Rewriting History in Aquia Creek Sandstone at “George Washington’s” Church
Pohick Church, Lorton, VA - 2020
A small brick building stands on a hilltop in the northern Virginia town of Lorton. Nearby, the Pohick Creek flows quietly toward the Potomac River. Even from a distance, you’d be able to see that the Pohick Episcopal Church has sat on that hill for a long time. This active house of worship is on the National Register and is the site of one of our most memorable and important projects.
Why so memorable and important? For one of many reasons, it was George Washington’s home church. Washington was raised in that congregation—one his father had helped found. Later, as a church vestryman and surveyor, Washington picked the location where the colonial brick and Aquia Creek sandstone building now stands. For a small place, Pohick Church holds a great deal of history.
Completed in 1774, its ties to both Washington and fellow patriot and vestryman, George Mason, made the building a target of vandalism by British troops during the War of 1812. Twenty-five years later, donors, including President Martin Van Buren, former President John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster, Francis Scott Key and others, pledged funds to restore “Washington’s” church to its original form. But history wasn’t done with Pohick Church—not by a long shot.
By 1861, the United States was in the midst of the Civil War—and much of Northern Virginia had become battleground. The church and its property were quickly occupied as headquarters for a Union Army outpost. Control of the building was hotly contested throughout the war—you can still see the bullet holes that pockmark the exterior.
As a headquarters, the church’s four entryways were manned by sentries. These young soldiers literally made their mark on Pohick Church, and that’s where we come into the story.
Before
After
The doorways at each entry are adorned with a pair of columns, topped with intricately carved iconic capitals, supporting a classical pediment. These are all made of Aquia Creek sandstone—the stone used in several significant buildings in Washington D.C., including the White House and part of the Capitol. Washington himself used it at Mount Vernon as well.
Aquia Creek sandstone is quite easy to carve—a fact which bored, Union soldiers took full advantage of, judging by the initials and other graffiti they had etched into the columns. There were deep, straight marks in the stone as well, where those same soldiers sharpened swords and bayonets while they stood watch. In a way, those soldiers carved their own monument onto Pohick Church—and more than 100 years later, the Historic Pohick Church Foundation needed to find a masonry expert that could restore the doorways without compromising their history.
There are always trade-offs in construction. The same characteristics that make it easy to carve also make the sandstone vulnerable to deterioration. More than 200 years of weather had battered and worn the doorways—especially the column capitals. The pictures show how intricate the original carvings were, but the deterioration was so considerable, we had to photograph several capitals to get a complete single pattern. It was clear very quickly that we were not going to be able to restore the capitals—we had to replace them. So, we got busy, developing a full-scale model of the replacements in clay. After a week or so of modeling, we thought we had it just right. The church committee agreed we had duplicated the authentic design perfectly. We used that model to make a mold from which we would cast eight new capitals with Jahn Casting Mortar. Once they were finished, we sandblasted them (from a good distance away) to mimic the weathering of the natural stone on the columns. We’d formed the mold so that each capital would fit over a piece of the original stone we’d left in place to support the pediment.
Those capitals took some doing to get right, but what I’m most proud of is restoring the initials and sword-sharpening marks in the columns. The columns supported pediments, so we couldn’t just remove and replace. Instead, we used the same method for patching as we did with the capitals, but of course each patch of restoration was unique. They all blended into the natural stone very well.
I had a crew of six on this job. I only trusted one or two of them with the more intricate carving. It’s hard to explain what it is that makes an expert carver—some have it in their personality and some don’t, so I handled most of the soldier initials myself. It was important to me to get those just right. As I said before, those columns are an unintended but important monument to the memory of young men fighting for a noble cause. As one who served his country during the Vietnam War, I feel deeply connected to the brave men and women before me who sacrificed their lives for our country.
I enjoy challenging projects like Pohick Church. We took on this job knowing it would be a major task, but one we wanted to do for our country. Civil War enthusiasts and history buffs will be visiting Pohick Church for as long as it stands, examining those initials and trying to connect with the human experience of that terrible war, while making a similar connection with the Father of Our Country.
We link our success with this project to a special kind of work ethic. It’s the American work ethic, the kind George Washington described when he said, “Perseverance and spirit have done wonders in all ages.”
So true…
Dennis Rude
Stonecutter & Owner of Cathedral Stone Products
