The Menokin Foundation Board President Hullihen Moore is pleased to announce that Samuel McKelvey of Richmond, Virginia, has been chosen to lead Menokin as Executive Director. McKelvey, selected after a comprehensive national search, will begin his appointment on October 24, 2016.
Sam McKelvey
Moore said that McKelvey is particularly well suited to complete Menokin’s innovative Glass House Project and to introduce new programming to the site. “Sam brings to the table an excellent mix of experience, leadership, initiative and enthusiasm,” Moore said; “he has a track record of bringing in diverse and younger audiences and he has shown himself to be a leader in creating new programs and events to engage the public in broad and meaningful ways.”
McKelvey currently serves as Site Manager for Meadow Farm Museum at Crump Park, an 1860 living history farm site and museum. During his tenure at Meadow Farm, McKelvey has significantly updated the site’s programs and re-interpreted a number of tours, bringing in new audiences, growing attendance, and making the site relevant to a new generation of students, families, and tourists.
McKelvey also serves as a Recreation Program Coordinator for the 150-acre site, which rests under the purview of Henrico County’s Division of Recreation and Parks. He has managed and developed a wide range of outdoor opportunities and experiences for the park’s thousands of annual visitors, including fishing, hiking and nature trails, picnicking, play areas, seasonal festivals and, most recently, adding more livestock on the farm.
McKelvey is an avid champion of community storytelling and bringing history to life. In 2014, he led the planning and execution of a 3-day re-enactment of the Battle of New Market Heights which brought 5,000 people to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the battle in which African-American soldiers from the “U.S. Colored Troops” won largely on their own their first significant battle close to the Confederate fortifications of Richmond.
McKelvey received his BA in History and Geography from James Madison University and his MA in History from Virginia Commonwealth University. He currently chairs the Historic Preservation Function Group for Henrico County Recreation and Parks and he has co-chaired or lead numerous other planning committees, including the Henrico Civil War Sesquicentennial Committee.
He believes Menokin offers the region and the country an extraordinary opportunity. “The Menokin Foundation has laid the groundwork for a totally new approach to engaging people with ideas and themes in American history,” McKelvey said. “The Glass House Project is like nothing else in historic preservation today – it encourages us to think in new and different ways. I am looking forward to working with the board, staff, volunteers, and local community to accomplish the Foundation’s goals. My wife April and I look forward to actively participating in the Northern Neck community.”
McKelvey succeeds Sarah Dillard Pope, Executive Director from 2005 until December 2015, when she became Dean of College Advancement at Rappahannock Community College. Leslie Rennolds has served ably as Interim Director since January 2016.
The search committee, co-chaired by Penelope Saffer and Ro King, included trustees and stakeholders: Moore, Dudley Percy Olsson, Candy Carden, Nancy Raybin, and past Board President W. Tayloe Murphy, Jr.
For the nationwide search, the Menokin Foundation retained Marilyn Hoffman and Connie Rosemont of Museum Search & Reference, an executive search firm in Manchester, NH, and Boston, MA.
ABOUT THE MENOKIN FOUNDATION
The Menokin Foundation is a 500-acre National Historic Landmark site in the Northern Neck of Virginia that includes the collapsed home of Declaration of Independence signer Francis Lightfoot Lee and his wife Rebecca Tayloe. In 2015, the Menokin Foundation launched a multi-year, $7-million capital campaign to construct a groundbreaking, 21st-century glass structure that will preserve, protect and interpret the original house without reconstructing its 18th-century interior. The grounds and kayak boat launch are open daily 7 am to 7 pm and the Visitors Center is open Wednesday – Friday, 9 am to 5 pm. Admission is free. For more information, visit http://www.menokin.org or call 804-333-1776.
Menokin Matters to many people. Over 200 of them came to a Gala on Sunday, May 15, to honor two — Helen and Tayloe Murphy — for their decades of service to Virginia, the Northern Neck, the Garden Club of Virginia and the Northern Neck, and the Menokin Foundation.
Most agree that Menokin Matters. But to many of them, as of Sunday, it now matters a little bit more. This is true for many reasons, all of them sound and valid. But for most, it is because of the words of this man. Calder Loth.
Calder Loth – Retired Architectural Historian with the Virginia Department of Historic Resources and Honorary Trustee of the Menokin Foundation.
Calder has been a huge part of the Campaign to Save Menokin long before there was a campaign; long before there was a Menokin Foundation; long before the house was a ruin; long before the woodwork was removed. His knowledge of, and passion for Menokin are unparalleled. He was the obvious choice to be the keynote speaker at the Gala.
I am privileged to have the opportunity to share his speech with you here. Believe me when I tell you that reading these remarks in no way touches the magic of hearing them spoken aloud by Calder. Among his many gifts, public speaking is truly one.
Comments by Calder Loth at the May 15, 2016
Menokin Foundation Gala in Honor of Helen and Tayloe Murphy
You may wonder why I was asked to speak to you about Tayloe and Helen at this event. I did too. I think it may be because Tayloe and I are among the few people still alive who daringly ventured into Menokin while the house was still completely intact. I trespassed in 1965 with two of my U.Va. colleagues.
Tayloe is too polite to trespass; I’m sure he got permission.
Nonetheless, Tayloe has known and fretted about Menokin longer than any of us. Being a native of the Northern Neck, and one with family connections to this place, and, more importantly, a student of our nation’s history, he can appreciate more than any of us what a priceless and significant historic place this is, even as we see it now.
Decades before the Menokin Foundation was formed, Tayloe worked, albeit unsuccessfully, to purchase Menokin for preservation. But it couldn’t be bought then.
Beginning in the late 1960s, as the house crumbled and the interior woodwork disappeared, all we could do was despair— at least until the summer of 1985 when I received a phone call from Dora Riccardi. She told me that she and her brother Edgar Omohundro were the owners of Menokin.
She said she’d received a letter from the National Park Service threatening to remove the property’s National Historic Landmark status because of its deteriorated condition. She didn’t want that to happen. She said she and her brother were now willing to sell Menokin to an entity that would preserve it.
And she wanted to know if I would help them. Well sure! What else could I say? But I did say it could take a while, and it did.
My first thought was to work with an educational institution. The University of Mary Washington seemed an obvious choice. Some months later Mary Washington organized a meeting at Wakefield to explore options.
Attending that meeting was Tayloe Murphy…. the first time I met him. He asserted his passion and concern for Menokin and promised to do anything he could to help our efforts.
Also attending was a retired corporate executive, who kept needling me about realistic strategies for which I had no good answers.
Rather than get impatient, I said to myself, this guy seems pretty organized, and has time on his hands; we can use him. It was Martin King. The rest is history.
Martin initially felt we needed to work with the APVA, now Preservation Virginia. So in August of 1985, APVA staff member, Richard Rennolds, and I met here with Edgar Omohundro just to see what we were up against. I don’t know if any of you have ever seen a Mayan ruin before restoration, but that’s what this place looked like— jungle-like.
In the course of the discussion, we asked Mr. Omohundro, what happened to the interior woodwork. Was it sold or stolen? He said no. He said he couldn’t protect the house from thieves so he had the woodwork removed in 1967 and stored in a vacant house nearby. We asked if we could see it. He said sure.
Whereupon we went to the subject house, and like King Tut’s tomb, we looked in, and saw wonderful things. It was all there. But the house was unsecured. Its front wall was actually bulging out. Richard said this stuff is not safe here and offered to move it to secure storage at Bacon’s Castle; and there it remained for more than a decade.
So fast forward to 1995. By then, Edgar Omohundro was the sole owner. Taking advantage of this situation, Martin King proved to be a negotiator more skilled than Donald Trump. He convinced Omohundro to give Menokin (500 acres with waterfront!) as well as the woodwork, to the Menokin Foundation. That was pretty brazen. There wasn’t any foundation. It had to be quickly formed. Martin then asked Omohundro whatever happened to the carved keystone from the front entrance. Omohundro said “Why it’s under my back porch, you can have that too.“
Well, the foundation was duly formed with Martin as President and Tayloe as Vice President.
Now I could go on and on about all that’s happened since the Foundation was formed twenty years ago. But I need to say what a privilege it is this day to celebrate Menokin, whose original occupant, Francis Lightfoot Lee, put his life on the line by signing a document that created our nation.
His action, and that of his colleagues—the signers, has impacted all our lives and millions more. And we are making Menokin a site that will continue to change lives.
The ancient Romans talked about the Genius Loci, the spirit of the place, the effect a place has on one’s psyche. The Genius Loci has profoundly permeated the Northern Neck. This rural peninsula has produced people who have changed the course of history, even world history. I don’t know what it is about the Northern Neck that made that happen, but it did happen. Our challenge here is to nourish that spirit, and to protect the tangible evidence of that spirit in order to continue to make it happen.
The Genius Loci of the Northern Neck has certainly permeated Helen and Tayloe Murphy. What is it about this area that instills in one the energy, drive, determination, and dedication, to serve? Some of that just might be a character trait that’s fast becoming rare: Noblesse Oblige–the instinct that tells one: I am privileged, therefore I have the privilege to enrich others who are not as privileged as I.
Our Constitution did away with a legalized hereditary nobility. But I don’t think any would say that Tayloe and Helen are not of a noble class—not noble in terms of social status, but noble in character and dedication, just as was Francis Lightfoot Lee.
To read the full list of their records of service would keep us here well into the night. So I will just focus on their relation to this place. As we all know, Tayloe long served this region as a delegate in the General Assembly. And through that office he helped secure funds for the huge canopy that has protected the ruin for the past sixteen years- a reliquary for our precious relic.
When Governor Warner picked Tayloe to be his Secretary of Natural Resources (and no one has been better qualified for that office before or since), Tayloe properly resigned from the Menokin board to avoid conflict of interest. So who could replace him? Helen! Indeed, Helen became Foundation President, and gracefully guided us for several years of a challenging period.
And if she didn’t have enough to do, she has also served as the Chairman of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources (my office), and President of the Garden Club of the Northern Neck, and the Garden Club of Virginia.
Now when Helen’s term on the Menokin Foundation concluded, can we guess who replaced her? A well-qualified former cabinet Secretary.
It was during Tayloe’s and Helen’s tenures as foundation president that the concept evolved for treating Menokin in a unique way—not an ordinary restoration or reconstruction, but what I call a high-tech anastylosis.
An anastylosis is the scholarly term given for the treatment of ancient Greek and Roman ruins– that is gathering up the stone fragments of a ruined temple and fitting them into a reconstruction, with all the missing elements in new stone.
With Menokin, we are putting the missing elements back in glass– in a very high-tech system of architectural engineering that has never been done before. It will offer a new way of interpreting colonial architecture and construction techniques. And it will be really interesting looking!
So — high-tech anastylosis—a 21st-century approach to restoration and interpretation.
It has taken countless hours of working with numerous architects, contractors, and specialists to develop a feasible design out of a nebulous but enticing concept. And the stabilization of the mansion’s original stone foundation to support the new structural materials is starting this summer, finally!
Your support is making this happen. Your continued support will bring this captivating concept into reality. Seeing it come together will be intriguing to watch. And viewing this construction process will be an essential component of our education program.
With the mention of education, we should ask: why are we doing this?
Foremost, we are paying off a debt to Frank Lee, for what he did for us 240 years ago. In so doing, we are making Menokin a learning place, not an ordinary tourist attraction.
Our high-tech anasytlosis will be Menokin’s unique focal point, its main draw. But Menokin is multifaceted. Menokin is also a nature preserve— a nationally significant bird habitat. Our 500 acres has prehistoric archaeology: Menokin has nourished people for more than a 1000 years. We have slave archaeology and potential for unique garden archaeology. And with all our original architectural fabric, we can offer the study of architectural conservation and preservation theory.
But very importantly— we can also focus on patriotism, making Menokin a venue for deliberating the ideas of citizenship and public service. Menokin has true Genius Loci.
So this is a really a splendid occasion—one to celebrate Menokin on the cusp of a new and exciting period of its history, and an occasion to thank you for helping to make this happen, and to invite you to sustain the momentum.
And what an honor it is today to honor two people, Helen and Tayloe Murphy, who have so graciously served this site, this region, and this Commonwealth in so many ways, for so many years, and are still doing so.
So please give them our heartfelt applause.
And applaud we did. Hearts were opened. Energy and resolve were confirmed and renewed. Support flowed in (well over $100,000 raised in one evening!).
What is this magic that Menokin holds over us? Why do we work so hard and so long to save it? The answer is obvious. This place matters.
Thank you to the Marietta McNeil Morgan & Samuel Tate Morgan, Jr. Trust, Bank of America, N.A., Trustee for a $30,000 grant to the Menokin Foundation for the Campaign to Save Menokin.
With this grant, we have matched over $147,000 of the $300,000 challenge grant from the Cabell Foundation, bringing us almost halfway to our goal!
Realizing our revolutionary plan for Menokin will require an historic rallying of friends and supporters. Just as an original circle of builders constructed Menokin over a three-year period (1769-1772), a new Circle of Builders will lead the way in restoring dignity to Menokin during the next three years.
For more information on how you can join these modern-day “builders” to save Menokin, and to help us match the Cabell Foundation challenge grant, please contact Christina Markish: cmarkish@menokin.org or (804) 333-1776.
Thank you to the Marietta McNeil Morgan & Samuel Tate Morgan, Jr. Trust, Bank of America, N.A., Trustee, for your support!
Jack Zehmer served as a trustee of the Menokin Foundation; one of many important roles he had in the field of historic preservation.
His son, James D. W. Zehmer, serves on the Advisory Council of the Menokin Foundation, and is a co-chair of the Foundation’s Building and Grounds Committee. He completed his first term as a trustee in January 2016.
Menokin is proud to have the Zehmer legacy in its history. Our condolences go out to the Zehmer family and especially to Calder Loth, honorary trustee and close friend of the Zehmer family.
ZEHMER, John G. “Jack” Jr., 73, died February 7, 2016, after a long illness. He was the son of the late John Granderson Zehmer and Emily Butterworth Zehmer, and grew up in McKenney, Dinwiddie County, Virginia. He received a bachelor’s and master’s degree in architectural history from the University of Virginia, and served in the Peace Corps in Malaysia. He began his career in historic preservation in 1970 for the state of North Carolina, where he served as director of Historic Sites and Museums. He returned to Virginia in 1974 to become the City of Richmond’s first senior planner for historic preservation. He became director of the Valentine Museum in 1981, where he undertook research that led to the restoration of the Wickham-Valentine house interior. He was the Executive Director of Historic Richmond Foundation from 1984 to 1998 and was instrumental in expanding the foundation’s real estate projects and advocacy programs, and founding its publications program. He also chaired the Citizens Advisory Council for the Virginia Executive Mansion which oversaw the restoration of the mansion’s exterior. He joined the staff of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources in 1999, serving as director of the Capital Region Office, which provided services to 30 counties in south central Virginia. He retired in 2004 and continued to publish books on architectural preservation. Organizations for which he served as a board member include the Virginia Art and Architectural Review Board, the Virginia Board of Historic Resources, the Preservation Alliance of Virginia, APVA, the Menokin Foundation, the Battersea Foundation and the Edenton Historical Commission. He was also a member of the advisory boards of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Mount Vernon, an honorary member of the Garden Club of Virginia, and a past president of the Antiquarian Society of Richmond. He was involved in many preservation projects including Monumental Church, the National Theatre, the restoration of Linden Row and the Bolling Haxall House, and the establishment of the Monument Avenue Historic District and the Broad Street Historic District. He also served as Senior Warden of the Church of the Good Shepherd in McKenney, where he was a lifelong member. Jack Zehmer is particularly remembered by his friends for his knowledge and love of gardening. He was predeceased by his first wife, David Kathryn Wilborn Zehmer; his parents; and his sister, Emily W. Zehmer. He is survived by his wife, Frances N. Zehmer; his sons, John G. Zehmer III and wife, Andrea, of Ashland, Va., and James D. W. Zehmer and wife, Anne, of Gordonsville, Va.; his brother, Dr. Reynoldson B. Zehmer and wife, Nancy, of McKenney; his stepdaughter, Elizabeth J. Whitman and her husband, Bradley, of New York; and his stepson, Chester W. N. Johns and wife, Emily, of Chatham, Va. A grandson, John Franklin Zehmer; and three stepgrandchildren, Alexander Whitman, Catherine Whitman and Madeline Johns, also survive him. In addition, he is survived by his devoted friends, Estelle H. Lanier and Calder C. Loth. The family would like to thank the staff and caregivers at The Hermitage in Richmond for their compassionate care during his illness. (Continued…) ZEHMER (Continued) The family will receive friends from 5 to 7 p.m. on Friday, February 12, at the Petersburg Chapel of J.T. Morriss & Son Funeral Home at 103 South Adams Street, Petersburg. A memorial service will be held on Saturday, February 13, 2016, at 11 a.m., at The Church of the Good Shepherd, 7800 Lew Jones Road, McKenney, Va. In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to the Alzheimer’s Association of Greater Richmond, 4600 Cox Rd., Glen Allen, Va. 23059; the Historic Richmond Foundation, 4 E. Main St., Richmond, Va. 23219; The Valentine, 1015 E. Clay St., Richmond, Va. 23219; or to Church of the Good Shepherd, c/o Allen Denmark, treasurer, 7728 Lew Jones Road, McKenney, Va. 23872.
The Menokin Foundation needs your help! Vote today for the Menokin Foundation in the Virginia Living Best of Virginia 2016 contest. It takes less than 5 minutes:
Please donate today to the Menokin Foundation and help support growth and sustain the Menokin Foundation at is most critical moment in the modern era. Your donation to our annual campaign will enable the Foundation to operate day-to-day, support new and ongoing preservation programming, and allow the Foundation to ramp up our activities and make Menokin a richer experience for visitors and a more engaging learning center.
For questions or to schedule your visit to Menokin this holiday season, please contact the Menokin Foundation at (804) 333-1776 or email Menokin@Menokin.org.
We thank you for your support!
The Staff and Volunteers of the Menokin Foundation
Donate online or mail your check payable to “The Menokin Foundation” to:
The Menokin Foundation
P.O. Box 1221
Warsaw, VA 22572
Donations to the Menokin Foundation are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by the law. The Menokin Foundation is a registered 501 (c)3 organization: 54-1735338
Looks what’s new in the Menokin Gift Shop? This gorgeous piece of jewelry – designed and produced by Carol Koch (sister of our very own Alice French) – is fashioned from the iconic keystone that once graced the entrance to Menokin and is now on display in our Visitor’s Center.
The pendant comes in sterling silver and solid brass. All three are available for purchase in our online SHOP and at the Menokin Visitor’s Center.
A perfect gift for all the Menokin enthusiasts on your list!
The Menokin keystone in situ. Photo taken by Richard and Robert McClintock in 1969.
That’s right – July 2015 marks the 20th anniversary of the Menokin Foundation. If you’ve been to Menokin in the last five years or so, you know that a lot has happened here in that time. We had two visitors recently who haven’t been here since 1994. That’s a long time! We told them they were in for a treat. These folks have been constant supporters of Menokin over these past two decades. We are so glad they were able to come and see for themselves what their contributions have help us to accomplish. They sent us an email upon their return home and copies of photos they had taken during their 1994 visit. Here are their note and the images for you to enjoy (with their permission!).
Dear Ladies,
Many thanks for your very warm welcome, for the tour, and for sharing so much terrific information with us on Friday! OBVIOUSLY a great deal has happened in 20 years! Our visit was the highlight of our Northern Neck tour! We’re so glad we finally made it! We also appreciated the tip for Garner’s Produce Stand and stopped on our way home on Saturday.
We visited Menokin on Sunday, November 20, 1994. We were on a Smithsonian bus tour (“Washington and Lee on the Northern Neck”) led by the indomitable Edwin (Ed) Bearss, former chief historian of the NPS, author, and Civil War & American history expert extraordinaire. We’d also visited Washington’s Birthplace, Stratford, Christ Church, Martin’s Hundred & Carter’s Grove in addition to Menokin (order may not be correct); we had lunch at Tides Inn.
I think there are two different rolls of film but have only found the negatives for one. It was a lovely and relatively warm day judging by the sky and the attire. I remember our visit as being at the end of the day — you may be able to tell from #31. I like this one despite the sun because it includes the no trespassing sign! I remember that we had to wait for someone to come and unlock the gate or barrier (don’t recall which). It’s also clear that we did walk around — did not remember that detail…
My husband also took photos, and would have typically taken many more than I did. Mine were somewhat retrievable (in box 12 of about 18), but no idea where his might be. We’ll come across his eventually and be back in touch.
