Page 18 - The Hunt - Fall 2024

MEMORANDUM
changed all that. “Lafayette got off his horse to rally his troops and was wounded by British soldiers when a musket ball penetrated his left calf,” the Chester County historian explains. “He had to be helped back onto his horse.”
During that afternoon, Lafayette
earned Washington’s respect and “was unquestionably on the road to becoming America’s first international hero,” as Mowday writes in his book. Washington directed his medical staff to care for the young Frenchman as if he were his own son.
Mowday is in charge of the Lafayette Bicentennial Brandywine Committee,
in conjunction with a 13-month tour coordinated by the American Friends of Lafayette organization. Celebrations kicked off this past Aug. 16 in lower Manhattan, the spot where Lafayette disembarked in 1824. Locally, official bicentennial activities begin Oct. 5 in Chester. The event will include family activities, speeches, food, drink
and more.
“Lafayette will arrive at 11 a.m. with a
procession of children leading him to the 1724 Chester Courthouse, like he did at 11 p.m. 200 years prior,” says Kate Clifford, who’s in charge of the Chester events.
On Oct. 6, activities in Wilmington
begin at 9 a.m. with a ticketed breakfast at Hagley Museum & Library before moving
to Claymont’s Robinson House, the former home of Pennsylvania Continental Army
Lt. Col. Thomas Robinson. The procession will continue along Philadelphia Pike to
the Brandywine Village neighborhood for a Lafayette Trail marker dedication ceremony. Then it’s on to the Delaware Historical Society’s Old Town Hall for a performance by Colonial Williamsburg’s Stephen Seals. He’ll portray James Armistead Lafayette, a slave who served the Continental Army under Lafayette and who later gained his freedom. The day will finish with an open-house cocktail party at Amstel House and a ticketed dinner at Jessop’s Tavern in New Castle.
Next year, Lafayette fans should mark their calendars for July 26 in Chester County. “He was in Chadds Ford in the morning and West Chester in the afternoon and evening,” Mowday says. “We’re planning events at
both locations.”
Visit lafayette200.org.
JOHN TOATES ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN www.ToatesArchitecture.com 484-725-7978
16 THE HUNT MAGAZINE
fall 2024