ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times

DATE: Wednesday, January 8, 1997             TAG: 9701080049
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: C-4  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: FREDERICKSBURG
SOURCE: Associated Press

LETTERS BY WASHINGTON DONATED

HIS BOYHOOD HOME'S curator, the Kenmore Foundation, will exhibit the documents.

Two letters George Washington wrote in the 1780s before he became president have been donated to the Kenmore Foundation, curator of the site of his boyhood home.

The letters, written by Washington to Philadelphia publisher Matthew Carey, are dated March 15, 1785, and June 25, 1788. In them, Washington expressed his views on freedom of the press and the importance of reading and education.

In a ceremony Monday at Kenmore, William and Helen Passano donated the letters on behalf of Waverly Inc., a Baltimore publishing house. Passano is chairman of Waverly. The letters are the first by Washington to come into the Kenmore Foundation's possession.

The content of the letters makes them valuable, said Jack Warren, assistant editor of The Papers of George Washington at the University of Virginia.

``A run-of-the-mill Washington document sells at $10,000,'' Warren said. ``These are not run of the mill.... It's an extraordinary gift.''

The value of the letters was not disclosed. They are in good condition because of the linen and cotton paper used by Washington, Warren said.

Carey published a biography of Washington written by Mason Locke ``Parson'' Weems, which first recorded the story of Washington cutting down his father's cherry tree.

The correspondence to Carey eventually will be put on exhibit at Ferry Farm, Washington's boyhood home in Stafford County, said Kenmore Executive Director Vernon Edenfield. Until then, the letters will be displayed at Kenmore's museum.

Waverly, a medical publishing house, acquired the letters when it recently purchased the Lea & Feberger publishing company of Philadelphia. The letters were found stored in a box with others written by historical figures, including James Madison, Passano said.

``We felt it was important they not be put in a box and forgotten,'' he said.

Helen Passano, Kenmore's vice-regent for Maryland, was active in the organization's campaign last year to save Ferry Farm from becoming the site of a Wal-Mart store.

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