Chap. 437.—An ACT to approve and accept from Corinne Lawton Melchers, subject
to a retained life estate in the grantor and to certain other conditions and limita-
tions, a deed of gift, dated February 17, 1942, of the estate at Falmouth, Stafford
County, Virginia, known as “Belmont”; to provide that when possession is
vested in the Commonwealth of Virginia the said property, and any additions
thereto and any funds provided as-an endowment in connection therewith, shall
be established and maintained in perpetuity as “The Gari Melchers Memorial”,
and to provide for the management and control of the said memorial when
established. ] [H B 467]

Approved April 6, 1942

Whereas, Corinne Lawton Melchers, has executed and acknowledged
a deed of gift, dated February 17, 1942, conveying unto the Common-
wealth of Virginia, subject to an estate for her life, the land and buildings
comprising the colonial home, near Falmouth, in the County of Stafford,
Virginia, known as “Belmont”, to be maintained and held by the Com-
monwealth as a perpetual memorial to her late husband, the distinguished
artist, Gari Melchers, and to be used and managed as set forth in said
deed ; and : : |

_ Whereas, it is the wish and desire of the grantor that the Memorial
shall be managed, controlled, operated and maintained by the Board of
Trustees of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, under the same power as
conferred upon said board, in the management of the Virginia Museum ot
Fine Arts; and a.

Whereas, the said Board of Trustees, by formal resolution, unani-
mously adopted at a meeting held on the sixteenth day of December,
nineteen hundred and forty-one, approved the terms of said gift, accepted
responsibility for the operation of the Memorial, and recommended the
acceptance of same by the Commonwealth of Virginia ; and |

Whereas, the grantor has expressed her intention to provide at a
later time, the studio at “Belmont”, with a representative collection of the
works of Gari Melchers; to place in the mansion house various other
collections of art, and to establish an endowment to assist in the main-
tenance of said Memorial; and

Whereas, the grantor has placed in the hands of the Governor of
the Commonwealth, the executed deed, which deed is in words and figures
as follows: | : ,

This deed, made this seventeenth day of February, nineteen hundred
and forty-two, between Corinne Lawton Melchers (widow), of the
County of Stafford, Virginia, party of the first part, and the Common-
wealth of Virginia, party of the second part ; :

Whereas, the party of the first part is the owner of the estate, known
as “Belmont”, in the County of Stafford, Virginia, which, during the
latter years of his life was the home of her late husband, Gari Melchers,
and on which estate he maintained his studio ; and

Whereas, it is the wish and desire of the said party of the first part,
that said estate, including the mansion house and studio, be held and
maintained by the Commonwealth of Virginia, as a perpetual memorial
to her late husband, and as such, the Memorial shall be managed, con-
trolled, operated and maintained by the Board of Trustees of the Virginia
Museum of Fine Arts, under the same power as conferred upon said
board in the management of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; and

Whereas, the said Board of Trustees, by formal resolution, unani-
mously adopted at a meeting held on the sixteenth day of December,
nineteen hundred and forty-one, approved the terms of said proposed
gift, by the party of the first part, accepted responsibility of the Memorial
and recommended the acceptance of same by the Commonwealth of
Virginia ;

Now, therefore, this deed witnesseth, That the said Corinne Lawton

Melchers, in order to accomplish the purposes hereinafter set forth,
reserving unto herself and her assigns an estate for her life in the prem-
ises hereinafter described, with full freedom to alter, repair, improve or
deal with the premises as she may think proper, doth, subject to said
estate for her life so reserved, hereby give, grant and convey unto the
Commonwealth of Virginia, to be perpetually held and maintained by it,
as a memorial to the memory of Gari Melchers, subject, however, to the
terms and conditions hereinafter expressed, the following described real
estate, consisting of four tracts, together known as “Belmont’’, situate in
the County of Stafford, Virginia.
— (1) “Atl that certain tract or parcel of land, lying, being and situate
in Stafford County, Virginia, known as ‘Belmont’ together with all
buildings and improvements thereon and all rights appurtenant thereto,
situate just northwest of the town of Falmouth, containing as per survey
and plat of E. H. Randall, C. E., of Stafford County, Virginia, of date,
September, nineteen hundred and sixteen, twenty-five and two hundred
fifty-seven thousandths (25.257) acres, which plat is recorded in the
clerk’s office of the Circuit Court of Stafford County, Virginia, in Deed
Book sixteen, page two hundred and ten, the said property herein con-
veyed is described on said plat as being all the property within the lines of
said plat, designated as follows:

Beginning at the point “A” on said plat, thence to the point “B”,
thence to the point “C”, thence to the point “D’’, thence to the point
“E”’, thence to the point “F’’, thence to the point “G’, thence to the
point “H”’, thence to the point “O”’, thence to the point ‘‘6”’, thence to the
point ‘5’, thence to the point “3”, thence to the point “I’’, thence to
the point “J”, thence to the point “K’”’, thence to the point “L’’, thence
to the point “M”’, thence to the point “N”’, thence back to the point of
beginning “‘A’”’. All of said points and the intermediate points, and the
metes and bounds are specifically given in said plat of E. H. Randall,
which is recorded as aforesaid.

It being the same property of which the late Joseph B. Ficklen, of
Stafford County, Virginia, died, seized and possessed and the same
cH. 437]. ACTS OF ASSEMBLY 701

property which William F. Ficklen, his son, acquired under the will of
his father, which will is duly recorded in the clerk’s office of the Circuit
Court of Stafford County, Virginia, in Will Book “R”, page sixty-two.
et seq, and the same property conveyed by the said William F. Ficklen
by deed of February eighteenth, eighteen hundred and eighty-two, which
deed is of record in the clerk’s office of Stafford County, Virginia, in Deed
Book one, page two hundred and sixty-six, to John L. Stansbury,
trustee, “In trust for the sole and separate use of the said Julia B. Ficklen,
in fee simple, to dispose of by deed or will, or in any other manner which
she may choose’, and the same property decreed to be the fee simple
absolute property of the said Julia B. Ficklen, by final decree of the
Circuit Court of Stafford County, Virginia, entered on September six-
teenth, nineteen hundred and six, in the Chancery cause therein pending
under the name and style of “Ficklen v. Lee, and others”, which decree
is duly entered in the Chancery Order Book of said county, and to which
and the said will and the said deed hereinbefore mentioned, reference is
hereby expressly made.

Being the same property conveyed unto Gari Melchers and Corinne
Lawton Melchers, his wife, by Julia B. Ficklen and William F. Ficklen,
her husband, by deed of September thirtieth, nineteen hundred and six-
teen, which deed, along with the Randall plat hereinabove referred to, is
recorded in the clerk’s office of the Circuit Court of Stafford County,
Virginia, in Deed Book sixteen, page two hundred and ten, to which deed
and the other deeds in the chain of title, reference is hereby made for a
more particular description of the property hereby conveyed.”

(2) All that certain lot or parcel of land, with all buildings and
improvements thereon and appurtenances thereto attached, situate, lying
and being in the Town of Falmouth, Stafford County, Virginia, lying on
the west side of the Warrenton Road, and fronting thereon one hundred
and seventy-five feet, more or less, runs back to the old canal and contains
one acre, more or less, it being known as the Old Barnes place, and was
occupied by the Misses Barnes, up to the time of their death. |

Being the same property conveyed to Gari Melchers and Corinne
Melchers, his wife, by Kate Brannin, et als., by deed of July twentieth,
nineteen hundred and twenty, which deed along with a plat of said prop-
erty, is recorded in the clerk’s office of the Circuit Court of Stafford
County, Virginia, in Deed Book eighteen, page five hundred and five, to
which deed, and the other deeds in the chain of title, reference is hereby
expressly made for a more particular description of the said property.

(3) All that certain tract of land, in Stafford County, Virginia,
adjoining “Belmont”, including the Old Canal, lying north of the north
margin of the Rappahannock River, and between the road leading from
the Warrenton Road, westward to the Rappahannock River power dam,
bounded on the west by the former Hewett line, and bounded on the east
by Fall Run. ,

Being the small tract of land conveyed unto Gari Melchers and
Corinne Melchers, by the Spottsylvania Power Company (now the Vir-
ginia Electric and Power Company), by deed of December first, nineteen
hundred and twenty-four, duly recorded in the clerk’s office of the Circuit
702 ACTS OF ASSEMBLY [va., 1942

Court of Stafford County, Virginia, in Deed Book twenty-one, page four
hundred and fifty-eight, to which deed an express reference is made for a
complete description of said land and the terms and conditions of its
conveyance, including right of way over said land, and right to develop
the water power of the Rappahannock River, which river adjoins said
land, and other restrictions set forth in said deed.

(4) “That certain parcel of land, being a portion of Carlton
Heights, next to and adjoining “Belmont”, situate just above the Town
of Falmouth, in Stafford County, Virginia, and described as follows,
to-wit :

Beginning at a point on the north side of the Warrenton Road, where
the Belmont line touches the road, this point being three hundred and
twenty-five feet northwest of the stone gate post near Belmont tenant
dwelling, thence in a northeasterly direction, seventy-eight feet to the
Carlton Heights fence on the rise above the glen or gully, indicated by a
planted stone; thence from said stone in an easterly direction, following
the old fence line (said fence being the southern boundary of the Carlton
Heights field), to a large cedar, where the old avenue of trees descending
from Carlton Heights house joins this fence, the said cedar being slightly
to the west of said avenue, thence from said cedar to another cedar fifteen
feet to the south ; thence from this latter point in a southeasterly direction,
crossing the stream or gully to the eastern line of Belmont, at a planted
stone ; thence northwardly through the gully to the point of beginning on
the Warrenton Road, containing by estimation one acre, more or less.

Being the same property conveyed to Gari Melchers and Corinne L.
Melchers, by Nannie O’Bannon and Ellen O’Bannon, by deed dated the
tenth day of July, nineteen hundred and twenty-nine, recorded in the
clerk’s office of the Circuit Court of Stafford County, Virginia, in Deed
Book twenty-seven, page two hundred and forty-eight, to which deed, and
the other deeds therein referred to, particular reference is hereto made as
if set forth in this deed.”

The four tracts of land, above described, made up and constiteted
the estate known as “Belmont”, at the time of the death of Gari Melchers,
and by his last will and testament, a copy of which is duly recorded in
the clerk’s office of the Circuit Court of Stafford County, Virginia, he
devised all of his right, title and interest in and to the said “Belmont”
property, to his wife, Corinne Lawton Melchers, and thus she became the
owner of the entire estate.

The terms and conditions to which this gift, grant antl conveyance
shall be subject, are:

First. This deed shall be of no effect unless and until it shall have
been approved and accepted on behalf of the Commonwealth of Virginia,
by an Act of the General Assembly ;

Second. The Memorial shall be managed, controlled, operated and
maintained by the board of Trustees of the Virginia Museum of Fine
Arts, or their successor or successors, under the same power as con-
ferred upon the said board in the management of the Virginia Museum of
Pag Arts;
‘Third. Subject to such reasonable rules and regulations as said
Board of Trustees may adopt, the Memorial shall be kept open to the
public, upon such terms and conditions as may from time to time be laid
down by said board, and provided that any income received therefrom
shall not be used for any purpose, other than to meet the expenses of
maintaining and providing a Memorial, and the purchasing of such works
of art as may be suitable for exhibition therein.

_. Witness the following signature and seal.
CORINNE LAWTON MELCHERS (Seal)

STATE OF VIRGINIA ~ as
CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG § *° Wl:

I, Elizabeth D. Carpenter, a Notary Public, in and for the city and
State aforesaid, do hereby certify that Corinne Lawton Melchers, whose
name is signed to the foregoing writing, bearing date on the seventeenth
day of February, nineteen hundred and forty-two, has acknowledged the
same before me in my city aforesaid. |

‘Given under my hand this seventeenth day of February, nineteen
hundred and forty-two.
My commission expires November eighteenth, nineteen hundred and
forty-four. ,
i Elizabeth D. Carpenter,

Notary Public.

| Whereas, according to the terms and provisions of said deed, it is
not effective unless and until it shall have been approved and accepted on
behalf of the Commonwealth of Virginia, by an Act of its General As-
sembly ; and :

3 Whereas, the Commonwealth of Virginia, represented by its General
Assembly, is grateful to the grantor for her generous gift, and is willing
to accept said gift and to preserve it in perpetuity as “The Gari Melchers
Memorial”, in honor of her distinguished husband, who spent his last
years at “Belmont” ; now, therefore,

1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

Section 1. The Commonwealth of Virginia, doth hereby approve
and accept a deed of gift from Corinne Lawton 'Melchers of the land
described in the deed, together with improvements thereon and the ap-
purtenances thereunto belonging, constituting the estate at Falmouth, in
the County of Stafford, Virginia, known as “Belmont”, such conveyance
‘being made subject to a retained life estate in the grantor.

Section 2. The management and control of the property and estate,
both real and personal, which is now or may hereafter be donated by the
grantor to the Commonwealth of Virginia as “The Gari Melchers Me-
morial”, including any funds, property and endowments thereof, shall,
when possession is vested in the Commonwealth of Virginia, be managed,
controlled, maintained and operated by the Board of Trustees of the
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; and in the conduct and management of
the Memorial, the said Board of Trustees shall have all the powers, au-
thority and discretion it now exercises or hereafter may be given in the
conduct and management of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

2. An emergency exists and this act is in force from its passage.