WASHINGTON'S WILL STORED AMONG GUNS, DRUGS

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

DATE: SUNDAY, February 28, 1993                   TAG: 9302280211
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: FAIRFAX                                LENGTH: Medium
WASHINGTON'S WILL STORED AMONG GUNS, DRUGS
A court official hopes to raise funds to display the wills of George and Martha Washington, now stored among guns and drugs in the evidence vault at Fairfax County Circuit Court.
Both handwritten wills were probated in Fairfax at the Washingtons' deaths, George in 1799, Martha in 1802.
The wills are kept in the vault to protect them from theft and damage, court officials said.
"It's the most secure place in the building," said court archivist Constance Ring.
The wills are safe in the vault, but inaccessible, said John Frey, clerk of the court. Frey is trying to get private financing to display the wills.
Few people know the documents exist, and anyone interested in seeing them must make an appointment and be escorted into the evidence room by a sheriff's deputy.
"These are national treasures," Frey said. "Every school kid in America ought to have the opportunity to see them."
A display case that would keep the documents safe from theft, light and dust could cost as much as $80,000, said Richard Harrington, assistant state archivist at the Virginia State Library in Richmond.
Frey has raised no money yet, but he recently was given permission to hire a full-time assistant to help with the project.
Washington's lengthy will distributes his large holdings at his plantation home, Mount Vernon. George and Martha Washington had no children.
In the will, Washington ordered his slaves freed after his wife's death. Those unable to support themselves were to be "comfortably clothed and fed," and the children educated and "brought up to some useful occupation."
Many of Washington's freed slaves settled nearby, and their descendants remain in the Gum Springs community in southern Fairfax County.
The wills were displayed once before, during a brief exhibit at the museum at Mount Vernon in 1977.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB