Notes
This was one of several photographs found in a collection of papers of Major John Guthrie, past vice president of the Patrick Henry Memorial Foundation. According to the original accession file, these documents were found in the vault at Red Hill in a box marked "Last Things From Eggleston" on October 24, 1970. They proved to be the papers of Major Guthrie, who had died in 1962. They were sorted according to subject matter and date by the cataloger and then filed with the chronological records detailing the history of the Patrick Henry Memorial Foundation.
This file contains black and white photographs taken during the Aspen School 4-H clean-up day at Red Hill. In April 1946, twelve 4-H children from Aspen came to work for the day cleaning up the brush and trimming the bushes near the Patrick Henry gravesite and the foundation of the house. Kermit Barbour, Assistant Charlotte County Extension Agent, worked with the 4-H Club and Major John Guthrie to arrange this work day. A local farmer drove the children in his truck to Red Hill. Some of the local children included in the clean-up day were Robert Lee Marshall, Donnie St. John, Geraldine Tucker Moore, Lois Barton Marshall, and Vivian Claybrook Foster. The children made a second trip a few weeks afterward to finish the job.
This image shows the ruined remains of the Red Hill mansion at right, with Patrick Henry's expanded Law Office behind the boxwoods. At this time, the law office served as the caretaker's cottage. The boxwoods in the center of the image were planted by Patrick Henry's daughter-in-law, Elvira, in the early 19th century.
These pictures were formerly accessioned with Guthrie's papers under the number 76.72. In 2022, they were removed from those files and renumbered.