| Located in Loudoun
County, Virginia |
|
 Morven
Park is an 1100-acre historic estate one mile northwest of Leesburg, VA.
Begun in the 1750s by Dr. Wilson Cary Selden, it was later the plantation
home of the Swann Family, of nearby Maryland, including Baltimore Mayor
(1857-60) Thomas Swann, Jr., who used it for weekend getaways. Swann also
served as Governor of Maryland beginning in 1865. During the Civil War,
the estate was used as Camp Carolina by the Confederate Army in 1861-62,
and the site of the encampment can still be visited, where reproduction
winter quarters of the 17th Mississippi Volunteer Infantry can be toured.
In the 20th century, it was the home of World War I Virginia Governor Westmoreland
Davis. Today, the historic 22-room white-columned mansion is undergoing
a total restoration, but the grounds are open April through November for
weekend tours. Camp Carolina, an exhibit on Governor Westmoreland Davis,
the Winmill Carriage Collection, the gardens, and the outside of the mansion
can be visited on a guided tour.
Website address: www.morvenpark.org
Location/Address: 17263
Southern Planter Lane, Leesburg Virginia 20176
Directions: At the stoplight
at West Market Street (Route 7 Business) and Fairview, turn on
to Fairview. This intersection is the first light off the Rt. 7 Bypass on
the west end of Leesburg. Go to the end of Fairview and turn left. You will
see Southern Planter Lane on your right just after the old marble gates
in to Morven Park. Southern Planter Lane leads to our parking lot.
Education Contact at Site: Tracy Gillespie,
Director of Historical Operations
Phone: (703) 777-6034 Email
Address:
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Theme Addressed at Site: Land of Conflict, Reunification and Rebuilding, Land of Leadership
Education
Programs and Corresponding SOL 
Programs We Can Do at our Site:
1861: The Civil War Comes to Loudoun
Grdes 5-6. SOLs: USI.9b, USI.9a, USI.9e, USI.9f
A Civil War Program – Our “1861” program
looks at local history through the eyes of Morven Park. A plantation
of an active politician and slaveholder and a bloody Civil
War battlefield—that’s what you’ll visit to understand
the coming of the Civil War to Loudoun. This full-day program features
a series of sequential interactive vignettes on a variety of locations
at Morven Park and at Balls Bluff Battlefield. We employ excellent
story-telling, artifacts, documents and photographs in the vignettes.
We can take 70 students plus chaperones and teachers on a day. Typically, a middle
school will book multiple days. We divide each day’s group of 70 into two
groups so that our interpreters work with smaller groups of about 35. You will
need two busses for the program. Picnic facilities and restrooms are available.
Over 1600 students have participated to date.
From Swann’s Castle to Governor’s
Mansion: Exploring
an Old Southern Estate
Grades 4, 6, 7, and 11. It reviews a range of history SOLs for
each grade.
A Southern History Case Study Tour – Learn of the transition
of the 19th century plantation of Baltimore Mayor Thomas Swann, Jr.
with its dozens of slaves, into a Confederate Civil War military
camp, and then on to being the Hunt Country estate of World War I
Virginia Governor Westmoreland Davis in the 20th century. Morven
Park has seen and been a key participant in a panorama of Virginia
history over 250 years. Your personalized guided tour includes a
look at the exterior of the huge Greek Revival Mansion as it undergoes
extensive historic restoration (and a discussion of how restoration
works), a visit to a slave quarter from before the Civil War, a look
at Camp Carolina, Confederate camp from 1861-62 with its reproduction
soldier’s hut, and an introduction to our exhibit “Symbols
of the New South: Governor and Mrs. Westmoreland Davis”, which
can then be viewed unhurriedly by students. This tour takes about
2 hours.
Shake, Rattle, and Roll: A Look at 19th-Century Horse-Drawn Transportation
Grades K-4
Morven Park is blessed with a superb horse-drawn transportation
museum on the grounds, our Winmill Carriage Collection. Work wagons,
buggies, sleighs, a stage coach, a hearse, a steam-powered fire
pumper, a taxicab, a carriage exuding luxury, a “driver and horse training
vehicle,” even a street sprinkler grace our exhibits. Our tour
of the Winmill museum highlights how personal, public, and business
transportation evolved in the bustling 19th century, how transportation
provided specific solutions to the growing problems of the 19th
century, how these various vehicles worked, and how they were used. 1 hour.
Pre-Visit Materials Available
A packet of primary source materials is sent to teachers working with the “1861” program.
Program fees and miscellaneous
Maximum Number
of Students: 75 per day for “1861” Minimum: 40 per day for “1861”. All other programs maxium 75 per
day, minimum 12 per day. Historic Morven Park recommends that
teachers or teams with large numbers of classes should book multiple
days. This can work comfortably for schools with A/B block scheduling.
NOTE: We divide groups of 40 or more into two groups throughout the
day for the “1861” program.
Admission/Program Fee: $1/student,
chaperones and teachers at a ratio of 1:10 students are free, otherwise
$5.
Handicap Accessibility: Camp
Carolina, much of the gardens, our exhibits, and the Winmill Carriage Collection
are all handicapped accessible. Balls Bluff Battlefield used in our “1861” program
is also mostly accessible.
Bus/Vehicle
Accessibility: We
have large parking lots at both Morven Park and at Ball’s Bluff.
Season of Operation: April
through mid-November
Hours
of Operation: Fridays
through Mondays, 11-4, other days by appointment only.
Picnic facilities/Nearest
restaurant options: We have picnic facilities with
restrooms at Morven Park. Leesburg, immediately adjacent, has a number
of fast food restaurants.
Restroom accessibility: Full
restroom accessibility including for handicapped at Morven Park.
There are usually no restrooms at Balls Bluff Battlefield.
Chaperone Requirements ( No. chaperones/no.
of students): 1:10
Is there anything else we
should know about your site? Availability of the day-long “1861” program is limited;
it is often booked up by Leesburg-area middle schools, each one of which
will book 4-6 full days. Call early! Morven Park hopes in the future to
be designing a “Virginia and the First World War” program,
due to its ownership at the time by Virginia’s World War I Governor.
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