Archive for May, 2011

Washington Hall Mansion Before its Fiery End

Monday, May 23rd, 2011
Washington Hall

Washington Hall

On May 3rd, I had the honor of giving a presentation on The Washingtons of Wessyngton Plantation to the Austin Peay Women’s Book Club in Clarksville, Tennessee.  To my surprise, one of the book club members presented me with a photo of Washington Hall taken in 1965 a few months before it burned.

George Augustine Washington Jr. and his wife Marina “Queenie” Woods, began construction on the magnificent home in 1896.  Washington Hall was a three-story white brick mansion with forty-four rooms.  In its heyday Washington Hall was one of the showplaces in the South, where some of the crowned heads of Europe had been entertained.

In 1965 the Washington Hall mansion burned to the ground.  The grand entrance gate is the only remnant of its former glory.