IT TAKES 20 YEARS TO PRESERVE 200

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, February 16, 1992                   TAG: 9202170266
SECTION: HOMES                    PAGE: B-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
IT TAKES 20 YEARS TO PRESERVE 200
You might say it was no fluke that the 200-year-old Farley House near Culpeper received a Great American Home award for craftsmanship from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Research and work on the house had been proceeding off and on for 20 years.
Charlottesville architect Don Swofford, who has worked with three owners and numerous restoration specialists, was introduced in 1972 to the then-decrepit Georgian Palladian mansion when he was a student at the University of Virginia.
Over the years he has researched the history of the house and applied for preservation grants. In 1976, he was hired by the owner to stabilize the foundation, repair windows, rebuild the chimneys and add a new roof. Even then, says Swofford, the circa-1792 structure with its 100-foot-long hallway was "90 percent sound."
But most of the restoration work has been completed since 1983, when Farley House was purchased by Cita Ward, an insurance-company owner, and her husband, C.D., a former assistant to Vice President Spiro T. Agnew and now an executive with Martin Marietta Corp.
Nine years ago the house had no running water or heat (it never did), and the only electricity came from a few connections for lights. The Wards live in Washington and use the 7,000-square-foot mansion as a weekend retreat.
While they hired Swofford because of his history with the house, the Wards are experienced renovators in their own right. They have restored six other residences, including an 1812 fieldstone house in Pennsylvania. C.D. Ward says his wife "has a fantastic talent" for this kind of thing - researching period styles, woods, papers and paints to ensure authenticity.
Farley House was once owned by William Champe Carter, a descendant of Robert "King" Carter (Lord Fairfax's land agent in Virginia), and named for his wife, Marie Byrd Farley.
It is located about an hour's drive southwest of Washington at Brandy Station, the site on June 9, 1863, of the largest cavalry battle on North American soil.
On that day it was headquarters for Confederate Col. "Rooney" Lee, Robert E. Lee's son. The following winter it was occupied by Union Gen. John Sedgwick, whose photograph on the south steps provided Swofford with valuable period details.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB