Dodona Manor, the former home of General George Catlett Marshall (1880–1959), is a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

and

historic house museum A historic house museum is a house of historic significance that has been transformed into a museum. Historic furnishings may be displayed in a way that reflects their original placement and usage in a home. Historic house museums are held to a ...

at 312 East Market Street in

Leesburg, Virginia Leesburg is a town in the state of Virginia, and the county seat of Loudoun County. Settlement in the area began around 1740, which is named for the Lee family, early leaders of the town and ancestors of Robert E. Lee. Located in the far northeas ...

. It is owned by the George C. Marshall International Center, which has restored the property to its Marshall-era appearance of the 1950s. It is nationally significant as the home of George C. Marshall,

Chief of Staff of the United States Army The chief of staff of the Army (CSA) is a statutory position in the United States Army held by a general officer. As the highest-ranking officer assigned to serve in the Department of the Army, the chief is the principal military advisor and ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Secretary of State, President of the American Red Cross, and Secretary of Defense.

Description

Marshall and his wife Katherine purchased the property for $16,000 in 1941 and lived there until his death on October 16, 1959. Legend has it that Katherine paid the owners $10 earnest money and threw the "for sale" sign into the bushes as she left to discourage the competition. Except for a winter home in Pinehurst, N.C., this house was the only home Marshall ever owned, and was the backdrop to quiet conversations and contemplations of international importance. The widowed Katherine gave the house and 3.88 acres to her daughter, Molly Winn, in 1960 when she moved to Pinehurst for permanent residence. When Mrs. Winn expressed her desire to sell the property in the early 1990s, several prominent Leesburg citizens under the leadership of B. Powell Harrison, fearing that the property might fall into commercial hands and be demolished, urged the Town of Leesburg to purchase it. That proved to be impossible, so the citizens formed the George C. Marshall Home Preservation Fund, later the George C. Marshall International Center, and purchased Dodona Manor for $2.3 million. After renovations costing more than $4.5 million, the house opened as a museum on

Veterans Day Veterans Day (originally known as Armistice Day) is a federal holiday in the United States observed annually on November 11, for honoring military veterans of the United States Armed Forces (who were discharged under conditions other than d ...

in 2005. Much of the money for the purchase and renovation was donated by European nations that had benefited from the Marshall Plan. Further funding was provided by grants from the

Commonwealth of Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propert ...

(

Save America's Treasures Save America's Treasures is a United States federal government initiative to preserve and protect historic buildings, arts, and published works. It is a public–private partnership between the U.S. National Park Service and the National Trust fo ...

program),

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It administers federal housing and urban development laws. It is headed by the Secretary of Housing and Urb ...

, Garden Club of Virginia, and generous private donations.George C. Marshall International Center George C. Marshall's Dodona Manor was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1996.

History

The house was named Dodona Manor before the Marshalls purchased it. The name derives from

Dodona Dodona (; Doric Greek: Δωδώνα, ''Dōdṓnā'', Ionic and Attic Greek: Δωδώνη, ''Dōdṓnē'') in Epirus in northwestern Greece was the oldest Hellenic oracle, possibly dating to the second millennium BCE according to Herodotus. Th ...

, . a shrine in ancient Greece where priests and priestesses interpreted the rustling of oak (and beech) leaves as messages from the gods. Dating from the second millennium BCE, the Dodona shrine was considered to be second in prestige only to Delphi. Due to the large number of oak trees located on and around the property, naming the house Dodona Manor seemed appropriate. There is evidence that a two-story house existed on the property with five-course American brickwork in the early 1800s. John Drish, who purchased the property in 1805, added a Federal-style wing with

Flemish bond Brickwork is masonry produced by a bricklayer, using bricks and mortar. Typically, rows of bricks called ''courses'' are laid on top of one another to build up a structure such as a brick wall. Bricks may be differentiated from blocks by siz ...

brickwork and keystone arches in the mid-1820s and gave the property to his son Wilson Drish, who sold it to Fayette Ball, a distant relative of

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of ...

, in 1855. In 1856, the Rev. Charles Nourse, principal of the Leesburg Academy, purchased it. He tried unsuccessfully to sell it in 1859, and then opened the Loudoun Female Collegiate Institute in the house in 1860, after completing an addition to increase the number of bedrooms. Subsequent owners included Sophia Delany, Joseph and Martha Prather, Wallace and Sally George, Yvon and Ella Pike and Marcia McCann Ely and Northcutt Ely, who added electricity and indoor plumbing and eventually sold it to the Marshalls. The Marshalls also added a stone court, and changed the wooden porch to a more durable brick.

Collections

Dodona Manor is unique among historic houses because over 90% of the furnishings and memorabilia in the house were owned and used by the Marshalls and were obtained from Mrs. Marshall's heirs. Due to the extensive disrepair over time, detailed plans for the conservation and placement of the collection and for the reproduction of the original floor and wall coverings were developed by Dr. William Seale, a leading expert in the field, and Anne Horstman, who served as executive vice president of the Marshall Center during the restoration. Among the items are originals or reproductions of art given to the Marshalls, including a reproduction of ''View of Tinherir'', painted by Sir

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria t ...

in 1951 and given to the Marshalls in 1953. The original ''View of Tinherir'' was sold at auction by Marshall's granddaughter

Kitty Winn Katherine Tupper "Kitty" Winn (born February 21, 1943) is a former American actress. She is best known for her roles as the heroin addict Helen in the romantic drama '' The Panic in Needle Park'' (1971), for which she won the Best Actress award ...

in 2006 for £612,800 ($1.2 million), a record price for a Churchill painting at that time. Another reproduction is ''Evening'', by Russian artist Vassily Baksheyev. The original was a gift to Marshall from

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, foreign minister of the Soviet Union, in 1947 in appreciation for Marshall's efforts in World War II. Dodona Manor also has an original black and white landscape painted by

Soong Mei-ling Soong Mei-ling (also spelled Soong May-ling, ; March 5, 1898 – October 23, 2003), also known as Madame Chiang Kai-shek or Madame Chiang, was a Chinese political figure who was First Lady of the Republic of China, the wife of Generalissimo a ...

, wife of the president of the Republic of China, Chiang Kai-shek. She and the Marshalls became close friends when Marshall was President

Harry Truman Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...

’s special envoy to China in 1946–47, and Madame Chiang visited Dodona Manor on at least one occasion. Other pieces of Chinese art in the house include a painting by Wen Xuan Dai, a gift from the Chiangs to Katherine on her 64th birthday in 1946, and a fish painting by Tzulu Shen gifted by the Chinese Cultural Enterprise as a thank you for Marshall's efforts in China. For Christmas 1959, two months after Marshall died, President

Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...

sent a print of his watercolor painting of

Mount Eisenhower Mount Eisenhower, formerly Mount Pleasant, is a mountain in the Presidential Range in the White Mountains of New Hampshire approximately high. Named after President Dwight D. Eisenhower, its summit offers a 360° view. It is inaccessible by ...

, currently Castle Mountain, located in

Alberta, Canada Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Territ ...

, to Mrs. Marshall, with a handwritten note. Both are on display in Dodona Manor. Also on display is Marshall's favorite red

La-Z-boy La-Z-Boy Inc. (pronounced "lazy boy") is an American furniture manufacturer based in Monroe, Michigan, United States, that makes home furniture, including upholstered recliners, sofas, stationary chairs, lift chairs and sleeper sofas. The compa ...

next to his

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable en ...

radio and television combination set, where he would listen to his favorite baseball team, the Brooklyn Dodgers, and watch his favorite TV shows including ''

I Love Lucy ''I Love Lucy'' is an American television sitcom that originally aired on CBS from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, with a total of 180 half-hour episodes, spanning six seasons. The show starred Lucille Ball, her husband, Desi Arnaz, along wit ...

, Gunsmoke,'' and '' American Bandstand'' in one of the most comfortable rooms in the house, the library. This room includes many treasured items including figurines of a Chinese wedding procession given to Marshall by Madame Chiang Kai-chek, a portrait of Colonel Robert E. Lee, and scores of the Marshalls' books, usually historical biographies. Although Lee attended

West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known Metonymy, metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a f ...

and Marshall attended VMI, Marshall considered General Lee and George Washington brilliant military strategists, which is evident by the multiple portraits seen throughout the house. Due to her fondness for the Marshalls, Madame Chiang was a guest at Dodona Manor many times throughout the 1940s and 1950s. The original master bedroom was converted to a guest bedroom, while George and Katherine occupied the two original guest bedrooms connected by a Jack and Jill bathroom. The use of separate bedrooms suited their different habits: George was a military man who woke up early and enjoyed his own space, similar to the days of military barracks living, whereas Katherine enjoyed sleeping late and having breakfast in bed. Madame Chiang brought with her three to five servants who stayed in the grandchildren's nursery.

Grounds

To protect the views from Dodona Manor, the George C. Marshall Preservation Fund purchased eleven surrounding properties during the principal restoration, ten of which have since been sold off. A shopping center known as "The Shops at Dodona Manor" is owned by the Marshall Center and generates revenue for the site. The grounds have been restored to their Marshall-era appearance of the 1950s and include a large vegetable garden that was restorative as an antidote to the pressures Marshall felt as Army Chief of Staff. Katherine delighted in growing roses, and a restored rose garden features the types of roses she cultivated. George Marshall himself was known as a great proponent of mulch in gardening.

References

External links

*
George C. Marshall International Center

at the

Journey Through Hallowed Ground National Heritage Area The Journey Through Hallowed Ground National Heritage Area is a federally designated National Heritage Area in portions of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland and Virginia. History and background The Journey Through Hallowed Ground National Heri ...