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Rendering of Menokin “Finished” courtesy (c) 2015, Machado Silvetti.
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An evening shot of the Remembrance Structure courtesy (c) 2018, Reid Freeman.
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Alice French, Menokin’s Director of Education and Outreach
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Sam McKelvey, executive director of Menokin
Imagine dining under a lighted tent at dusk on the lawn in front of Menokin, the house of Francis Lightfoot Lee, signer of the Declaration of Independence.
Over an autumn supper of soup, salad and bread, 100 guests will be treated to a presentation about the historic house, its fascinating back story and the programming initiatives
designed to make it a destination for locals and visitors for years to come. Once the meal ends, guests, as well as the public, will be invited to partake in an illuminated walking tour along a lighted path from the Menokin house to the Remembrance structure, which was erected in 2018 on the footprint of a former slave dwelling. Both structures will be illuminated, providing a dazzling view of the buildings, unlike anything the original inhabitants could have imagined.
“It’s an opportunity for us to show appreciation for our friends and neighbors in the community during the fall Thanksgiving time,” says Alice French, Menokin’s director of education and outreach, of the November 30 event which coincides with Menokin’s 250th year. “It’s a way to celebrate our community and also to give back to it.”
The 1769 house and its grounds attract a steady stream of visitors, 70 percent of whom come from Virginia, with many of the other 30 percent hailing from Maryland,
Delaware and Washington, D.C. The Menokin Foundation was created in 1995, but the house and grounds have only been a public-accessible site for less than two decades so many life-long Virginians have never seen the property or heard the story of how it came into being.
“For a long time, we were just a preservation project, not a historic site,” explains Sam McKelvey, executive director of Menokin. “We want to push the boundaries of what a museum and historic site can be.”
They’re doing that with a large scale project to save Lee’s house in a way that is both functional and strikingly beautiful. Despite the house being partially collapsed, the Foundation has devised a completely unique plan to use architectural glass to replace the missing portions of the building rather than attempting to restore the house to its original condition. Significantly, close to 80 percent of Menokin’s original materials—original stones, brick and mortar, queen posts and dragon beams, intact framing assemblages and interior woodwork—have survived.
“What we’re doing is protecting a national treasure,” McKelvey explains of the massive undertaking. “It’s a really exciting project because we’re approaching conservation in a new way that’s never been done before.”
Adding to its historic value and potential as a learning tool for future generations, Menokin is significant because it’s one of the best-documented 18th century houses in America. Among the important documents is a rare original presentation drawing dating to 1769. Even more valuable, though, is the work done by a group of architects who visited Menokin in 1940 with the express purpose of documenting it—measuring, drawing and taking photographs—as part of the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), the government’s oldest preservation program. The HABS drawings continue to be an invaluable tool as the Menokin Foundation works with the architectural firm Machado Silvetti in creating a reinterpretation that will enable future generations to learn from the past.
Over dinner, attendees will hear about the restoration plans while interpreters along the walk will share stories of the Rappahannock tribe who originally inhabited the area, as well as tales of the subsequent English settlers, the enslaved laborers, tenant farmers and Lee himself. The public is invited to the illuminated walk once the supper ends. Community partners making Menokin Illuminated possible include Garner’s Produce and Montross Brewery.
The evening is part of a statewide celebration marking several transformational happenings in Virginia. The event came about when Menokin received a 2019 Commemoration Finale grant as part of the larger 2019 Commemoration that recognizes the 400th anniversary of several key events: the arrival of the first Africans to Virginia, the recruitment of English women to the colony and the first official Thanksgiving. The grant provides marketing assistance funding for events during November as part of the Virginia Customs, Cultures and Cuisine Festival, created to commemorate aspects of those historic firsts.
Because the event is designed to highlight the Northern Neck, along with bread and salad, guests may choose either oyster stew made from a regional recipe or a hearty vegetable soup highlighting the bounty of local vegetables. “It’s a way to celebrate local farming and aquaculture,” French explains of the event created to provide a pause from the hectic pace of the holiday season at a unique Northern Neck destination. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the Healthy Harvest Food Bank that serves the Northern Neck and Middle Peninsula.Beer and wine will be available for purchase and the limited 100 tickets will go on sale October 1 for $20 each on Menokin’s website.
McKelvey says the 500-acre landscape with a historical ruin in the middle of it is a really excellent place to see history in its bare bones. “It is a shame that the house fell down, but it also gives us an opportunity to show it to people in a deconstructed state and for us to interpret Menokin in a completely new way,” he says with obvious pride. The staff had been considering the idea of illuminating the house and property for years but it wasn’t until they received the grant that it became feasible to finally make it a reality.
Presuming the night is a success—and how could it not be given the bucolic setting and fascinating history that define it?—Menokin Illuminated will become an annual event. “It promises to be a fun walk in the park with lights at night and, of course, a historical edge to it,” French says of the event which coincides this year with the New Moon. “We can’t help that we always have to teach something.”
Menokin Illuminated, November 30. Ticketed dinner 5-7pm, illuminated public walking tour 7-9pm at Menokin, 4037 Menokin Road, Warsaw.
Dinner tickets available October 1 at Menokin.org.