Anybody traveling along N. Washington Street might notice that the historic Lee-Fendall House Museum & Garden (614 Oronoco Street) looks different.
The historic 18th-century home, celebrating 50 years as a public museum, has a fresh coat of paint as part of a renovation project to freshen up the building.
“The Lee Fendall House Museum and Garden recently completed a major exterior paint and restoration project,” Virginia Properties Inc. Construction Operations Manager Ed Horn said in a release. “Neighbors and passerby’s have been startled to see the longtime pale cream building with green shutters repainted in a dark red/brown color.”
Horn said the renovation was undertaken by the Virginia Trust for Historic Preservation and was guided by a Historic Structures Report. The report said the new paint scheme is closer to the home’s 1850 paint scheme:
The exterior features of the building have been remarkably unchanged since a major remodeling of the property with elements of the Greek Revival and Italianate styles, was undertaken by Louis Cazenove in 1850. The newly repainted exterior colors are reproductions of the original 1850 paint scheme, as documented by microscopic paint analysis.
The project also included repairs to the woodwork, reglazing windows, and cleaning/repair of siding and masonry.
The three-story structure dates back to 1785 and was constructed by Philip Fendall, Alexandria’s first mayor.
“The house was passed on through many generations of the Lee family, with an interruption during the Civil War when it was used as a hospital by the Union Army,” the release said. “Ultimately, it was owned by John L. Lewis, the noted labor leader and president of the United Mine Workers of America, from the mid 1930’s until his death in 1969.”
