Chestnut Grove - 1906

 

This rather blurry photo is from the article

     BIRTHPLACE OF MRS. WASHINGTON

     Chestnut Grove the Childhood Home of Martha Dandridge.

    WAS BULIT IN THE LONG AGO

      No One Living Has Any Record of the Date of the Erection.

 

                                              (Special to The Times-Dispatch.)

 WEST POINT, VA., May 10.- Chestnut Grove, the birthplace of Martha Dandridge, who married first Daniel Parks Custis and then Colonel George Washington, is only a short Journey from West Point. It is situated in New Kent county, about five miles from the county seat, on the banks of the Pamunkey River. The old mansion, in which Mrs. Washington first saw the light, is standing to-day, and by the nails, lumber and style of construction, extreme age is attested.

 Colonel R. P. Cook, who was born in New Kent, near Chestnut Grove (the Dandridge homestead), October 10, 1813, and who purchased the property and lived on it fifty years, said that his grandmother, who was Miss Ann K. Chamberlayne, sister of General William Chamberlayne, and a schoolmate of Martha Dandridge (Mrs. General Washington), told him that she did not know when the house was built, and had no acquaintance with any one who did know.

 The building is a two-story frame structure, the walls, resting on a brick basement which is five feet below the surface of the ground and four feet above ground, are eighteen (18) inches thick, save it the bases of the two chimneys, each of which is 5x6 feet, with an arch in the basement six feet high, 4 feet wide and five feet deep.

 The lumber in the frame is white oak; the doors and window castings are of popular, and the weather boarding is of heart-pine. The nails were originally all hand-made. Several years ago it was found necessary to replace many of the nails, for the sake of safety, as so many have had been drawn out and taken away as souvenirs or relics by tourists.

 The length of the basement walls is fifty-eight feet, width 22 feet, and many sumptuous banquets have boon served therein.

 The rooms on the first floor are ten feet high twenty feet wide, and eighteen feet long.

 The reception hall is twelve by twenty feet. On the place is a large burying ground, containing the graves of the Dandridges and many noted people of long ago. A large vault remained there for many years, built of imported brick. The bricks were afterwards used to build a chimney. On the site of the vault thousands, of walnut trees sprung up, and many canes and other souvenirs have been cut and fashioned and carried away by relic hunters.

 The place is now owned by Mrs. M. C. Smith, of Newport News, and is occupied by Mr. O. M. Chandler and family, Mrs. Chandler is a daughter of Mrs. Smith. 

The house fronts north to the Pamunkey River, and also fronts to the south. Sloping from the house to the river is a terraced garden, filled with many beautiful flowers and old-timey shrubs, among others the calacanthus, with its delicious fragrance. Out in the river, in front of the house, is a small island, known as "Cook's Island." During the Civil War, gun boats were sunk on either side of the island to block the course to Richmond.

 The name Chestnut Grove was given on account of the many fine chestnut trees abounding on the farm.

 While Martha Dandridge was the wife of Daniel Parke Custis she lived at the White House, the site of which can be seen from the Southern Railroad, running between West Point and Richmond. Tradition says that the presidential mansion in Washington, D. C., was named from the home of Mrs. Custis, afterwards Mrs. Washington, wife of the first President of the United States.

 After Colonel Washington and Mrs. Custis were married, in 1759 they, lived at Mount Vernon until the revolution.

 Her neighbors, while she lived in New Kent, were of no mean sort, for among them were the Claibornes, Lewises, Webbs, Bassetts, Macons and many others whose names are still familiar in this section of Virginia.

 These, in substantial mansions of a former generation, lived in lordly manor and entertained with lavish hospitality. Many of the old buildings have decayed and disappeared, others are mere ruins, while a few have been preserved with zealous care and their hearth-stones still respond to the touch of old-fashioned customs.

 There was a time when homes in this section, resounded with mirth and pleasure, participated in by old and young, when noble sons and stately daughters spent much of their time in routs and balls, and the rafters of the ancient buildings echoed to the music and graceful steps of the "Minuet." "The visits of days" from house to house, the "dining outs," "parties." "fish fries," and "frolics" occupied their time to the exclusion of most other matters. 

                     . . .

-Times Dispatch, 20 May 1906

O. M. Chandler (1854-1926) was the long time county surveyor of New Kent. His wife Annie was the daughter of Richard Graves Smith and Margaret Cordelia Smith née Cook. Margaret Smith's father was the Colonel Richard P. Cook mentioned in the article. Colonel Cook purchased Chestnut Grove in 1840. His rank was from his position as commander of the 52nd Militia Regiment, the militia regiment of the upper Peninsula.