ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, February 19, 1996 TAG: 9602190071
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: STAFFORD, VA.
SOURCE: Associated Press
GEORGE WASHINGTON'S BOYHOOD farm, site of the legendary cherry-tree felling, is to give way to a discount store.
The riverside farm where George Washington romped as a boy, and where legend has it the first American president chopped down his father's cherry tree, could soon be part of a less quaint American legend.
Wal-Mart, the muscular - some say ruthless -discounter, plans a new store atop part of the old Washington farm.
``This is George Washington's boyhood home, and it is a national treasure,'' said Cessie Howell, one leader of a fledgling opposition group. ``There can always be more shopping centers, but there can never be another place like this one.''
The Ferry Farm site along the Rappahannock River near Fredericksburg is the only one of Washington's three homes that is not a park or museum.
The house burned in the early 1800s, but the foundation is preserved and signs tell tourists a little about the family's life there. But grander plans for a visitors' center and much-needed preservation work have foundered repeatedly.
The site is mostly open fields, with a view of the river. Tract houses and a shopping center are visible nearby, but the Wal-Mart would be the first commercial encroachment on the land closest to the old Washington house.
The 30-acre Wal-Mart property would overwhelm the 15-acre historic site, with the actual store - and its promised Colonial-style facade - sitting alongside the preserved foundation, said William Abbot, editor emeritus of Washington's papers at the University of Virginia.
``In addition to sentimental reasons, this site is worth preserving,'' Abbot said. ``It can be used to teach young people about life in the 18th century.''
A Wal-Mart representative said if the Bentonville, Ark., chain does not build on the site, someone else will.
``This land has been zoned commercial for years, so I guess I'm a little puzzled as to what exactly the folks did think would be built there,'' said spokeswoman Betsy Reithemeyer.
The nation's No.1 retailer plans to break ground soon and open next year.
Washington lived at Ferry Farm from 1738, when he was 6, until his father's death five years later. The young George then divided his time between Ferry Farm and two other family estates.
The legend of the cherry tree is almost certainly the fabrication of an admiring Washington biographer. But if George did confess to the vandalism with the words ``I cannot tell a lie,'' the event took place at Ferry Farm, historians say.
When word of Wal-Mart's plans leaked out last month, the store seemed a done deal. The Stafford County Board of Supervisors welcomed the project, and plans for the store had been drawn.
Historians and environmentalists opposing the store say their only hope is to persuade Wal-Mart to go elsewhere.
The opponents hope to take a leaf from the critics who turned the Walt Disney Co. and the American history theme park it tried to build near a Civil War battlefield in Manassas.
Although Disney seemed sure to win all necessary approvals, it pulled up stakes in 1994 after months of harsh publicity. Historians led the charge against Disney, saying the entertainment project would forever ruin the rural site's ambiance and historic value.
Opponents also are heartened by the success of nearby Warrenton, a horsey enclave that turned away a Wal-Mart last year. Williamsburg, Va., Lake Placid, N.Y., and other small touristy towns also have defeated Wal-Mart invasions.
``People say there is nothing really to see at Ferry Farm - no beautiful house to tour or anything,'' Howell said.
``Well, there's nothing really to see at battlefields, either. People go to battlefields to experience how things really were - to get a feeling of what the land was like and what the people saw when they were there. That feeling is what we would lose if this shopping center is built.''
LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP FILE. An American Legion color guard presents theby CNBcolors at a ceremony on Ferry Farm on Feb. 20, 1990.