Gettin' Some History

My mom and dad came to visit this past week, and we covered A LOT of ground.  We went to St. Michael's and Annapolis, MD, last weekend - and visited the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum - but you'll have to wait for that review because I took pictures on my mom's camera, forgot to download them, and now the camera is probably somewhere between Wheeling and Zanesville, OH on their trip back home to Iowa.  So, alas, our chronicle of museum visits will be a bit out of order.  


I've wanted to take my dad to the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Pope-Leighey House since we moved to the DC area seven years ago.  Well, we finally made it.  The house is located south of Washington, DC on Highway 1/Richmond Highway on the grounds of Woodlawn Plantation, which, unfortunately, is currently closed for tours due to an ongoing window restoration project.  You'll need to buy your tickets to the Pope-Leighey House in the Woodlawn gift shop, however, so you'll get at least a little peak inside.    

Mom and Diggory wandering the grounds at Woodlawn.  The public restrooms are under the north wing of the house, just to the left of the portico you see here, and down the stairs.  No changing tables, but very spacious.

If you have time to wander the grounds before your appointed tour time, make sure to check out the vegetable gardens maintained by the Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food and Agriculture.  There's also a chicken coop filled with friendly hens.  

Our tour guide of the Pope-Leighey House was incredibly knowledgeable about the history of the house and how the Usonian design fits into Frank Lloyd Wright's overall architectural career.  Diggory was fairly well behaved and made it through a little more than half of the tour, but since I'd actually toured the house before, we vacated the premises and wandered around outside for a bit, to give mom and dad and the rest of the group a reprieve from Diggory's squealing.  The house itself is a bit of a jaunt from Woodlawn (and the restrooms) but there is a water cooler to quench your thirst - or to provide endless entertainment for the toddler who thinks a paper cup is pretty darn fascinating.

George Washington's Gristmill and Distillery are located about a half mile southeast of Woodlawn on Mount Vernon Memorial Highway, and we just couldn't get that close without visiting.  After you park, stop by the gift shop to buy your tickets - but if you need to visit the restroom before the tour, you'll have to walk back around to the parking lot and down the hill by distillery to the small brick building along the creek.  It's strange, but in this brand new building there aren't any changing tables - not a huge deal, but still, I'm curious why no one thought to install one.  The tour actually starts back around the path at the Gristmill, where one of the interpreters will explain how the mill works, what George used the different milled grains for, and then start up the water wheel to demonstrate how the mill stones grind the grain.  It's loud, but super cool.  

Next, we wandered over to the distillery where another interpreter explained the process of making whiskey, how many barrels George typically produced, and how those barrels were shipped up stream to Alexandria and other points north and south.  On the second level of the distillery, you'll find a small exhibition on whiskey in America.  There is an elevator up to the gallery on the north end (closest to the parking lot) of the building.  Apparently, the whiskey produced here is actually pretty good - but they only distill it twice a year and it's usually sold out within days.  

In the days between our grist mill visit and our sojourn out to Leesburg, Virginia, my mom and dad helped install MORE baby gates, cleaned up our patio and planted new flowers, fixed our doorbell, and generally kept Diggory entertained.  But, once all the work was done, we escaped the big city in favor of the rolling hills of Loudon County.  After lunch with friends in the historic downtown, we stopped at a winery for a quick tasting (because that's what you do in Loudon County), before heading out to Balls Bluff Battlefield Regional Park and National Cemetery.  It's one of the smallest Civil War cemeteries, but it's very nicely done, and the interpretive signs and maps of the battlefield are quite informative.  There are tours on Saturdays and Sundays, apparently, but the self-guided tour brochure seemed plenty educational.  There are several trails through the park, some more "interpretive" than others, but we headed straight to the cemetery and bluff overlooking the Potomac River.

The path isn't terribly stroller friendly, but it's doable.  Plus, when it's 95 degrees outside, you may want to beef up those arm muscles pushing the stroller at your own pace rather than toddling around with your new walker at a snail's pace in the blazing sun.

Grandma and Diggory enjoying some shade at Ball's Bluff National Cemetery.

After our battlefield visit, we decided to take White's Ferry across the Potomac to Poolesville, and circle back to DC via River Road, with a quick stop over at the Great Falls Tavern Visitor Center on the Maryland side of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park.

Look!  When you're on a ferry, your GPS shows your car in the water!  

Only my graduate school pals and fellow Fall 2006 Museum Administration students will understand why the Poolesville Town Hall and future Poolesville Museum is particularly exciting to see up close and in person.

The museum at the Great Falls Tavern Museum closes at 4:30pm, so we missed seeing the inside by about 25 minutes.  (I guess we'll just have to come back someday!)  There are several interpretive signs along the canal, however, and plenty to look at - including a passenger boat that takes visitors up and down the canal at scheduled times during the day.  The park, as many of you know, is also a recreational haven - and all the bikers, kayaks, and dogs kept Diggory plenty entertained, as did the rocks, gravel, sticks, leaves, bugs, geese, and, of course, Grandma and Grandpa.  The end of our day was punctuated with a pleasantly trouble free commute back to Alexandria through rush hour traffic, and a cold adult beverage on our spruced up patio once we got home.  Mommy and daddy left this morning - but I'll be sure to have a list of historic sites and museums at the ready for the next time they venture back east.