Chestnut Grove - 1926

 

                           HISTORIC MANSION PREY OF FLAMES

                      "Chestnut Grove" Was Birthplace of Martha Washington

                                          (Special to The Times-Dispatch)

WEST POINT, VA., Nov. 5- "Chestnut Grove," the birthplace of Martha Custis Washington, burned to the ground on Wednesday night. This beautiful old home was possible the oldest in this section of the country and was beautifully situated in a terraced garden on the banks of the Pamunkey River in New Kent County.

 The estate is owned by Miss Ione Smith of Newport News, great-granddaughter of Colonel R. P. Cook, who purchased the home in the early part of the nineteenth century and lived there until his death. The late O. M. Chandler, who died last August, and family lived there until a few years before his death. Mrs. Chandler was Colonel Cook's grandmother*.

 Chestnut Grove was for years a center of hospitality in New Kent County and is a great loss not only to the family, but to the community at large. The furnishings of the home, mostly antique furniture of rare design, were also destroyed with the house.

 The origin of the fire is undetermined.

-Richmond Times-Dispatch, November 6, 1926

*No, granddaughter. And also Colonel Cook was married to a Chandler, Sarah.

Ione Smith was only 15 at this time.

The picture below, by Eva Harnsberger, is part of the WPA Federal Art Project files at the Library of Virginia. The drawing was in the 1930s however, after the destruction of the house.