Spotlight on Menokin Board of Trustees Member James Zehmer
Menokin Board of Trustees member James Zehmer hard at work repairing historic chimneys at UVA.
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America: First Impressions
Native American Settlement
Before the Menokin plantation was ever developed, this area along Cat Point Creek (also called Rappahannock Creek) was home to the Rappahannock Indian Tribe. In 1608, Capt. John Smith recorded 14 Rappahannock towns on the north side of the River and its tributaries. The general plantation site was referred to as “Menokin” by the Rappahannock, which likely translates to “He gives it to me” in the tribe’s Algonquian-based language. Francis Lightfoot Lee kept the name for his home. For more information on the Rappahannock Tribe, visit http://www.rappahannocktribe.org.
John Smith was one of the foremost leaders of early Jamestown. He’d had an interesting life before that, one which influenced the direction of this country and (as I seem to be constantly promising) which will be explored later in this blog. He was a controversial but effective leader in the settlement’s first years, and when health problems and an injury prompted his return to England in 1609, he spent his time working for the colony from there, promoting it and encouraging people to move there.
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Talk About Revolutionary Thinking
Robert “Councillor” Carter III – The Great Emancipator
Often referred to as “the first emancipator,” Robert Carter III of Nomini Hall in Virginia’s Northern Neck was an American plantation owner, founding father and onetime British government official. He also owned a large number of slaves as part of his vast estate.
Carter’s personal convictions and relationship with these enslaved families led to their manumission in a 1791 deed of gift. Nearly 500 slaves were freed, making Carter’s act of liberation the largest in the history of American slavery before the Emancipation Proclamation.
After the death of his wife, Frances Ann Tasker Carter, in 1787, Carter embraced the Swedenborgian faith. He instituted a program of gradual manumission of all slaves attached to his estate by filing a “Deed of Gift” filed with the county of Westmoreland in 1791. He designed the program to be gradual to reduce the resistance of white neighbors.
Frequently, Carter rented land to recently freed slaves, sometimes evicting previous white tenants in the process. In all, about 452 slaves from his Nomini Hall plantation and large home in Westmoreland County, Virginia were granted their freedom.
Olympic Port Competition Entry / Machado and Silvetti Associates
The architecture firm of Machado and Silvetti – team leader for the Menokin Project – came in fourth place with this submission for the 2016 Olympic Port.
They are always Gold with us.
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See more at Arch Daily.
Machado and Silvetti Associates shared with us their entry for the Olympic Port Competition that came in fourth place. This project proposal for the 2016 Olympic Media Village in Rio de Janeiro includes housing for 11,000 people, retail and office space, a 5-star hotel and a convention center. To accommodate post-Olympic marketing of the buildings the entire residential and office program has the capacity to be transformed from a hotel setting with individually accessed bedrooms and private baths to two- and three-bedroom apartments and leasable tenant space.
Localism and Place Identity
This quote from The Actual Proposal struck a chord with me. It seems to aptly illustrate the lifestyle of the Northern Neck – that of the Lees and Tayloes, and even of the residents today.
In the daze of overwhelming mobility perhaps architects should wonder: what’s wrong with standing still? Poet, essayist, and farmer, Wendell E. Berry, shares a similar sentiment in remembering his grandfather:
“My grandfather, on the contrary, and despite his life’s persistent theme of hardship, took a great and present delight in the modest good that was at hand: in his place and his affection for it, in its pastures, animals, and crops, in favourable weather.
He did not participate in the least in what we call “mobility.” He died, after eighty-two years, in the same spot he was born in. He was probably in his sixties when he made the one longish trip of his life. He went with my father southward across Kentucky and into Tennessee. On their return, my father asked him what he thought of their journey. He replied: “Well, sir, I’ve looked with all the eyes I’ve got, and I wouldn’t trade the field behind my barn for every inch I’ve seen.”
In such modest joy in a modest holding is the promise of a stable, democratic society, a promise not to be found in “mobility”: our forlorn modern progress toward something indefinitely, and often unrealizably, better. A principled dissatisfaction with whatever one has promises nothing or worse.”
Lighter Side: Accurate? You Decide
In general, I’m going to try to keep this a casual blog that focuses on topics relevant to the blog’s name with additional items of interest on museums, my travels, and maybe even a book review if I happen to love the book. Occasionally however, it does not hurt to divert for a day to look at the lighter side of these topics. Today is one of those days, and I hope that it causes a discussion among those who read this blog.
You may have seen this already, but I only came across this yesterday on Facebook. It was posted by Adirondack Architectural Heritage and created by Lucinda Philumalee and Nicholas Redding. I find it quite amusing, but what do you think? Can you come up with other examples? Even if you are not a historic preservationist, and I know that not all of you are, does this fall…
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10 Va. vineyards score at international competition
Go, Ingleside!
Birds Come Out to Model at George Washington’s Birthplace
On Monday, June 4th, a group of fourteen bird enthusiasts gathered at George Washington Birthplace National Monument for a bird walk led by author and wildlife expert, Joe LaFleur. LaFleur holds a bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology and a master’s degree in communication from Colorado State University. For the past twenty years he has been collecting bird footage of the calls of various bird breeds. The past month, he has been touring the east coast, leading bird walks at various parks along the way to help generate an interest in bird watching.
He started the tour with an audio-visual presentation of bird breeds that are prevalent in the Tidewater area and thus might possibly be spotted on the walk through the park grounds. As the footage played, Lafleur discussed the birds’ markings, calls, and habitats so that the group could better identify and differentiate the breeds. Some of…
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Calling All Photographers.
The Menokin Foundation invites you to visit our site and show us Menokin through your lens. This photo contest includes three categories: Wildlife, Landscape and Architecture. The contest will conclude in November with a salon style exhibit and reception at the Menokin Visitor’s Center.
At least three images from each category will be printed, framed and displayed at the exhibit. All other works entered will be displayed in a slide show.
The show will be judged by Richmond photographer, Hullihen Williams Moore, who studied with Ansel Adams. The University of Virginia Press published a book of Hullie’s images, Shenandoah: Views of Our National Park, and his work is part of the permanent collection of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
AUGUST 1st: Entry submission begins
OCTOBER 15th: Entry deadline
NOVEMBER 2: Exhibition and reception
Rules and Guidelines: (Delivery information is listed at bottom of page)
1) All photos must be submitted digitally no later than midnight of October 15, 2012.
2) Emailed photos must not be larger than 3MB. Larger files will be accepted on CD or DVD via mail and hand delivery.
3) Only three images per applicant will be accepted. They may be in any category of your choosing: Wildlife, Landscape or Architecture.
4) Registrants must complete an application and submit with their entries. Applications are available at the Visitor’s Center in Warsaw and on our website. (http://www.menokin.org/pdf/events/Photo%20Contest%20Flyer.pdf )
5) Prizes will be awarded as follows: 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize in each category and one Best In Show. A prize will also be awarded to the Best In Show winner – an afternoon of photography at Menokin with Hullie Moore.
Menokin is located at 4037 Menokin Road in Warsaw, VA. Call us at 804-333-1776, visit online at menokin.org, or email us at menokin@menokin.org.
Virginia Historical Index Offers Many Research Possibilities
With two Royal Charter Scholars on staff (Hark Upon The Gale) and many more that are associates, interns and friends, this shout out to Earl Gregg Swem seems appropriate on many levels.
http://paratextsupport.com/2012/07/13/resesarch-possibilities-using-the-virginia-historical-index/
Menokin: Rubble With A Cause 