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Talk:Abingdon (plantation)

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Former good article nomineeAbingdon (plantation) was a Art and architecture good articles nominee, but did not meet the good article criteria at the time. There may be suggestions below for improving the article. Once these issues have been addressed, the article can be renominated. Editors may also seek a reassessment of the decision if they believe there was a mistake.
Article milestones
DateProcessResult
September 30, 2010Good article nomineeNot listed
Did You Know
A fact from this article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "Did you know?" column on July 14, 2010.
The text of the entry was: Did you know ... that the weeping willow planted by John Parke Custis on his Abingdon plantation is known as the progenitor of all weeping willows in the United States?


Driveby comments from GAN

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I don't want to pass a formal GAN judgement - but the very first comment (page numbers) is, quite likely, a guaranteed fail mark.

  • I strongly recommend changing your referencing style. There are too many footnotes in long bunches, but then I looked down - woops, just names of books and no page numbers. The GA regulars would not approve it, and some are confident that a reference without page numbers must be deleted along with the statement that it's supposed to prove... Look at Wikipedia:Reliable_sources/Noticeboard#Page_numbers (or check the archives if this thread isn't there). But then, with 40k edits you should know better.
  • There's not a word on slaves and slavery - I'd presume the owners didn't toil the land themselves - even in the form of basic statistics (so many laborers, so many families etc.)
  • Lead
    • "18-th century plantation" - maybe "established in the 18th century" is better (it operated well into the 19th)
    • "Alexander, Custis, Stuart, and Hunter" - make clear that these were consecutive owners, not concurrent partners (the latter may sound odd for the 18th century but the article is for modern readers)
    • "best known as the birthplace of Eleanor "Nelly" Parke Custis Lewis" - this statement invites the reader to ask the question "who the hell was Nelly", then check the link, then wonder if it's really "the best" ... Remove "best known" here and in the next sentence - use simple statements: "Abingdon was the birthplace...". And emphasize the Washington and Jackson connections in the lead.
    • "weeping willow" - perhaps it makes sense to remove the link to willow in general and emphasize that it's not the common willow but something special.
    • "The land on which Abingdon was built, known as Gravelly Point," - the contents if Gravelly Point contradict the lead, - the former says it's near the airport, the latter implies it's the contemporary airport. Or did the lead mean that only some of the land with the planters house was taken over by the airport?
    • The remains of the mansion are still standing on the lawn between the airport's parking lots, right? Make it clear in the lead.
  • Alexander
    • "Alexander was descended" - why passive voice? (note: I'm not a native English speaker)
    • "When Alexander purchased the Howson patent in 1669" - please clarify the meaning of patent.
    • "Abingdon was constructed" - what was constructed? The plantation or the manor house or? This issue pops up here and there: plantation as a business, as a stretch of land, or merely the planters' house.
  • Custis and Stuart families
    • "Abingdon and its 900-acre (360 ha) estate, along with Arlington, were purchased": why passive voice? ditto "allowed him to be taken advantage of by Abingdon's owner Robert Alexander".
    • "located conveniently equidistant between Mount Vernon and Mount Airy" - the Mount Vernon connection is evident, what was special about Mount Airy? Wikipedia article on Mount Airy, Maryland gives no clue.
    • "caused Custis to pay over £48,000, more than £2,000" - sounds incorrect. Curtis died in 1781, three years after the deal. That is, the contract probably required him to pay, but death made it impossible.
    • "Along with Nelly, Custis and his wife raised their children .." - awkward sentence.
    • "She and her second husband continued to reside at Abingdon" - she did, but not her new husband.
    • List of Stuard sisters - awkward. Take it downstairs, to footnotes.
    • (not a fault of the article, but...) "After years of litigation, Abingdon was returned to the Alexander family" - this passage calls for a citation from the court verdict. What was the rationale for expelling the people who were considered bona fide owners for many years?
  • Hunter family
    • "many a Saturday, Jackson would leave Washington to spend a quiet Sunday at Abingdon as Hunter's guest" - how poetic :) and why link days of the week?
  • American Civil War
    • "Major Alexander Hunter, who in turn left the 430-acre" - it was 900 acres some 80 years ago, what happened?
    • "His father, Bushrod Washington Hunter, had been a pallbearer at the funeral service for George Washington Parke Custis.[25]" how is this event of 1857 relevant to Civil War? Maybe it should be moved up, to the phrase introducing Al Hunter the nephew.
    • "Alexander Hunter, Abingdon's owner, took legal action and succeeded in recovering his land from the Federal government" - when did it happen? The chapter is titled "Civil War", but I suspect the litigation began well after the war?
  • Hunter v. Hume
    • "Hunter bad the land between the canal and the turnpike" - atrociously long sentence. Split it.
  • Destruction and remains
  • Structural and landscape architecture
    • I'd rather see the description of the house in the "family history" chapters. There's no need for a flashback following "destruction and remains".
    • "By the early 20th century, the mansion was an ordinary frame farmhouse" - what happened to the old, original house - destroyed during the war? Or does it simply reflect changes in housing standards?
    • "At the east front was located Abingdon's principal garden where" - awkward sentence.
    • "Abingdon was a great estate, but the house was never a noble bit of architecture." - this is an important statement which deserves a mention in the lead. That is, the place is notable through connection to Washington, not as an architectural landmark (and has never been, even in better days).East of Borschov 08:08, 30 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
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