Hi! Thanks for coming on to do this AMA with us.

Just looking at images, it's fascinating that the building is being quite deliberately kept in partial disrepair, and that that's an aspect that will be quite actively embraced in future. This question may be a bit over-broad, but what led to this state, why had it not been restored at some earlier point, and I suppose most importantly, what was the thinking behind embracing and preserving the building's current state, and what do you want visitors to take away from doing so?

I take it the presentation of slavery and enslaved people there has changed over the years; how has the site handled the question in the past? Various places I've been to in the South have ranged from ignoring it to the good ol' "yeah, but he was a good slaveowner" excuse. And how much pushback has there been, either institutionally or locally, to any changes that have been made?

I see that the property was listed as a National Historic Landmark in 1971 when standards were lax. I'm not implying that it wasn't warranted, but was the resource as compromised as it is today in 1971? Who managed the property then and has it changed over time? Was much more lost in the interim? Has the National Historic Landmark Committee re-evaluated the property since this imaginative remodel?

Great work here; I really like the approach that you have taken.

Hello- thanks for doing an AMA. I've had Menokin on my list of places to visit for a while and hopefully this will give me the push to make it there-

First, what does this structure tell us that other 18th century structures don't? There's a number of 18th century houses still around but not everyone becomes a landmark. Is it that Francis Lightfoot Lee lived there and the collective sum of the space's past?

Second, Francis Lightfoot Lee is not one of the more familiar Founders. What was his role in signing the Declaration of Independence and how did he get to be there?

I love historic houses but wasn't familiar with this one. I eventually understood from your website that this house would have once been called the great house of a plantation. Other historic houses in the South are still referred to using those terms. Is there a reason why you choose to avoid that terminology?

Thank you for doing this AMA! I'm curious how you've built up an understanding of the history of the house and land - is there an archive of documents associated with the house that you can draw your research from, or do you mostly rely on non-specific academic works and off-site archives, or a mix of both? Have many archaeological digs been undertaken?

Thank you for doing this!

I recently answered a question on this forum about early American icehouses, including those at the country homes of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison.

As a contemporaneous estate, I'd love to know if Menokin has an icehouse. If so, what can you tell me about it? How is it included in the preservation project?

In an effort to come up with a sensible question about a subject I know little of, I went straight to Wikipedia. There was a passage in the Menokin article that struck me:

The full story of Francis Lightfoot Lee, and the mark that he made on both the Commonwealth of Virginia and the developing United States of America has not been told. Bits and pieces come from many sources: his letters, letters about him, comments by friends and relatives, and the fact that he was a signer of both the Westmoreland Resolves (February 27, 1766) and the Declaration of Independence (1776). He served in the Virginia House of Burgesses, first from Loudoun, and then from Richmond County. He was in Philadelphia in 1776 as a Virginia delegate to the second Continental Congress, returning to Virginia in 1779. He served briefly in the Viate after that, but for the most part he was content to be at home at Menokin with his books and his farm and his beloved wife, Becky Tayloe. Research concerning the life and work of Francis Lightfoot Lee is an ongoing project of the Menokin Foundation.

I'm curious how far you would recognise this statement as a reflection of your own purpose? More broadly, I guess, how would you see the purpose of historicising properties such as these - are they about highlighting the legacies of (relatively) famous and powerful white men who owned them, or telling other kinds of stories? How do you strike the balance, say, between telling the story of the Lee family and the enslaved people they owned?

I visited Menokin a couple years ago - fantastic presentation of the history and future plans. Does the complexity/size of the nearby Rosewell ruin in Gloucester County make it difficult to do a similar conservation or are there other options?

Thanks for doing this AMA. I had never heard of this site and it looks really interesting.

Can you expand on something you mentioned in another comment - that your tours talk about "the Rappahannock Indians and their ongoing relationship with Menokin". What ongoing relationship exists between the Rappahannock and Menokin? Were the Lee and/or Tayloe families at any point directly involved in warfare or forced removal with the Rappahannock? Is there any indication of what the Rappahannock used the site of Menokin for before it was stolen?

It is interesting to me that the house is so small, comparatively, for a plantation house. Whenever i think of a plantation, the pop-culture image of the big white house with the huge porch in fields of crops springs to mind. Is this house a "typical" example of what wealthy homeownership looked like, or is it in some fashion unique? What exactly did this home tell us about 18th century housing that other site haven't?

Thanks for this interesting AMA. How has the history of enslaved people at the site changed over the decades? Both in its newer history as a landmark, but also originally when enslaved people would have actually labored there?

I've always liked sites like this. Can you talk more about preservation? How do you maintain a site that old? Or the artifacts there? How do you choose what kind of condition to maintain them in in the first place?

Also, considering the current atmosphere, how do you balance educating the public that comes through on its historic nature?

According to the website, the Remembrance Structure is built over the footprint of a slave dwelling and intentionally uses a non-permanent foundation in order to not disturb the site.

What archaeological work has happened in that specific spot in the past, what did it find, and what did we learn from it?