Submitted by FHMaster on Sun, 12/18/2016 - 11:50

Dodona Manor, the former home of General George Catlett Marshall (1880–1959), is a National Historic Landmark and historic house museum at 312 East Market Street in Leesburg, Virginia. It is owned by the George C. Marshall International Center, which has restored the property to its Marshall-era appearance of the 1950s. It is nationally significant as the home of George C. Marshall, Chief of Staff of the United States Army during World War IISecretary of State, President of the American Red Cross, and Secretary of Defense.

There is evidence that a two-story house existed on the property with five-course American brickwork in the early 1800s. John Drish, who purchased the property in 1805, added a Federal-style wing with Flemish bond brickwork and keystone arches in the mid-1820s and gave the property to his son Wilson Drish, who sold it to Fayette Ball, a distant relative of George Washington, in 1855. In 1856, the Rev. Charles Nourse, principal of the Leesburg Academy, purchased it. He tried unsuccessfully to sell it in 1859, and then opened the Loudoun Female Collegiate Institute in the house in 1860, after completing an addition to increase the number of bedrooms. Subsequent owners included Sophia Delany, Joseph and Martha Prather, Wallace and Sally George, Yvon and Ella Pike and Marcia McCann Ely and Northcutt Ely, who added electricity and indoor plumbing and eventually sold it to the Marshalls. The Marshalls also added two bay windows, a stone court, and changed the wooden porch to a more durable brick.

Dodona Manor VA2.jpg

State
GeoCoord
39°6′48.6″N 77°33′34.6″W
Owners
General George Catlett Marshall
John Drish
Founded
107
Status
Active
Address
312 East Market St., Leesburg, Virginia
NRHP Ref Number
96000972