walked around the neighborhood and talked about it. He combined the video with newspaper clippings, photos and stories he had written and sealed it in a box inside a wall. The idea was for future residents to discover it when renovating the house. Unfortunately, the treasured time capsule may never be found –or its importance recognized. A better alternative would have been to archive the time capsule in a place where it would be publicly accessible and cared for properly by professionals. Think about the effect of weather and temperature on those photos stored in a wall here in Virginia! Not to mention the possibility of a fire or catastropic event, which seem to be happening with increasing frequency. So, thank you Old House Authority for a solution for preserving stories, memories and memorabilia. Can’t wait to pull my stories together before they are lost.

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