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L Verge · 10-09-2013, 02:00 PM

(10-09-2013 11:40 AM)mgambuzza Wrote:
(08-28-2013 07:00 PM)L Verge Wrote: This reminds me of a story that Rick Smith told me the other day about a visitor to Surratt House who was so happy when he (serving as the guide) found one of the square cut nails that had popped loose from the weatherboarding and was laying in the French drain that encircles the structure in lieu of gutters. Rick picked it up and presented it to her as a token of her visit.

Rick suggested to me that we go to the hardware store, buy up all the square cut nails we can find, paint the heads red like the weatherboarding at Surratt House, and pile them all in a large bowl at Surratt House's gift shop for sale as souvenirs. Let's just say that I have grave reservations with the idea.

On the same subject, however, for years the participants on our Booth Tours would dig in the dirt at Garrett's farm in search of pieces of brick from the "deceased" home's chimney. Lore had it that Col. Julian Raymond, who had commanded both Fort McNair and Fort AP Hill during his career and was well-versed in the history, would send soldiers over to the site to pepper the soil with fragments of bricks for the thrill of souvenir hunters. Modern commanders at AP Hill are not that generous. There are now large signs warning against such activity.

For years, the Dr. Mudd House sold pieces of wood and nails that they had acquired during restoration. If you have visited the site, you know that the downstairs floors are all beautiful new wood. Supposedly, the old floors were taken up and stacked outside during the restoration, and trespassers walked off with the boards. On one of our tours, a few people speculated that those small blocks of wood for sale in the gift shop were really the old downstairs floorboards that were seeing better service as money-makers!

Laurie:

So the piece of brick I picked up at Garret's while I was on the tour may be fake! I'm outraged!

Mike

Sorry about that, Mike. And no, we will not refund your tour money because of fake artifacts...