Skip to main content

Dodona Manor

Dodona Manor

The George C. Marshall International Center was founded to preserve Dodona Manor, the beloved home of George and Katherine Marshall, and to further the legacy of General Marshall, considered by many to be America’s hero to the world. After Marshall’s death in 1959, his home and property fell into significant disrepair. Normal upkeep and general maintenance were delayed, flowerbeds and lawns became overgrown, and the property took on a reclusive air. In 1995 a group of concerned citizens led by Leesburg resident B. Powell Harrison organized the George C. Marshall Home Preservation Fund in order to save the house and grounds from demolition. Restoration of Dodona Manor’s exterior began in 1999 funded by grants from the Commonwealth of Virginia, the Federal Republic of Germany, and private donations.

Restoration of the interior, including the installation of modern utilities and environmentally-advanced heating and cooling systems, began in 2000 and was completed in 2005.
Dodona Manor formally re-opened to the public in November 2005. Situated on 3.88 acres of preserved green space at the entrance to Leesburg’s historic district, the house is open to the public year-round. Highly-trained docents offer a rich learning experience for visitors Complementing the museum experience, The George C. Marshall International Center offers a variety of special exhibitions and public events.

We hope you enjoy our work.

Please support this 72-year tradition of trusted historical writing and the volunteers that sustain it with a donation to American Heritage.

Donate

Featured Articles

Often thought to have been a weak president, Carter was strong-willed in doing what he thought was right, regardless of expediency or the political fallout.

Rarely has the full story been told how a famed botanist, a pioneering female journalist, and First Lady Helen Taft battled reluctant bureaucrats to bring Japanese cherry trees to Washington. 

Why have thousands of U.S. banks failed over the years? The answers are in our history and politics.

In his Second Inaugural Address, Abraham Lincoln embodied leading in a time of polarization, political disagreement, and differing understandings of reality.

Native American peoples and the lands they possessed loomed large for Washington, from his first trips westward as a surveyor to his years as President.

A hundred years ago, America was rocked by riots, repression, and racial violence.

During Pres. Washington’s first term, an epidemic killed one tenth of all the inhabitants of Philadelphia, then the capital of the young United States.

Now a popular state park, the unassuming geological feature along the Illinois River has served as the site of centuries of human habitation and discovery.  

The recent discovery of the hull of the battleship Nevada recalls her dramatic action at Pearl Harbor and ultimate revenge on D-Day as the first ship to fire on the Nazis.

Our research reveals that 19 artworks in the U.S. Capitol honor men who were Confederate officers or officials. What many of them said, and did, is truly despicable.

Here is probably the most wide-ranging look at Presidential misbehavior ever published in a magazine.

When Germany unleashed its blitzkreig in 1939, the U.S. Army was only the 17th largest in the world. FDR and Marshall had to build a fighting force able to take on the Nazis, against the wishes of many in Congress.