Colonel Lewis was best known for the part he played in the War of Independence. In 1776 he became Chairman of the Virginia Committee of Safety. Previously, in 1775, the Virginia Assembly had passed an ordinance providing for a "Manufactory of Small Arms in Fredericksburg, Virginia." Five commissioners were appointed to undertake this project, but Colonel Lewis and Charles Dick were the only two who took an active part in the work. They were allotted £2,500 with which to secure land, buildings and equipment. Soon thereafter they were at work manufacturing arms. The first £2,500 were quickly spent, and Lewis and Dick were obliged to draw from their own funds to carry on. Lewis advanced an additional £7,000 and borrowed £30,000 to £40,000 more. Lewis also built a ship for the Virginia Navy, _The Dragon_, and equipped three regiments. Kenmore was heavily mortgaged to meet the costs of all these patriotic enterprises. When Lewis died in 1781, little of the estate was left. Thereafter, Betty Lewis tried conducting a small boarding school at Kenmore, but again money had to be raised and piece after piece of the land was sold to obtain it. Finally, in 1796, the mansion and its contents were sold and Betty Lewis went to live with her daughter. She died the next year. After many vicissitudes in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Kenmore was saved for posterity, in 1922, through the great enthusiasm and hard work of a group of women who later formed the Kenmore Association. Through the efforts of this association, the exterior and the interiors of Kenmore were expertly restored to their original charming appearance and it has been furnished with original pieces of the period, many of which have an actual connection with the family. Who the architect of Kenmore was, is unknown. It is very probable that Fielding Lewis himself had much to do with the planning of it, making use of books on English architecture. The mansion is typical of the formal architecture of Tidewater Virginia in the mid-eighteenth century. Flanked on each side by smaller service buildings, both of which are identical in size and appearance, the group is symmetrical around the central entrance. The exteriors present a picture of fine restraint and dignity. Four uniformly placed chimneys in the end walls serve eight fireplaces. The windows are well proportioned in relation to the main walls. The walls, of brick laid in Flemish bond, or brickwork pattern, are two feet thick--unusually heavy construction for a house of even this size. The principal rooms, of stately proportions, are remarkable for their design and ornament. The richly modelled ceilings, cornices, and overmantels are outstanding examples of ornamental plater-work--quite unsurpassed by anything of its kind in America. It has always been said and never contradicted that these ornamental features were planned by George Washington himself.