He was one of the most famous US military officers of the 20th century, and probably many of us who live in and around Washington DC are totally unaware that the home of Gen. George C. Marshall is in Leesburg, Virginia. We recently toured the site to study the ongoing restoration of the Marshall home's landscape.
Marshall and his wife bought the historic property in 1941 as a weekend retreat outside DC -- and lived there after his retirement until his death in 1959. The Marshalls were avid gardeners, and Marshall himself noted that he'd been gardening since the age of 10. He once wrote, "There is nothing that I would so much prefer to do this spring as to turn my mind to the wholesome business of gardening rather than the terrible problems and tragedies of war."
By the 1980's, developers fixed their sights on the property, but a local citizen established a fund to raise money and save the site. The fund finally purchased the site in 1995, and it was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1996.
Landscape architect Leslie Solitario was approached to help with the landscape restoration in 2010, and she's been volunteering ever since, creating a new master plan by working from old photos and a landscape rendering by the Garden Club of Virginia.
It's a slow and continuing process, but old boxwoods have been saved, along with historic oaks and other trees. Some of landscape was installed by boys doing Eagle Scout projects, and volunteers are recruited for planting and the like.
For more on the Marshall Historic Home, visit www.georgecmarashall.org
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