The Yeaton-Fairfax House
[607 Cameron Street. Owners: The Misses Crilly.]
William Yeaton was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 1766, and
migrated to Alexandria to enter the shipping business when a young man.
In the early nineteenth century he launched into the building trade--an
"undertaker" he would have been called in the eighteenth century--an
architect and contractor today.
On July 15, 1805, he purchased from Cuthburt Powell a part of a lot,
granted unto Levin Powell by James Irvine in a deed dated September 10,
1795, and described as situated at the intersection of Cameron and St.
Asaph Streets, running west on Cameron for the distance of one hundred
feet and north on St. Asaph for ninety-eight feet. The consideration
involved one thousand one hundred dollars.
[Illustration: Recessed and panelled doorway to my Lord Fairfax's town
house]
The elegant three-storied square brick house which William Yeaton
erected upon his land is a monument to his talent as a designer. His
residence is an individualized interpretation of the best Georgian
traditions. The facade of the house is broken in the middle by a long
recessed shallow arch, beginning flush with the first belt line, and
continuing nearly to the modillioned cornice. In this recess the middle,
second and third story windows, are centered, giving the effect of a
very high Palladian window. Large arched windows flank each side of the
entrance, while windows of the second and third stories are quite
ordinary, save in proportion. Every window has outside shutters and
molded iron holdbacks.
[Illustration: Washington's Tomb at Mount Vernon. From a sketch
appearing in a letter of William Yeaton to Lawrence Lewis under date of
April 4, 1835. (_Courtesy Mount Vernon Ladies' Association_)]
The entrance, a flat arch flush with the house, opens into a deeply
recessed and paneled vestibule. Side lunettes, leaded transom, double
doors supported by reeded half columns, and an elaborate fret decorate
the arch and door trim, making the doorway a very important element of
the design. Stone front steps and double flights of outcurving steps,
banded by iron railings, contribute emphasis. The watersheds and belt
lines are white, as is the recessed arch, adding a dramatic touch to the
dull red masonry.
To the right, upon entering, runs a long room the entire length of the
house; to the left a small chamber faces the street. A large arch frames
a graceful stair, which winds up to the third floor in a circular
movement. Newel post and stair ends are carved. While woodwork
throughout the house is elaborate, the difference between the first and
second floors is marked. That of the first floor is massive, rather more
dull than interesting, but the second floor, especially the large room,
is startling in that mantel, door trim, chair rail, and baseboard are
carved with the delicate lightness of Adam. The feature of this room is,
of course, the mantel which is centered between two large shell-like
shallow recessed arches, reaching from the floor to the ceiling. The
room might have been done by McIntire at his best.
In 1814 the Yeatons sold their home to a man who immediately disposed of
his interest in the property to the Bank of the Potomac for ten thousand
dollars. Sixteen years later, on December 9, 1830, the house was
purchased as a town residence by Thomas, Ninth Lord Fairfax, for five
thousand dollars, and remained in the Fairfax family for thirty-four
years. Thomas, Ninth Lord Fairfax, in 1800 married Margaret Herbert,
eldest daughter of William and Sarah Carlyle Herbert and granddaughter
of John Carlyle. They had ten children. Mrs. Robert E. Lee (_nee_
Custis) was an intimate of the girls of this family and a frequent
visitor in the house.
[Illustration: William Yeaton produced this fine Federal Mansion. A
sample of the interior woodwork]
Doctor Orlando Fairfax succeeded his father as owner from 1848 to 1864.
He bore the title of the "Beloved Physician." The following
advertisements, taken from the files of the _Alexandria Gazette_, give a
brief glimpse of his activities in the 1830s:
Dr. Fairfax has returned to Alexandria, and is ready to resume the
practice of his profession in the town and its neighborhood. His
office is at the N.W. corner of Pitt and Cameron Streets.
Dr. Fairfax in his late absence of five months, has been constantly
engaged at Philadelphia in increasing his medical acquirements.
[1831]
Dr. Fairfax has returned to Alexandria and is ready to resume the
practice of his profession. He has, during his late absence from
Alexandria, witnessed many cases of the epidemic cholera. [1832]
In 1829 Dr. Fairfax had married Mary Randolph Cary, daughter of Wilson
Jefferson Cary. They had nine children.
[Illustration: Arch and staircase in the Yeaton-Fairfax House]
In a deed of April 14, 1864, the fact is revealed that this property was
condemned according to an act of Congress in 1862 "to suppress
insurrection, to punish treason and rebellion to seize and confiscate
property of Rebels and for other purposes."[184] It further records that
on the preceding day, April 13, 1864, Gouverneur Morris, attorney for
Patsy J. Morris, of Westchester County, New York, purchased for four
thousand dollars, he being the highest bidder therefor, all the right,
title, interest and estate of Dr. Orlando Fairfax.
Gouverneur Morris was a brother-in-law of Dr. Orlando Fairfax, and while
living in France sent the Fairfaxes from the palace at Versailles a very
large and elegant mirror which hung in the drawing room, filling one of
the alcoves from floor to ceiling. This mirror is still in existence and
in the possession of Dr. Fairfax's granddaughter, Mrs. Donald MacCrea.
Mrs. Burton Harrison in her _Recollections, Grave and Gay_, relates the
wartime experiences of her uncle and his family who were forced to seek
refuge in Richmond, of their sufferings and privations, and of the death
of the young son of the family, Randolph, barely twenty, killed in
action in mid-December 1862.
During the years of Fairfax occupancy, this mansion was one of the
social and cultural centers of the town; the Fairfaxes were the
important noble family of the "upper reaches of the Potomac." They
intermarried with the Carlyles, Washingtons, Herberts, and Carys. Their
contribution to Alexandria cannot be overrated, for in their personal
lives and public service, they set an example of chivalry and courage.
They have been distinguished by handsome men and beautiful women, by
gentleness and courtly bearing. They have had great wealth and used it
generously; have lost great wealth and borne it nobly. The family is
represented in England today by Thomas Brian, Thirteenth Lord Fairfax,
great-great-grandson of Thomas, Ninth Lord Fairfax.
Let us return to William Yeaton, builder of the mansion on Cameron
Street. It is of vital interest that he was the designer and contractor
for the inclosure of the Tomb of the _Pater Patriae_.[185] The archives
at Mount Vernon contribute a number of papers dealing with this
construction. Here is the proposal which Yeaton addressed to Major
Lawrence Lewis, of Woodlawn, General Washington's nephew and the
executor who supervised the work:
Alex April 4th 1835.
Dear Sir
I have sent you a sketch of the wall & have anticipated a _Gate_ way
on one of the sides which I expect will be necessary.
If you wish the Gate, one something like the sketch will be
appropriate, you may have the gate made solid--or open as you prefer,
to releive the dead wall, between the arch and copen there may be
placed a slab of stone 4 Feet long & one foot wide, or a pannell may
be formed in the wall.
I will engage to have the wall erected and find all materials, say
Forty Five Feet square, ten Feet high, from the bottom of the
foundation, which is to be two Bricks thick 2 feet high, the peirs to
continue the same thickness to the copen, the pannells between the
piers to be one brick & one half thick, the copen to be formed with
best Brick three courses above the square--the Gateway & Gate similar
to the sketch the work to be well done, & materials of the best
quality--For Six hundred dollars,--
Very respectfully
Your Obed Servt
W. YEATON
This addition was completed by the end of the year at a cost just
slightly in excess of the original six-hundred-dollar estimate. Designed
primarily as a protective wall to inclose the burial vault built in
1831, it contributed an appropriate architectural character to the tomb
lot. The Gothic arch of the completed entrance was in sympathy with a
funereal scene enhanced by willowlike foliage observable in certain
views of the period.
Alterations were made in 1837 which created a vestibule between the
vault and the outer wall and gateway constructed by William Yeaton. It
is not known whether Yeaton again participated in the construction. It
was in 1837 that the bodies of General and Mrs. Washington were removed
from this closed vault behind and permanently entombed in marble
sarcophagi, which the visitor views today in the outer chamber at Mount
Vernon.
[Illustration: William Yeaton, builder and "undertaker" (architect) of
Alexandria. By Saint Memin. (_Courtesy Corcoran Gallery of Art_)]
[Illustration]