|
The dining room china cabinet has 19th century glass and ornate framework.
This bedroom, above the parlor, is one of two left just as it appeared
RIGHT: The surrounding woods are viewed from an upstairs bedroom window of the Fauquier County homestead. Part of the Weston property is still leased for kennel
Weston, one of Fauquier County's oldest homes, has been expanded
ABOVE: The decorative trim along
With the mantel decorated for the holiday season, Weston's parlor is furnished |
WITH ITS CASANOVA address, Weston is as it should be: handsome and well cared-for. If the smitten members of the Warrenton Antiquarian Society have their way, Weston will carry on forever.
Situated about 10 miles southeast of Warrenton in south-central Fauquier County, the tract that became Weston was still part of Prince William County in the 1750s when Robert "King" Carter, an associate of Lord Fairfax, deeded 440 acres to Giles Fitzhugh.
The 10-acre homestead, which dates to about 1830, was placed on the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. Another 271 acres has been left to Virginia as a wildlife refuge.
Tours are offered by appointment to school groups and other interested parties.
The Antiquarians, like the family that bequeathed Weston to them, are hoping to raise money to restore and maintain the house and outbuildings, said Lauren Starke, the group's publicity director.
Though much work has been done, much more remains. In the meantime, the green clapboards, black metal roof and numerous brick chimneys lend consistency to the exterior of a home that was built around 1830 and added to over a 65-year period.
Starke estimates the outbuildings alone will cost $50,000 each to restore.
"We want to do it right, and that costs money," she said.
A big part of doing it right is learning how the property evolved. To do that the group called in Cheryl Shepherd, a historic-architecture consultant and Mary Washington College graduate who worked for the college's Center for Historic Preservation.
By studying land records and the property itself, Shepherd and the Antiquarians have begun to piece together a timeline for the homestead and its residents.
What their research has revealed so far is that the original two-story, two-room log cabin probably dates to between 1830 and 1840, rather than the 18th century as was first thought.
Shepherd figures that a couple of the outbuildings, such as the kitchen and timber-frame barn, were built around the same time
"What we have is a rare collection of outbuildings that are of major significance. We don't want to say anything that's not true, so that's why we're undertaking a more in-depth look at the property and the family," said Shepherd.
There were at least three buildings on the site by the time Charles Joseph Nourse Jr. bought it in 1858. He named it Weston after his ancestors' former home in Herefordshire, England.
Nourse, who had married Margaret Kembel in their native New York, eventually moved south to Georgetown in Washington. He had his two brothers manage Weston for a few years until one headed west in search of gold and the other was killed while fighting for the Confederacy.
Nourse came to Weston with his wife and 12-year-old son in 1862, when additions to the original cabin had been recently completed. The family lived there as neutrals and in fear of the surrounding Civil War hostilities for six months before fleeing back to New York.
After his wife, Margaret, died in 1883, Nourse returned to Weston and married a local woman, Annie Carroll Simpson, who was 33 years younger than himself. About 60 years old at the time, Nourse proceeded to father four children--three daughters and a son--between 1886 and 1894. The house was further expanded in 1870 and enlarged again in 1893 to accommodate the growing family.
With that generation, Weston firmly established its place in Virginia history. After Charles' death in 1906, the family continued to expand Weston. More outbuildings were added, eventually including a blacksmith shop, smokehouse, dairy, stable, tool shed, chicken house and barn.
For income the family ran a small school for girls at Weston, opened a summer camp, and sold some of their original artwork.
One daughter died at a young age and her brother, Walter, came to live on a portion of former Weston property and served as Fauquier County farm agent until he died in 1949.
Two of the daughters, Anne Constance and Charlotte St. George, lived their entire lives at Weston, dying within a month of each other in 1959. They never married, but stayed busy with their artwork at home and varied activities in the local community.
Constance painted many highly regarded, flowery landscapes. Charlotte preferred woodcuts of horses and dogs. The house is still graced with their artwork throughout.
Between 1925 and 1932, Charlotte, an avid fox hunter, was master of the hounds for the Casanova Hunt. Ten acres for foxhound kennels is still leased by the hunt.
During World War II, Constance and Charlotte opened the home as a retreat for the soldiers stationed at nearby Vint Hill Farms Station. Until its deactivation as a military installation a decade ago, Vint Hill was a major Army intelligence center. In World War II, its personnel helped decode key enemy messages.
About 1,000 of its soldiers enjoyed some 11,000 meals at Weston, prepared by the sisters and a cook, Eliza Redd, during the war years. In return, the servicemen would tend to the gardens and livestock, and split wood for the home's stoves and fireplaces. There was no electricity or central heat in the house at the time.
Occasionally, an elderly veteran will stop by to share his memories of gatherings at Weston.
Shepherd said she and the Antiquarians would like to see the property become a living classroom for students young and old.
"We envision returning this to a working farm showing the use of agricultural implements of the period," said Shepherd. "Schoolchildren don't get to see how they used to cut the grass, cultivate fields. We'd like to have the blacksmith shop up and running. We'd like to see the stables used, perhaps rented out.
"The [Nourse sisters] were always finding ways to make money to keep the house up," she said. "We want to honor them by doing the same thing. And investigating the property's past will help us develop what it will be in the future."
To reach RICHARD AMRHINE: 540/374-5406 ramrhine@freelancestar.com
