Accomplishments

1. In cooperation with the Winchester Regional Preservation Office of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, the Foundation has secured a grant under Virginia's Threatened Sites program to conduct an archaeological investigation at Fort Colvill, Frederick County, Virginia.  The fort is believed to have been built before 1758 and is a pristine example of vernacular Scots-Irish construction.  Never modernized, it sits on two acres in the midst of a sub-division.  Long-range plans are to preserve this threatened site.
2. The Foundation has acquired financing for the purchase of an antebellum house built on part of the site of Fort Loudoun in the City of Winchester.  The site contains the Fort's well dug 103 feet through limestone at George Washington's orders in addition to earthworks of the fort's northwest quadrant.  The Foundation is moving expeditiously to list the site on the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places, as well as to place an easement and protective covenants on the property.  Long-range plans for the property include rehabilitating the house for use as a museum and Foundation offices.

An informal ceremony was held on Thursday, August 22 marking the acquisition of the land and the 150 -year-old house at 419 N. Loudoun St. in Winchester.  The house will be used as a museum and offices for our foundation.  Until recently, the house was a home to five generations of the family of Anne Q. Hardy, 89, who recently moved to Pennsylvania to be near her son, Ralph.

George Washington oversaw the construction of the fort from 1756 to 1758.   The fort was on a hillside at the site, and a well was dug at Washington's behest and is still located on the property just purchased.  The fort also extended onto land to the south, which is now the Fort Loudoun Apartments.  It also extended across what is now North Loudoun St. and occupied land on the street's opposite side, where two houses now stand.  By the early 1800's, when the house was built, the fort had deteriorated.

The ceremony, involving state and local preservation leaders, also paid tribute to the Wayside Foundation of American History and Arts and Leo Bernstein, president of Wayside's board, who attended the ceremony.  It was held directly after the closing on the property.  Wayside's willingness to finance the $237,000 purchase with a loan at a "very low interest rate" made acquisition of the property possible, said Judy Bogner, president of the French and Indian War Foundation.

Foundation officers are looking for state and federal grant funds for the project.  The antebellum house, which combines Neo-Grecian and Italianate architecture, needs some interior renovations.  The Top of Virginia Building Association's members have offered to help with the work.  The foundation is hoping that other area organizations will aid with the effort.

In a letter from Anne and Ralph Hardy, the previous owners, they say:
"As you know, George Washington did a lot more than sleep here. It was our house, our home.... And today it becomes another kind of house and home.... We could not be happier..."

(Information in this article was obtained from an article in the Northern Virginia Daily, written by Charlotte J. Eller.  We wish to thank the NVD for this information.)