18th Century Homes of Fairfax County, Virginia

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Gunston Hall, built around 1755 to 1759, was the plantation and home of Founding Father and writer of the Virginian Declaration of Rights, George Mason. As a neighbor of George Washington, Mason experienced many similar historical events in the 18th century, ranging from the French Indian wars to the colonial rebellion in the American Revolution. Furthermore, Mason served as one of the principal proponents of the Constitutional Rights fundamental to American life today, including freedom of the press, tolerance of religion, and other freedoms. Many of his works and writings inspired the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Bill of Rights, and the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In addition to it being the home of Gunston Hall, the mansion is known as a classic example of Georgian architecture. More famously, however, the mansion boasts one of the finest examples of ornamental interiors in the nation. Due to the home’s connection with Founding Father George Mason as well as its acclaimed architecture significance, Gunston Hall is a U.S. National Landmark and it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

2. Colchester Inn - Fairfax Arms Tavern

This late 18th-century structure is one of only two buildings remaining from the era when the town of Colchester was a thriving port. The nearly forgotten town took advantage of the Occoquan River location until the port silted up. Also known as the Fairfax Arms Tavern, the Colchester Inn may have been constructed around 1753 and was last used as an "ordinary" in 1800. A visitor in the 1790s praised the hospitality and comfort of the tavern with its spacious rooms and Madeira on ice. Since 1800, the frame building on a stone foundation with twin entrances has served as a private home. The structure was listed on the Virginia Landmark and National Registers in the 1970s and continues to serve as a private home.

3. Woodlawn Plantation Estate

As part of the sprawling 2,000-acre estate of Mount Vernon, the Woodlawn Plantation boasts 126 acres on its own and was constructed between 1800 and 1805 by U.S. Capitol architect Dr. William Thornton. The location for the estate was handpicked and paid for by George Washington himself as a wedding gift to his nephew, Major Lawrence Lewis and his wife Eleanor “Nelly” Custis Lewis, granddaughter of Martha Washington. The estate includes several historical structures which narrate different times in its history, including a Quaker meeting house and a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The historical estate as well as these newer structures are listed together in the National Register of Historic Places.

4. George Washington's Mount Vernon

Mount Vernon, located in Fairfax County, Virginia, was the plantation home of George Washington, the first President of the United States. This scenic property alongside the Potomac River was first owned by Washington’s great-grandfather in 1674, who transformed the land into a successful tobacco plantation using slave labor and indentured servants. George Washington came into possession of the estate in 1754, when he was about 23 years old, but he didn’t become the property’s sole owner until 1761. The estate served as the centerpiece of Washington’s military and political life, and the site stands as a powerful symbol regarding the birth of the American nation. In 1858, the deteriorating mansion at Mount Vernon and a portion of the original land was purchased by the Mount Vernon Ladies Association, with the intention of restoring the estate to its original grandeur. Now a non-profit organization, the Mount Vernon Ladies Association continues to maintain and operate the estate. Today, George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate is one of the most popular historic sites in the country. By visiting the mansion, gardens, outbuildings, memorials, and museum, visitors can enrich their understanding of the Washington family, the Revolutionary War, and the early Republic. Mount Vernon is both a National Historic Landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

5. Stone Mansion

Known today as Stone Mansion, this estate was built around 1780 by Walter Brooke, a cousin of George Mason. Brooke was a Commodore in the Virginia Naval Forces during the Revolutionary War and a friend of George Washington. The estate was originally known as Retirement and the property passed among Brooke's relatives for nearly a century and a half before it was sold to Marine Lieutenant Colonel Elias R. Beadle, a recipient of the Navy Cross and the first commander of the Parris Island recruit depot. The mansion was then purchased by Senator Robert M. La Follette, Jr., of Wisconsin, in 1931. La Follette never actually lived in the home, and it was sold to Benjamin Cohen in 1938. Cohen practically rebuilt it in the early 1940s. The home, now surrounded by the Stoneybrooke subdivision, is currently owned by the Fairfax County Park Authority and used as a banquet and wedding venue.

6. Green Spring House and Gardens

Green Spring Gardens is a public park that was once a plantation dating to the 18th century. It features the historic 1784 Green Spring House, a horticulture/visitor center, over 20 gardens, a greenhouse, and a museum. The house and the immediate property around it, which includes a farmhouse, spring house, and a family cemetery, are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The horticulture/visitor center features a gift shop, a non-circulating library, and space for art exhibits. Visitors of all ages can also participate in a variety of programs and activities including garden tours, garden-related workshops, and lectures.

7. Oak Hill

The Georgian-style Oak Hill mansion was constructed on the Ravensworth tract by Richard Fitzhugh, descendant of some of the first land-grant holders in northern Virginia, circa 1790. Expanded in 1830, the house stayed in the Fitzhugh family, selling from cousin to cousin, until 1889. In that year, William Watt purchased the house; he was the first person outside of the Fitzhugh family to own the property, and he would pass it on to his son upon his death. In the 1930s and 1940s, the building, then owned by Edward F. and Jane Gould Howrey, underwent a significant renovation in the Colonial Revival style, directed by architect Walter M. Macomber. Between 1931 and 1983, Oak Hill changed hands several times. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on the basis of its historical architecture merits in 2004.

8. Salona and the Langley Tract

Originally established by the Lee family in the late seventeenth century, Salona exhibits evidence from hundreds of years of American history. The brick homestead and the surrounding land has ties to several American wars, a president, and several generals. For most of its existence, the property has been used as a farm, and there are multiple barns and other agricultural outbuildings still scattered on the property. The size of the property has decreased as the town of McLean has grown more suburban, but the house and 50 acres of the remaining estate are protected with a conservation easement. The house remains private, but Fairfax County Park Authority may establish a public park on the conserved property in the future.

9. Gunnell's Run - The William Gunnell House

The William Gunnell House – also known as “Gunnell’s Run” – may date back as far as 1750, when the land on which it sat was part of Lord Fairfax’s Great Falls Manor. The property was purchased by William Gunnell III and his wife, Sarah, in 1791. The Gunnells doubled the size of the home, making it one of the grandest manors in the area. The property was farmed almost entirely by Gunnell descendants until 1911, and several of them are buried on the property. The home was purchased in 1933 by Rixey Smith, who restored the dilapidated structure and made several additions, including a dining room made from a log cabin tavern that he moved from Ruby, Virginia. The William Gunnell House was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.

10. Four Stairs

From humble beginnings, Four Stairs has undergone more than one architectural metamorphosis over three centuries. Built in the 1730s as a one-room gabled log house, this structure was expanded in the 1790s under the ownership of Captain John Jackson, Jr. The Jackson family -- as well as the enslaved persons they owned -- lived in the house for five generations, into the early decades of the twentieth century. The house continued to grow for over a hundred years, eventually attaining a Greek Revival appearance. Mid-twentieth-century renovations in the Colonial Revival style were added, and then removed, by successive owners. The house is now under a conservation easement.

11. Lahey Lost Valley

The Lahey Lost Valley property was part of a tract granted by Lord Fairfax to William Gunnell in 1730. Gunnell’s son or grandson built the house that now stands there either by 1760 or around 1800; it is a rare surviving example of a hall-and-parlor-plan Virginia Tidewater home, with late Georgian/early Federal architectural influences. Descendants lived on the land until 1940, when the home and 45 surrounding acres were sold to Richard F. and Carlotta (Gonzalez) Lahey. Richard was a prominent painter, freelance illustrator, and art educator; Carlotta was a sculptor. The Laheys made several significant changes to the buildings on the property, including converting an external kitchen into a studio and building a matching two-story matching addition onto the home. The property was transferred to the Fairfax County Park Authority upon Carlotta’s death in 1999. It is currently in the application review stage of the Park Authority’s Resident Curator Program. This program offers a long term, rent-free lease in exchange for significant investment in preserving and accurately restoring the property and offering “reasonable public access” to it.[1]

12. Ash Grove

This mansion, built around 1790, is one of the few remaining 18th-century homes in Virginia built by the Fairfax family. It may have been named after one of the family's homes in England and may have originated as a hunting lodge. The Fairfax family was part of the British peerage, the only nobles to live in the colonies. Bryan, Eighth Lord Fairfax, gave the property his son, Thomas, would who become the ninth Lord Fairfax. The house remained in the Fairfax family until 1851, when James Sherman purchased it. Although a fire damaged the house in 1960, it was restored to structure similar to what it had once been. The Fairfax County Park Authority acquired the 12.3-acre property from the Sherman family in 1997-1998 and dedicated it as a historic park.

13. Sully Plantation and Historic Site

This 1794 plantation was built by Richard Bland Lee, uncle of Confederate general Robert E. Lee. The home on the site, a three-section frame farmhouse, retains much of its original woodwork. The plantation was home to the Lee family from 1794 until 1811 and hosted many prominent guests, including George Washington. The house passed through many hands until the land was purchased in 1957 by the Federal Aviation Agency for what is now Dulles International Airport; an act of Congress prevented the FAA from demolishing the house. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. The current historic site presents information about the Lee family as well as the enslaved persons who worked on the plantation. The grounds include model slave quarters and outbuildings.

14. Walney

Now serving as the Walney Visitor Center for Ellanor C. Lawrence Park, the stone home known as Walney housed generations of farmers within the same family from the 1780s to the 1920s. The house and grounds were also near the location of several Civil War battles. The surrounding dairy farm was producing tons (literally) of butter per year by 1880. After the 1890s, the house was rented out to tenant farmers once the owner became too old to farm, and his children left to marry or become attorneys. The farm was purchased by a Washington, D.C. couple - the Lawrences - in 1935 as a country retreat; they made many renovations to the interior and added a wing on the north side. They retired to the Cabell's Mill miller's house elsewhere on the property and rented out the Walney House. Walney and the farm were donated by the Lawrences to Fairfax County in 1971. They became part of a 650-acre nature-themed park so that others could experience the peace that the family found in the countryside, far from the busyness of Washington. The building houses an information desk, restrooms, a shop, historical and live animal exhibits, and a classroom.

15. Mount Gilead

This two-story frame dwelling was built circa 1785 by Joel Beach. Decades before the Civil War, the building was involved in the "war of the taverns." Beach opened a new and elegant tavern, the Black Horse, here in 1786. To further distinguish his new establishment from the tavern of Newgate located at a nearby crossroads, Beach outlawed gaming. It appears travelers preferred the option of gambling because the Black Horse Tavern closed only three years later, and the new owner converted the structure into a private home. Mount Gilead is one of the oldest surviving structures in western Fairfax County and the only building left from the town of Centreville's era when it was the village of "Newgate" in reference to the rival tavern. A local tanner named Malcolm Jamesson bought the property in 1842; the family owned the home for the next 90 years. Extensive defensive earthworks were constructed throughout Centreville during the Civil War, remnants of which survive on the property. The property is owned by Fairfax County, and the home is leased as a private residence.

This Tour is a Walking Tour.

18th Century Homes of Fairfax County, Virginia

Created by Benjamin Woodard on June 13th 2020, 12:47:51 am.

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Description

This tour tells the story of some of Fairfax County's first families, including two of America's founders, via the county's oldest homes. The fifteen estates date from the 1730s, such as Mount Vernon and Four Stairs, to circa 1800, such as Woodlawn and Salona. The tour begins in Centreville, Virginia, at Mount Gilead (formerly a tavern) and ends on Mason Neck at Gunston Hall, the grand estate of George Mason ("Father of the Bill of Rights"). Eight of the homes are open to the public at least some times during the year.

Entries on This Tour

18th Century Homes of Fairfax County, Virginia

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