Green Spring in the News
by Sarah Petroff,
2021 Historic Resources Intern
Fountain and Anne Beattie at Green Spring Gardens. c.1800s. This summer one of my projects as the Historic Resources intern has been to organize, catalog, and add to our extensive collection of press clippings - local, national, and international - which reveal some of the history of Green Spring Gardens and its past residents. This new archive will provide a valuable and accessible resource for both staff and visitors.
Old newspapers, especially local ones, hold incredible amounts of historical information. Daily announcements, advertisements, and local happenings interested their readers then and provide anecdotes for us to share with our visitors today. On August 15, 1887, the Alexandria Gazette published a “brevity” about Green Spring Farm owner Fountain Beattie, who had a major surprise when,
"A balloon measuring about five feet in circumference, which had been released in Philadelphia as an advertisement, fell yesterday on the farm of Capt. F Beattie, in Fairfax County, near this city."
Some pieces are not as light-hearted or amusing. Extensive coverage by national and international newspapers involved Green Spring’s last private owner, Michael Straight. In 1983, the UK publication The Observer, reported:
"For 26 years Straight, son of one of America's richest families, moved effortlessly in the highest East Coast circles, with the burdensome knowledge that Anthony Blunt, who had held a senior post in British Intelligence in World War Two, had tried to recruit him as an active agent for Soviet Espionage."
Newspaper clipping from UK publication, Observer Review. 6 March 1983.
Newspaper stories are rich and diverse, and this ongoing project will support Green Spring’s efforts to share its history with its audiences and visitors.
If you’re interested in personally researching newspaper archives, there are a vast number of websites and digital archives made available for public viewing. A prominent website I’m using is Chronicling America « Library of Congress established by the Library of Congress. Fairfax County Public Library also has its own newspaper archive, Historical Newspaper Index Search - Historical Newspaper Index - Fairfax County, Virginia, digitized and free to use. The possibilities of what you’ll discover are endless!
Photo Credits: Green Spring Gardens Historical Archive
