Thank you to everyone who has touched, or been touched by, Menokin in some way in 2017. We have had a remarkable year of growth and planning. Our programs are reaching more people than ever and we experienced a record number of visitors.
Now, during this season of celebration, it’s important to pause for quiet and mindfulness. Take a different path. Appreciate the timeless workings of nature transitioning to another season.
We offer you the gift of Menokin. It’s all here waiting for you. The road less traveled by.
How thrilled were we when Richard Moncure, Education Director for the Friends of the Rappahannock (FOR), called to see if he could bring some members of Falls of the James, – Sierra Paddlers Club from Richmond – for the first spring paddle on Cat Point Creek on April 1st? Really thrilled. No fooling!
Moncure was joined by FOR’s Adam Lynch in leading the paddle tour on Cat Point Creek. Mother Nature obviously approved of the idea as she provided perfect weather for us to introduce our little slice of paradise to this eager group of enthusiastic nature lovers.
Hard Hat Tour photo by Patrick Wamsley
Hard Hat Tour photo by Patrick Wamsley
Hard Hat Tour photo by Patrick Wamsley
Since it was still a little chilly early on this first morning in April, we collectively decided to meet at the Visitor’s Center for an orientation of Menokin and the preservation and education projects we are undertaking. Next was a Hard Hat Tour of the Menokin ruin. Who would have thought our fallen house with barely any walls would have felt warm?! This group was adventurous and open to learning something new, and so they did. After an inspired house tour, we ventured down to Cat Point Creek. The wind made the water a little choppy. After safety instructions from Richard and Adam, this hardy crowd paddled out into Menokin Bay, the widest part of Cat Point Creek.
Cat Point Creek photo by Patrick Wamsley
Cat Point Creek photo by Patrick Wamsley
Menokin Bay photo by Patrick Wamsley
The good news was we were beginning the paddle against the tide and wind, when we still had a lot of energy! Along the way, Adam, Richard, and I pointed out plant species, wildlife and talked about historical references to this place. Emphasis was placed on the fact that due to conservation of our waters through acts such as The Chesapeake Bay Act, fathered by our own dear Tayloe Murphy in 1970, the Northern Neck and the Chesapeake Bay provide wonderfully preserved authentic experiences not found in many places on this planet. Evidence of the effects of conservation measures such as this are seen in the resurgence of eagle habitats, symbol of American Freedom, throughout the Northern Neck. Additionally, oyster reproduction, crucial to keeping our waterways clean, has finally begun to increase again as well.
Remember, we all drink the same water on this planet. We all need to protect it.
Moncure, a native of the Northern Neck with a long family history associated with the water, spoke to us on the importance of supporting special environments like those still found in the Northern Neck. Ecological conservation efforts from advocacy groups like the Friends of the Rappahannock and conservation-minded tourism properties like Menokin have helped to maintain and sustain the pristine beauty and ecosystems of this region.
Our next community paddle is on June 9th and features a full moon! This enchanted landscape will surely be made more magical by a Moonlight Paddle. We have other community paddles schedule throughout 2017, so watch for those announcements. Many will be associated with the Smithsonian Water|Ways exhibit that is coming to Menokin for six weeks starting in July. Take advantage of having a world-class museum experience in your own back yard for you and your family to learn more about how the precious resource of water affects our culture and our planet.
Come for a paddle and see for yourself. Our trails are open from 7am – 7pm Sunday through Saturday. Find out more on our website. menokin.org/water-access
Fall is finally (kinda, sorta) in the air in the Northern Neck. A drizzly morning, that has since transformed into a sunny day, offered an extravaganza of autumny images for my itchy shutter finger. Enjoy my walk through the Menokin landscape.
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.
It’s funny when you work at an historical site how people always assume that because it’s old, all of its past is known and there is nothing new to discover. Of course, we are famous at Menokin for disproving that year after year and this past year we again learned something new about the people who lived here.
A few years back, I visited a local senior living facility in Richmond County to give a presentation on Menokin and spoke about how we tell stories. I was interested in developing an oral history program related to our county’s past, and I was looking for a place to begin. After chatting with the group for a bit, one of the women told us she thought her grandfather, Daniel Gordon, was born a slave at Menokin and then freed under the Emancipation Act. She is his granddaughter, Evelyn Gordon Parker, still a Richmond County resident, who also writes for the Northern Neck News. Wow, I thought. How amazing is that? She told me she had visited Menokin once before, and a few weeks later, returned with some photographs of her family, including one of her grandfather and grandmother.
Back row: Gordon girls: Elsie, ?, Cornelia, and cousin Margaret Saunders; Front row: Daniel Gordon and wife Maria Wright Gordon
This past winter, I visited with Evelyn and her sister, Juanita Gordon Wells to record and document some of their memories. Her grandfather has an amazing story, which I shall wait to share in a later post. But for now, I think the other really cool thing is how we learn about our past. This man raised his family with very strong values of faith, family and education. Over the years, the pride and strength of these values were instilled in one generation after another. And sometimes there are parts of history that are known better within families through oral traditions than are found in courthouse records. In 2011, The Gordons published a cookbook, recounting their early roots as well as family recipes.
Interviewing Gordon family sisters.
Evelyn’s brother, Thomas Daniel Gordon, was interested in recording the family history and established the first family reunion in 1979. These reunions continue to grow. They have traced their relatives all over North America with family members all the way up to Halifax, Nova Scotia! Each time the family meets, they travel to a different location and this summer of 2016, the Gordon Family will be coming back to Virginia! We have invited them to visit Menokin for a special family tour.
Evelyn Parker and Juanita Wells telling their story.
As a result of our chance meeting, Menokin has since begun to further document the history of the Gordons. I hope to tell their story in ways that can help others discover and understand their past through video and classroom experiences, and continue to explore the lives of other Northern Neck residents. We are also seeking research assistance from a graduate student to help complete the missing links in their phenomenal story and see this as a great opportunity to develop an ongoing digital history for the future.
Thank you, Evelyn and Juanita, for helping us begin this exciting work.
The Menokin Foundation celebrated the Grand Opening of the newly improved road and water access to Cat Point Creek at the end of November.
Several people were on hand to enjoy a reception with great food (can you say “freshly fried catfish?”), good memories and a trip down the trail to the water.
Only two and a half brave souls took to the water in kayaks on the sparkling cold day. But we look forward to welcoming more kayak and canoe enthusiasts in the years to come.
A special thanks to the National Park Service for their $99,000 grant through the Chesapeake Bay Gateways Network to make this project a reality!
Sarah Pope and Bob Campbell reminisce about the long relationship between Menokin and the National Park Service.
Are you friendly?
Yes, we both are!
Plenty of good food.
And beautiful flowers.
Bob Campbell (NPS) and Menokin President Tayloe Murphy
Tayloe gives the welcoming address.
Sarah is enthusiastic about the completion of the project.
Good friends of Menokin – Bill Portlock and Nancy Raybin.
A captive audience and a dog.
More members of the Menokin Canine Corps were in attendance.
Preservantion architect, John Fidler and Menokin Trustee, Mercer O’Hara, chat with Sarah.
Trustee, Steve Walker and Kirwan and Fran King with a guest.
It’s official!
Wagons Ho!
And they’re off!
What a lovely place to walk.
New parking area with interpretive signage.
The soft launch site.
Education Coordinator, Alice French, and National Fish and Wildlife Service Refuge Manager, Andy Hoffman, debate the pros and cons of kayaking on a cold, windy day.
A comfy spot for a chat or a picnic. Or both!
Bill, Alice Wellford and Nancy agree to stay on dry land.
Penelope Saffer (former trustee), Hullie Moore (Treasurer) and Hill Wellford enjoying the day and each other’s company.
Remember when finding just the right stick was so much fun?!?
Inigo Howlett, local correspondent for NPR took on the challenge.
Intrepid Alice is not phased by the weather and enjoys a good paddle.
The holiday season is the time for goodwill and giving, and remembering those less fortunate than we are.
What has now become an annual tradition, members of the Wheelin’ Sportmen came to Menokin on November 7th for a hunt under the coordination of Robin Clark, and our neighbor Ford Becker.
Kevin Goff, the new Director of the River Program at St. Margaret’s School in Tappahannock, VA, has created this co-curricular activity group called SSOAK:Science, Service, and Outdoor Adventure Krew.
This particular group goes out with SMS faculty Cupper Dickinson and Kevin on weekday afternoons, and will soon be launching larger scale SSOAK activities on weekends for other students who want to participate.
October 12th was the second time they have visited Menokin since our new road was completed. One of the girls said that “Menokin was her favorite of all the places we’ve been kayaking the past 5 weeks”.
Kevin added, “Mine too.”
St. Margaret student members of SSOAK paddle Cat Point Creek at Menokin.
Jr. Duck Stamp returned this summer, bigger and better than ever. Twelve campers had kayaking experiences in three Northern Neck water venues – the pond at Wilna Wildlife Refuge, Cat Point Creek at Menokin and the Potomac River at Westmoreland State Park.
In spite of the brutal heat of the week, the experiences were rich, the knowledge gained was deep and the artwork was beautiful! And there was cake at the end of the week. Doesn’t get much better than that.
Keep in touch for news about Jr. Duck Stamp Camp 2016.
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.
