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Monday, February 24, 2020

OPINION - It's More Than Just A Building

by Neil Richard
Photos by Rebecca Gamble

As a fan of history, I find hearing the stories more compelling than memorizing the dates. As a young child, my father dragged me through countless battlefields and historic towns where I did my best to occupy myself in a time without cell phones. Sometimes this meant taking photos of statues. Or sleeping. Or reading a book. But when I could participate in the Boston Tea Party by throwing a bundle of "tea" overboard in Boston, I found history a little more interesting.

Since then, my love of history has grown. Mrs. Ashton and Mr. Picariello, high school teachers, and my college professor Dr. Joseph Laythe, helped feed that love. But there were stumbling blocks along the way. Mr. Pekarek in high school and Professor Hickey in college gave me a tough time. I didn't know it then but it was for my own good. After all these years, my love of history has become even stronger. But more focused. I don't care that much about the dates. Or the buildings. Or the cities and countries. It's the people. The people that make the history. The people that lived the history. The people that told the stories we know and love today.

Or in the case of the Smoot Library, the stories we didn't know.

The Lewis Egerton Smoot Memorial Library has been a cornerstone of King George County for the past 50 years. But it's more than just a building. It's more than just the books that sit on the shelves inside. This Library has a history that goes beyond the past 50 years. It has connections to Presidents, famous buildings, and, in some cases, it's tied to some not so pleasant points in history.




Lewis Egerton Smoot, or L. E. Smoot, was born on August 12, 1876 and died on October 18, 1962. His father, William A. Smoot, purchased land in King George County from relatives. Those relatives, the famed Alexander family, were the original owners.  The Alexanders are connected to many prominent families and individuals in history, including Major Henry Ashton Ramsey, the designer and engineer of the Merrimac. The farm, which is now known as Caledon, at one time was home to tobacco, hay, grain, cattle, and sheep. When William died, Lewis took over and, not being inclined to farm, instead used the property as a retreat to hunt and fish. This is rather fitting as Caledon was named after Caledonia, a wooded expanse in Scotland. Smoot's mother, Betty, spent most of her time in Alexandria and for a period of time lived in Colross, the famed Mason family home. She penned an early history of Alexandria where she mentions watching the Wright Brothers flying one of their first successful test flights in September 1908.


L. E. Smoot was married twice during his life. First to Mary Goodyear McNeale in 1901 then, after Mary's death in 1943, he married Ann Hopewell Hewitt in 1953. During his first marriage, he had an architecturally unique home built in New Brunswick, Canada, Dayspring, which now serves as an art and history museum. Shortly before his first wife's death, Smoot purchased the $150,000 bond in 1948 [some sources say 1940] to help build the Ralph Bunche High School.

Lewis Egerton Smoot.

Dayspring wasn't the only building Smoot has construction ties to. When he was 24, he borrowed money to start his sand and gravel business. For 60 years, Smoot was an industry titan in the region when it came to sand, gravel, and concrete. Well known projects included the Department of Commerce building, the Supreme Court building, the Department of Interior building, the Lincoln Memorial Bridge and more. Another well known project was the Pentagon. And a bridge across the Potomac River between Charles County, Maryland and King George County, Virginia.


Smoot's construction company had some unpleasant impacts along the way. In excavating material Smoot Sand and Gravel removed 270 acres of material from the Dyke Marsh area south of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. This destabilized the area largest tidal and freshwater marsh in the Washington area. The National Park Service is currently working to restore the damage. Other, maybe not so pleasant impacts, include the creation of Holiday Island. The history of the island is about as murky as the water in the Potomac but the best documented history says that Smoot wanted an island for duck hunting and those in power wouldn't let him build one. So in the middle of the night at some point in the mid-1920s, he put two barges full of gravel together and sank them in the river to create the island.

The former Smoot Island is now Holiday Island.

But some of Smoot's mining turned into profitable ventures for other people. Well after both Lewis and Ann Smoot died, one of Smoot Sand and Gravel's excavation sites in Maryland was a source of contention, then profit. Smoot Cove, sometimes called Smoot Bay, would eventually become what we now know as National Harbor.


With Lewis Egerton Smoot passing in 1962, his wife and former nurse Ann Hopewell Smoot continued his philanthropy. In 1974 she donated over 2,000 acres to the State of Virginia to become a protected natural area. It is now Caledon State Park and is home to hundreds of species of plants and animals and attracts tens of thousands of human visitors a year.

A painting of Ann Hopewell Smoot as a child.


Just prior to the donation of Caledon, Mrs. Smoot began working on another legacy of hers. The Lewis Egerton Smoot Memorial Library. Beginning in the late 1960s, Smoot contracted Robert N. "Bobby" Washington. And yes, he's related to George Washington. According to his daughter, Dixie Lee Washington, Bobby Washington met Mrs. Smoot through a mutual acquaintance, Fielding Dickinson. Smoot wanted some work done at Caledon and Washington was the one recommended. The two "hit it off immediately" and had mutual respect and admiration for each other.

Local advertisement for Bobby Washington's construction company.

Washington considered "it a great honor and privilege to build the library" and was "determined" to get the best people to do the job. During construction, a storm rolled through the area one night. Washington got an early morning phone call from a hysterical Mrs. Truman Tate, who lived across from the construction site, saying that the rafters had blown over. Repairs were made and the building continued.

The roof rafters in place.

The building was to be a duplicate of a library built in Mentor, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. The Mentor Library was chosen as a template because, at some point, Mrs. Ann Smoot saw the building and liked it. The library in Mentor was expanded and heavily renovated in the late 1980s and early 1990s into a larger facility and no longer bears any likeness to its old design. The Mentor Library was influenced by the Garfield family with the driving force behind its creation being James Garfield, the son of President James Garfield. Washington used John J. Ballentine, Jr. as the architect for the project. Ballentine's father, who shared his name, was a tester of the famed Norden Bombsite. Al Sauder, a local mason, did the structural block work and the Leonard Brothers did the outside brickwork.

The original Mentor, Ohio Library.


This plaque used to hang on the wall inside the front entrance.

Even though frequently referred to as the curved or curvy wall, the serpentine wall was built by a mason from Richmond. Washington struggled to find somebody capable of doing something so complex but because it was Smoot's idea and "she insisted it be built," Washington eventually found someone. Although they didn't survive the library expansion in 2013, the same mason built the garden walls. During the Smoot Library expansion, operations were moved to the old King George Middle School where they occupied, ironically, the former school library.

The serpentine wall.

The attention to detail both Smoot and Washington had for the project are largely hidden to the casual observer. The expansion moved the majority of foot traffic to the new addition where patrons can browse through thousands of books, movies, and magazines. There are several meeting rooms as well as the Virginiana Room, which houses the library's state and local reference materials. The older section of the library, the original portion, has been largely updated and hidden to many patrons. In the area that once housed children's books now sits one large meeting room that is frequently divided into two smaller rooms. If you look closely, you can still see the decorative scroll patterns on the lower half of the walls. In the area that once housed the adult fiction and large print now houses staff offices. Many patrons are not allowed to access the area but the same scroll work patterns are hidden in there as well.

Bobby Washington begins clearing the land for the library with the Courthouse in the background.
The back room prior to the 2013 expansion shows the old drive-thru drop box on the right.

The front entrance, that I rarely used, has been turned into a curved wall with a children's activity room inside. There's a small kitchenette and a large open area that houses some local artwork. More artwork lines the long hallway. Including a painting by John "Jack" Darling, another relative of the Washington family. While I am happy the rear entrance door that never worked is gone, I do miss the gardens and brickwork that surrounded it.

"St. Paul's Church" by John "Jack" Darling hangs in the hallway of Smoot Library.

Thankfully the Memorial Room has been preserved and was left untouched during the renovation and expansion. This is where the attention to detail can really be seen. The parquet floor, laid in a herringbone pattern, is glued down to concrete. Birch panels are glued to the sheet rock underneath. The intricate crown molding is made of plaster and painted to look like wood. Although the drapes cost $300 a yard at the time, they have not survived. No word on if the dress Mrs. Smoot wore to the dedication, made from the same material, survives.

The parquet floor and ornamental rug.

Plaster crown molding.

Decorative scroll work resembling book pages.

The Memorial Room also houses several volumes from Smoot's personal library and artwork. One painting, of Congressman Howard W. Smith, was painted by King George resident Mrs. E. C. Hubbard. Smith was a friend of Smoots and was present at the library's dedication in 1970. Two other nature paintings depict scenes from the Smoot home at Caledon. The portraits of L. E. Smoot and Ann Smoot also hang in the Memorial Room, although they were rearranged at some point so that Mrs. Smoot looks at her husband. Mrs. Ann Smoot died in 1982, less than ten years after gifting the library, along with a $700,000 fund to help run the library, to King George County. Mr. Robert Washington died in 2016 leaving a legacy of building behind him.

Congressman Howard W. Smith.


A decorative urn rests in front of a painting of Caledon.

Bobby Washington being interviewed for the 25th Anniversary of the Smoot Library:



Mrs. Smoot opened the library in 1970 and turned it over to King George in 1973. Ruth Brandts served as the first Head Librarian/Director. In 1975, Barbara Howe took over. She was replaced by Diana Osbourne in 1977, who served until 1982. Rita Schepmoes spent 26 years in the head position and left in 2008. Robin Tenney is the current Director. Countless employees and volunteers have served residents by spending time in the stacks. Including myself. And a cat. The library cat was apparently rescued by a backhoe after getting stuck in a drainage pipe.

Ruth Brandts, the first Librarian, stands in the Memorial Room.
Robin Tenney, current Director, reads to children in 2009.

Mrs. Smoot was recognized by various groups, including the Isaac Walton League and the Historic Fredericksburg Foundation, Inc. (HFFI), for her philanthropy. In 1976, HFFI made her the first Honorary Lifetime Director. In 1971, she donated $240,000 to Mary Washington Hospital. Even with her passing, her family asked that her spirit of giving be passed on with donations to the Dahlgren Rescue Squad.

Mrs. Smoot's 80th birthday party in 1978.
One of many awards given to Mrs. Smoot.

I have documented my own history at Smoot before so I'll skip the old war stories and instead here's a link. I will add a few comments before pulling a few strands from this story together. From 2008 to 2018, the Smoot Library only saw a 4% increase in funding while the cost of living has gone up 13%. The library has also been level funded for several years now, including the Adult Services Librarian position which has gone unfilled from 2014 until this fiscal year due to lack of funds. If you adjust the original gift of $700,000 from Mrs. Smoot into today's money, it's roughly $4.2 million. And that doesn't include the $1.5 million it took to build the building itself. The library's budget is currently just over $500,000. Much ado has been made of fundraising for the library. While that argument has been largely spearheaded by those no longer serving King George, anyone involved with charities will tell you that fundraising, and finding volunteers, is incredibly difficult now and has been for the past few years.

Mrs. Smoot looking at her husband.

For me, history carries more weight when it is tied to something we're familiar with or something we care about. The threads in this story weave themselves through the Smoot Library and become an intriguing blanket of history.

  • Lewis Smoot's mother watched the Wright Brothers fly in 1908. Less than twenty years later, Dahlgren would host the first drone flight. Where John Ballentine played a role in the effort. His son would be the architecture for Smoot Library.
  • Ann Smoot visited Mentor, Ohio and was influenced enough by the library there to copy it into the Smoot Library that was built in 1969 here. That library was built on the efforts of President Garfield's son. Yet another Presidential tie to King George to put up there with Washington, Madison, and Monroe.
  • The Smoot family has ties to the Alexander family. Which includes Major Henry Ashton Ramsey, primary engineer of the Merrimack. Which carried Dahlgren guns. Designed by John Dahlgren, namesake of the Navy base.
  • The Smoot family is related to Lord Calvert of historic Maryland. Which makes me a distant relative of the Smoots.
  • Bobby Washington is related to President George Washington. President Washington traveled through King George County many times, even using Hooes Ferry which used to cross the Potomac in Dahlgren.
  • Bobby Washington built the Smoot Library. He also built many buildings and houses in the area. Including my house.
  • Smoot's company built countless buildings and pieces of infrastructure in Washington D.C. Including the Pentagon. And the Nice Bridge over the Potomac. Smoot's company also laid the foundation of National Harbor and Holiday Island.
  • Smoot's philanthropy paved the way for the Ralph Bunche High School, Caledon State Park, and the Smoot Library.
  • Smoot invented a gas mask and specialized tracks for equipment but never patented them.

The Lewis Egerton Smoot Memorial Library is more than just a building. It was built by people. Donated by people. Used by people. It's a peaceful refuge for those that need an internet connection or a meeting room. It's a place for people to work and volunteer. It's a valuable resource for those doing research. Within the brick walls, with eleven courses of trim outside mind you, there is a soul that has deep roots to the community. A soul that binds us together, increases knowledge, and encourages philanthropy. Smoot built the foundations of the Pentagon, the Lincoln Memorial Bridge, and the George Washington Hospital. It's more than just a building, it's the foundation of our community.

Sources

While the research conducted was extensive it was by no means all inclusive. There are countless other sources that were not reviewed or researched due to time constraints. It is suggested that any future research begin with fully documented interviews with the individuals that were involved with the construction and operation of the library, especially those involved in the early years.



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