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Ominous clouds hover over Cleydael, the King George residence |
ITS OWNERSHIP may soon change
again, but Cleydael's place in history
was sealed forever on April 23, 1865.
It was after dark when the men arrived on horseback in search of food, a place to stay and some medical attention. It was no coincidence that this was the home of Dr. Richard H. Stuart, a physician and wealthy King George County landowner, and that one of the strangers was suffering with a broken leg.
The injured man was John Wilkes Booth, who had broken his leg while making good his escape from Ford's Theater in Washington, where he had shot and killed President Abraham Lincoln nine days earlier. This Tuesday marks the 193rd anniversary of the 16th president's birth.
The fugitive's flight would be halted by a bullet, just three days later, in a Bowling Green barn.
The visit to Cleydael turned out to be a disappointment for Booth, who probably thought his chances good of finding a sympathetic homestead south of the Potomac.
Booth told Stuart that a Dr. Samuel Mudd in Maryland had directed him there. But Stuart would have little to do with his suspicious visitors, sending them on their way just 15 minutes later after giving them a bite to eat.
Stuart apparently insulted Booth further by sending him off to stay with a black man known only as Lucas, probably a former slave. Days later Lucas presented Stuart with coins totaling $2.50, paltry even at that time, wrapped in a note from Booth that sarcastically thanked Stuart for his limited hospitality.
Stuart, word has it, tossed the note into the fireplace. His wife, Julia Calvert Stuart, recovered it, however--an act that preserved the evidence that eventually cleared Stuart of abetting Booth's escape and probably saved the doctor from execution.
Cleydael, however, has been a sturdy and hospitable home for just about everyone else over its 143 years. The current owners, Brenda and Richard Pollock, who will soon retire to a smaller home in Southeast Virginia, are no exception.
"I love this house with its tall ceilings and its history. This is not your regular old house," said Brenda Pollock, who hails from Ireland.
Before the Pollocks bought it, the home was owned by Cleydael Limited Partners, which in 1985 began major repairs on the house.
One of those partners, S. Edwin Veazey, said the house was in sorry shape when they took possession.
"We jacked the house up and replaced the 8- by 8-inch oak [foundation] timbers that were riddled with termites," said Veazey. "We put in insulation because the walls had no insulation at all. We replaced the plumbing, some electrical wiring. We had to put in a drain field because it had no septic system. It used to go into a hole in the ground with rocks in it. That was the septic system."
In what spare time he had left, Veazey collected historic information about the house and got it listed on the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places.
Built by Stuart in 1859, Cleydael is located off State Route 206, about five miles north of State Route 3. It's about seven miles inland from the Potomac River, and a similar distance from the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division.
Stuart built back from the river to avoid mosquitoes and the threat of malaria. But he positioned the house to take best advantage of breezes, choosing a "T" design which features 12-foot-wide main corridors on both the first and second floors, with doors or windows on all four sides to provide unobstructed cross-ventilation. Even then, Virginia summers were notoriously hot and muggy.
So the house was quite comfortable for its day, and the Stuart family's hospitality was such that the doctor's friend and relative, Gen. Robert E. Lee, sent his daughters there for safekeeping after the Lees were ousted from their Arlington home, the Lee-Custis Mansion, as the Civil War began.
In 1831, Julia Stuart--a descendent of Lord Calvert of Maryland--was a bridesmaid in the wedding of then-Lt. Robert E. Lee, Veazey discovered.
Today, the 3,420-square-foot house sits on 12 partially wooded, rolling acres amid the comparable, though modern, homes of Cleydael subdivision. It is shielded from the rest of the subdivision by rows of 30-foot Leyland cypress trees and backs up to large wooded area. Before it was subdivided, the original property included 3,000 acres.
It is being offered by Remax Realty Associates of Fredericksburg for $389,000
"The house is isolated, but you have neighbors," said Brenda Pollock, explaining that it provides seclusion without having to live in the middle of nowhere.
The Pollocks have lived there for six years, and in that time have completed many renovations themselves, but not all that they had hoped.
"We did want a fixer-upper, but maybe not on this scale," she said, referring to the maintenance one would expect on such a mature house.
The metal roof has recently been scraped and repainted. The heat pumps and central air-conditioning units were replaced four years ago.
Three of the four fireplaces, which use a pair of uncommon, inset chimneys, are sealed.
An aged barn on the property, probably built shortly after the house was, looks unstable but remains in use by the Pollocks as a garage and storage area.
