Robert E Lee High School - Leeway / Record Yearbook (Staunton, VA)

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SCENES FROM STRATFORD I'1.ANTAT1oN OI-'Iflclc xNYURK ROOM STRAT l-'ORD H.'XI.I. Lrxyy Qlrlrlcg IQITCHISN

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proportions, arouses the admiration of both layman and architect. This hall is richly paneled and has a range of Corinthian philasters. Each wing, of which there are four, consists of two rooms, a larger and a smaller. There are two stories, a ground fioor, on which are the bedrooms, and a main story embodying the principal living rooms. Some of these rooms have painted walls and others panelling with dadoes. There are many mantels which remain from the first period of the house. As students of Robert E. Lee High School our interest, naturally centers about the southeast chamber, the room where Robert E. Lee was born. The Mother's room and the adjoining nursery have been restored as they were at the time of Lee's birth. There are mahogany paneled doors and oyster white walls surrounding the Adam mantel in the chamber, Beyond each corner of the house stands a brick out-building. These are known as the Southeast, Southwest, Northeast, and Northwest Dependencies and have been called by succeeding generations in accordance with their use, the kitchen, master's office, dairy, gardener's house, and storehouse. The Southeast Dependency is a fine example of an old southern colonial kitchen. lt contains a fireplace twelve feet wide, six feet high, and five feet deep. lt is supposed to be capable of roasting a fair sized ox. A laundry, walled in kitchen court with a cobblestone center, herb garden, and a smokehouse complete the group. The Southwest Dependency or the office in which Thomas Lee conducted his legal affairs contains three rooms, each with a fireplace, and one central chimney. The Northeast Dependency, used as a workroom and a storehouse, has plastered walls and a brick fioor. The Northwest Dependency is the Plantation office in which the masters of Stratford met with their overseers, servants, and tradesmen. Another important feature of the grounds is the beautiful garden east of the Great House and beyond the Southeast and Northeast Dependencies. The formal walled garden, with its grassed terraces, box borders, and patterned after the Lee Coat-of-Arms, is a revelation of the grand manner of the Eighteenth Century. VVithin its walls bloom again many old fashioned perennials, fragrant shrubs, and beautiful fiowers. a..Looking north from the mansion across a wooded park one sees the Potomac River. A landing and a nearby mill and millpond also catch the eye. Departing from the vast estate, covering in all eleven hundred acres of wooded land cut by winding ravines, you look back upon a harmonious plantation group rising simply and majestically in its soft coloring of age, a fitting memorial to a man so noble as General Robert E. Lee.

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CONTENTS I Seniors II Undergraduate III Features IV Organizations V AtnIetics VI Snapsnats Classes