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Welcome
to Cleydael Farm!
Cleydael is a Virginia Landmark and is on the National
Register of Historic Places. Although it is a relatively
new house (1855-59) compared to many others in King George
County, it continues to fascinate generations of Civil
War buffs and is probably the most-visited historic site in King George.
Despite its
long and varied history, the house is principally known for
the role it played in the attempted escape of
Lincoln
assassin John Wilkes Booth.
Booth and his accomplice David Herold visited Cleydael on
April 23, 1865 and were fed dinner here. (Click on the links
at the left of the page for more about Booth's visit to
Cleydael.)
Today, the
house serves not only as a private residence but also as a
venue for living histories / small historical reenactments,
a location
for historical films
and television documentaries, a venue for lectures &
workshops on 19th century period topics, and as headquarters
of a historical film wardrobe consulting & rental firm,
as well as being a small working horse farm. Plans are in
progress to expand our agricultural activities and plant an
assortment of 19th century period crops. The house is on the
Surratt
Society's Booth Escape Route
Tour
and private group tours can also be arranged.
History: Cleydael
was built in the 1850's by Dr. Richard Stuart, a prominent
physician and leading landowner in King George County.
 NEWS: Dr. Richard Stuart's namesake and 4th great-grand nephew, Westmoreland County Commonwealth's Attorney Richard Stuart is running for State Senate in the May 19 GOP Party Canvass -- continuing a Stuart family tradition of public service. CAMPAIGN WEBSITE.
Originally Cleydael had 1400 acres and was called "Neck Quarter" when Dr. Stuart bought the property in 1845. It was renamed in honor of Mrs. Stuart's ancestral home, the
medieval
castle of Cleydael in
Belgium,
which was once owned by Oliver Cromwell. The Stuart family's principal home was "Cedar Grove", a much larger plantation
house on the banks of the Potomac. (Note: NOT open to the public!)
 After the malaria
epidemic of 1849, many wealthy Virginia landowners built
summer homes away from the river to escape the heat and
humidity, as "bad air" rather than mosquitos was then
thought to be the cause of the disease. Cleydael was
designed to take maximum advantage of cross-ventillation,
with two wide hallways intersecting in a T-pattern.
Annie
and Agnes Lee,
General Robert E. Lee's two middle daughters, lived at
Cleydael for several months in the summer of 1861 after the
family lost their beloved Arlington to Federal occupation.
The Lee children and the Stuart children were first cousins
once removed on their mothers' side and the Lee and Stuart
girls had gone to boarding school together. It is not
documented whether General and Mrs. Lee also visited
Cleydael, but it is probable. Agnes Lee's diary records a
Lee family visit to Cedar Grove several years before
Cleydael was built, and the two families were close. See the
links at left for more on the Lee connection.
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During
the Civil War, the Stuart family lived at Cleydael all year round.
Federal gunboats were patrolling the Potomac and Dr. Stuart's wharf
at Cedar Grove was a dangerous place, as it was a main focal point
for Confederate smuggling operations bringing scarce medical supplies
from Washington. Doctor Stuart was imprisoned twice for his role in
medicine smuggling, once in the Old Capitol Prison and once on a
Monitor-type ironclad on the Potomac.