The garden wall of the historic Lee-Fendall House (614 Oronoco Street) in Old Town took a beating earlier this week, but support from the local community has helped put the wall on the road to repair.
A few days after announcing that a significant portion of the home’s wall had collapsed, the home has raised $5,005 to help boost repair efforts.
“On Saturday, June 12, 2021, a 70-foot portion of the original brick wall surrounding Lee-Fendall’s historic garden collapsed,” the museum said on its fundraising page. “Originally built of hand-formed brick in a Flemish bond pattern over a fieldstone foundation and likely constructed by enslaved workers, the wall dates to around the year 1800 and has been an integral part of our historic fabric. It post-dates the construction of our house by only about 15 years and tells an important part of Lee-Fendall’s story and of Alexandria’s.”
The museum raised $1,000 in the first day of the fundraiser. The Lee-Fendall House Museum and Garden has set a goal of $125,000 for the fundraiser, the estimated full-cost for the repair effort. The wall repair is particularly difficult due to the need to have an architectural engineer help plan the repair using the original bricks.
“Museum staff are working closely with Alexandria’s Board of Architectural Review and with local firms specializing in historic masonry preservation on a multi-phase plan to repair the wall,” the museum said. “This will be a major project for the museum, costing over $125,000 in full. Our first and immediate need is for $14,000 in funding to cover the cost of working with an architectural engineer on a plan for the repair which uses the original bricks.”
It’s been a tough week at Lee-Fendall, with the collapse of 70 feet of our c.1800 garden wall – but we are so encouraged by the wonderful support and generosity of the Alexandria community. https://t.co/b9mmqIUieZ pic.twitter.com/WBLmeB97Bx
— Lee-Fendall House Museum & Garden (@leefendallhouse) June 23, 2021
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