A Soldier's Home

Architectural historian Kristie Lalire of Waterford, Va., scoured flea markets and thrift shops for kitchen gadgets, china, crystal, even finger bowls from the 1940s and '50s. Many other homey objects were donated. Although some of the general's clothing and personal effects survived, a wardrobe befitting an officer's wife had to be assembled for Katherine Marshall's closets: hatboxes, lace dresses, furs. Lalire still collects vintage magazines featuring the couple to scatter around the house.

Early in the process, wallpaper conservator Sue Nash of Shepherdstown, W.Va., was called in to investigate what lay under later layers of yellow paint in the dining room.

Fortunately, there were two crucial clues. A black-and-white 1940s Life magazine photo revealed a barely discernable pattern on the walls, while a piece of painted-over paper that she pried off with a steamer and spatulas provided color swatches and the ghost of a pattern.

Only after removing the wallpaper backing could she see the full design, in reverse: white bamboo shoots and faded gray-green leaves on a yellow field. The true butterscotch was found under a small piece of overlapping seam, along with a leaf tip smaller than a thumbtack head.

Things were slightly better in the living room, where Nash rescued a 2-by-3-foot section of printed gray-and-brown paper in a vertical morning glory stripe.

These samples were dispatched to self-described "wallpaper archaeologist" and designer Laura McCoy in Stratford, Conn., who re-created the patterns with a computer and developed the colors with gouache paintings from which the printing company could work. The dining room paper required a five-color silk-screen process, the living room paper needed eight.

Throughout the house, varying amounts of damaged paper were left undisturbed alongside the modern reproductions, including the breakfast room's Mediterranean motif of wine jugs and grapes.

Don Spence, whose Hyattsville firm specializes in hanging wallpaper in historic homes, shook his head as he studied a predecessor's handiwork in the living room. The original papering job apparently was started at the front windows, so by the time the paper reached the chimney, the vertical pattern was clearly off center.

"This is certainly not the way I would have done it," said Spence, who was sorely tempted to align the pristine replacement perfectly above the mantelpiece before finishing the rest of the room. "But you have to be true to the original house."

Dodona Manor, open to the public weekends beginning Dec. 3 and 4. Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sundays, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Group tours daily by appointment. Tickets range from $5 to $10. Closed Christmas and New Year's weekends. 217 Edwards Ferry Rd., Leesburg. 703-777-1880 orhttp://www.georgecmarshall.org.