Introductory Note
Well, folks, it’s time to exhale. Been down the proverbial rabbit hole for the last six months or so, taking a look at the history of the Custis family. In some ways, the hardest part was trying to figure out how to distill it all down in a way that is pleasing to the reader. Decided on a People and Places approach, as well as creating a Select Genealogy Family Tree, a map of Custis Places and Sites in the area, and two word clouds.
Initially, my main objective with the map was to just document the places as a guide for the reader. Then I realized the map provides a succinct way of showing the impact the Custis family had in the area. Of these 18 places (plus ten sites), one is a memorial, five are a National Historic Landmark, and nine are on the NRHP. I could be wrong, but I’m not sure any other family made their mark on the DMV landscape this way.
I came to greatly admire the Custis family, especially the achievements of the generations after Martha’s four grandchildren. Nevertheless, along with that admiration comes the reminders of the whole story. We must remember that the wealth they gained, the period from 1650 to 1860, came greatly from their ownership of enslaved African Americans. Their dower slaves were passed along like so much property and some were sold off for large amounts of money. At the sale, the owner sometimes tried to keep families together, but not always.
The writer Philip Roth gave us a great observation to ponder, what he called “the ecstasy of sanctimony.” As we continue to criticize past generations, we must keep that sentiment in mind. Nevertheless, the landscape of the former Custis properties and sites does remind us of the sad, wrong and hurtful aspects of our past. Where the balance lies between the good, the bad, and the ugly is up to each of us to decide.
The final thing we did to tell some of this story was to create two word clouds. In the first, we used a black background to pay homage to the untold stories of the enslaved humans the Custis family owned. Realizing that was not enough, we used four names found on the Custis estate Inventory List (1759) and incorporated them into a second word cloud.
Introduction
In the seventeenth century, a good number of sons of English families took the long and sometimes perilous voyage to the colony of Virginia. Inked on the manifests were names such as Carter, Lee, Fitzhugh, Randolph and Washington. Coming from scattered counties and village across England, these immigrants became part of the planter hegemony that held great influence in the tidewater lands for many years.
In his book, "A Topping People, The Rise and Decline of Virginia's Old Political Elite," Emory G. Evans identified 21 "Elite Virginia families." While almost all of them and the early English immigrants stepped off the tall ships near what is now Williamsburg, John Custis II (1630-1696) broke the soil on the Eastern Shore of Virginia.
The year was 1651. The hard and fatal first decades of life in the colony had given way to a somewhat more stable way of life.
Although he was proceeded by a family member, John Custis I, John Custis II was the progenitor of the Custis family in the New World. John Custis II, his son John Custis III and his grandson John Custis IV laid the foundation for the family. The male line would die out with the sixth generation, but the descendants would make headlines with their own stories.
For the most part, there was one way to the top of the political ladder in the colony of Virginia, and John Custis II took it. He first established himself as a planter, then became a Burgess (Lower House), followed by a seat on the Governor's Council (Upper House), the highest position in the colony other than the Governor. Typically, there were only about a dozen Councillors each year who held a lifetime appointment and had the Governor's ear.
Following in the footsteps of John Custis II as a family scion were his son John Custis III, and his grandfather John Custis IV. With the marriage of John Custis IV to Frances Parke, the daughter of planter/burgess/councillor Daniel Parke II, their son Daniel Parke Custis began the Parke Custis part of the family story.
In 1749, the Custis story moved north of Williamsburg to New Kent County where Daniel Parke Custis married Martha Dandridge. Their only son to live past childhood was John "Jacky" Parke Custis. In 1759, the Custis saga took a turn when George Washington married the widowed Martha. There would be no children from this union, but Washington performed all the duties and gave the loving care of a father to Martha's two children and also helped raise two of her grandchildren.
With his wife Eleanor Calvert, a young aristocrat from Maryland whose forebears were the six Lords Baltimore, Jacky Parke Custis had four children. They kept the family story going in a number of marquee ways. Each one married and moved into a new mansion home near Alexandria and the new Federal city across the river. Three of them -- Woodlawn, Arlington House and Tudor Place -- are treasures we cherish today as must-see historic house museums.
As the new capital city of Washington began to slowly rise and the story of new Republic unfolded, the Custis family tree sprung the four branches. The four grandchildren of Martha Washington - Elizabeth, Martha, Eleanor and George Washington Parke Custis - each became parents and lived full lives. The George Washington connection always remained, but new names, such as Robert E. Lee, found a spot on the family tree. The aristocratic nature of the Custis family would end, but their stories kept going in a number of ways.
Even though the story of the Custis family stretches across many generations, it is without a doubt inextricably and vividly tied to George Washington. The ties can be seen in seemingly every newspaper report on a family member. Their "step" relationship to Washington is almost always reported. On the other hand, Martha was sometimes left out. Some readers may have even gotten the impression George Washington was blood kin.
Despite not being a father, Washington certainly was a caring and dutiful guardian/step father/step grandfather/father figure to the Parke Custis children. His guiding hand and watchful eye was fatherly in every way. Custis fathers were not always on their best behavior. George Washington was.
In colonial days and beyond, families had to deal with the early death of an infant or child in numbers that could crush the spirit. Martha Washington felt this pain seemingly more times than others. The 1750s alone tested her very soul. She and Daniel Parke Custis had four children. Sadly, only two, John ("Jacky") Parke Custis (1754-1781) and Martha ("Patsy) Parke Custis (1756-1773), survived to childhood. Then Daniel, seemingly healthy, passed away suddenly in 1757.
The pain returned to Martha in 1773. Sadness gripped Mount Vernon when Patsy could not overcome a persistent case of epilepsy. She took her final breath there at the tender age of 17.
A year later joy washed away some of the sorrow when Jacky married Eleanor Calvert at Mount Airy in Prince George's County, Maryland.
Martha's reprieve from sadness lasted just seven years. The dark veil of death covered her once again in 1781 when Jackie died of "camp fever" at age 27.
Jacky and Eleanor had four children -- Elizabeth Parke Custis, Martha Parke Custis, Eleanor Parke Custis and George Washington Parke Custis. All four led full lives that can tell us something significant about life in and around northern Virginia and Washington, and the early years of the republic.
Of course, any good feelings that surround their stories and those of their forebears comes with the ever so sad reminder that they all profited from owning significant numbers of enslaved humans. This went on for two hundred years.
(Source for list: Founders On Line).
In the first few years of the colony, some of the back-breaking and intensive labor required to grow and harvest tobacco was done in part by white indentured Englishmen. But by the 1620s, more and more African Americans were enslaved to the planters. The heart of darkness in this story is their enslavement and the value of the accumulated Custis estate. It was a staggering sum whose tallies were listed on inventory sheets as "Negroes." The planter/legislators such as John Custis IV voted to enact law after law to keep the institution of slavery going and to maximize their profits.
In the case of dower slaves, the owner by law, could not free the slave. Therefore, it is entirely possible that descendants of one or more enslaved humans of John Custis II became the property of Martha's grandchildren, and onward to their children.
There's no substitute for the written word and images. There's also no substitute for walking where history was made. For those wanting a touchable look at the four Parke Custis kids, the DMV is your oyster. To honor his step grandfather who cared for him deeply and when he could, took great care of him at Mount Vernon along with Martha, George Washington Parke ("Wash") Custis (1781-1857) built and lived in his Greek Revival home he named Arlington. The only child of Custis and his wife Mary married Robert E. Lee. The Lee family grew to seven at Arlington, and Mrs. Robert E. Lee inherited her father's property. Arlington House today invites us to try and understand our complicated past.
As a wedding gift from Washington, Eleanor “Nelly” Parke Custis Lawrence (1779-1852) and her husband Lawrence Washington built and lived in Woodlawn. A National Historic Landmark, it was the first acquisition of the National Trust. Quakers, who opposed slavery, lived there for a period of time.
Also financed in part by Washington, Martha “Patty” Parke Custis Peter (1777-1854) and her aristocratic husband Thomas Peter built and lived in Tudor Place in Georgetown. It is through this National Historic Landmark that we learn how some of the seventh, eight, ninth and tenth generations of this line of the Custis family made their marks.
And although it is smaller than the other three and is obscured by additions and changes, “Mount Washington,” was for a short time the home of Elizabeth “Eliza or Betsy” Parke Custis (1776-1831). The structure is now part of the Alexandria Episcopal School.
In southwest DC stands the Thomas Law House, aka, the "Honeymoon House" where Elizabeth Parke Custis Law and her husband Thomas Law spent their first few months together. Like her three siblings, Elizabeth was part of the Cave Dweller set, wealthy aristocrats who turned heads in the early days of Washington.
The Custis story in the Washington area also includes a number of other places and sites. The most unique is the site of Abingdon at National Airport. In 1778, Jacky Parke Custis acquired the plantation home that was built in the 1740s, even before the founding of Alexandria. Members of the Alexander family, long time owners of the property, probably built the home and lived there before Custis acquired it from them. A state highway marker in Old Town tells us the seaport was named after the Alexander family. Through the years, a number of families lived at Abingdon, but none were as famous as Jackie, Eleanor and the four Parke Custis kids.
The intrepid Custis family history buff will also want to visit Oak Hill Cemetery, Hope Park, Montevideo, Audley, and a few others as seen on the map provided.
All searchers of information on the Custis family owe a great debt to the late James B. Lynch. In a pair of volumes exhaustively researched, Lynch wrote what still stands as the definitive and only account of the first six generations ("The Custis Chronicles"). Lynch spent part of his life in the Washington region and signed the Introductions for his two books with a dateline of Alexandria.
Also a true gift for the ages, Lynch donated his collection of Custis family papers to the Alexandria Library. His late wife Anna was a treasured friend to those who knew her, and was a fixture as a volunteer at the Alexandria Archaeology Museum. Her research on enslaved humans adds significantly to our understanding on the topic. Although oblivious to knowing her husband was James Lynch, I have fond memories of sitting down with Anna at the Museum and sharing our thoughts on Alexandria happenings and history.
Filling a critical need in the telling of some of the Parke family story is Helen Hill Miller. Her book, "Colonel Parke of Virginia, fills a void on that aspect of the Parke family. Daniel Parke II, (1664-1711) was the grandfather of Daniel Parke Custis. Parke II bequeathed a large number of enslaved humans to his daughter Frances, the mother of Daniel Parke Custis. Like Lynch, Miller called the Washington area home for a while. As far as I can tell, hers is the only book on the Parke family.
Before it landed in the Washington region, the Parke Custis story unfolded from the Eastern Shore of Virginia and went up the Virginia Peninsula to where the Pamunkey River winds like a snake. Sadly, all their homes at Arlington, Queen's Creek, Williamsburg and in Kent County, are gone.
Fortunately, trowels have been turning the soil at Colonial Williamsburg. Led by Dr. Mark Kostro, a team of archaeologists there are investigating “Custis Square,” the site of the home of John Custis IV (Martha's father-in-law). The green plot lies within footsteps of where tourists amble along the main spine of the once capital city. The Williamsburg website tells us:
Among sites still to be explored in Colonial Williamsburg, Custis Square ranks near the top, with potential to add significantly to our understanding of early American gardening, enslavement, colonial consumerism, and 18th century scientific thought.
With all these sources as well as many others, let’s take a brief look at the story of this line of the Custis family. In some ways, the hardest part was trying to figure out how to distill it all down in a way that is pleasing to the reader. We decided on a People and Places approach, as well as creating a Select Genealogy Family Tree and a Map of Custis Places and Sites in the area.
Regarding the map, my main objective with it initially was to just document the places as a guide for the reader. Then I realized the map provides a way to see the full impact of the Custis family in the DMV. Of these 18 places (plus ten sites), one is a memorial, five are a National Historic Landmark, and nine are on the NRHP. I could be wrong, but I’m not sure any other family made their mark on the DMV landscape this way.
Either way, the Custis family story is compelling and insightful. Our great regret is not being able to go the extra mile and tell some of the stories of their enslaved humans. Our sincere hope is that someone will. Without them, the story of the Custis family is quite diminished.
Family Tree
The searcher of a family tree for the Custis family will find small ones, but not a comprehensive one. The creator of a Select Genealogy for the family will find the challenge of who to put in and who to leave out.
With the knowledge ours is not a complete one, we came up with these two. The second is very important. Without a doubt, the most forgotten part of their story is the seven sons and daughters of Dr. David Stuart and Eleanor Calvert Custis Stuart, the half-siblings of Martha's four famous grandchildren.
The People
The Custis family made their mark from the time they landed in the colony of Virginia in the middle of the seventeenth century to the tenth generation at the end of the twentieth. They were planters, politicians, leaders, officers and soldiers, farmers, land owners, mansion builders and mistresses, caretakers and preservationists, men of the cloth and businessmen, diarists, historians, talented in music and more. They married into the Washington, Calvert, Lee, Fitzhugh, and Peter families and raised scores of children.
We offer these bios:
The Places
The seeker of Custis places and sites can pick and choose from a bounty, which stretch from the Eastern Shore to the Washington region and beyond. Here are a score and some we selected.
Custis Places and Sites in the DMV
If visiting mansion home museums is your favorite hobby, the Washington region is the place to be. The Custis family certainly made their mark this way. As noted earlier, George and Martha built and lived their lives at Mount Vernon. Eleanor Parke Custis and Lawrence Lewis built and lived their middle years at Woodlawn. In their adult and final years, George Washington Parke Custis and Mary built and lived in Arlington, and Martha Parke Custis and Thomas Peter built and lived in Tudor Place. However briefly, Elizabeth Parke Custis and Thomas Law made the Honeymoon House in Washington famous. The tour does not end there. Below are more than two dozen places and sites associated with the Custis family.
Word Cloud
Using "Word It Out," we created two word clouds. We used a black background to pay homage to the untold stories of the enslaved humans the Custis family owned. We also used four names found on the Custis estate Inventory List (1759) and incorporated them into a second word cloud.
Parting Thoughts
As we step away from the Custis family, we're left with a couple of thoughts. We're reminded of something Mary Thompson said in her recent book, “The Only Avoidable Subject of Regret.”
While I can understand the disgust many people in our society feel about slavery and their inability to fathom how anyone could own another person, judging a person from another time and culture by the standards of one’s own time is quite naive. Not only does it take a person, in this case Washington, out of the context of the time in which he lived, but on the question of slavery, takes him out of human history as a whole.
Echoing these sentiments is Peter R. Henriques in his new book, "First and Always, A New Portrait of George Washington."
In the present day, people seem particularly prone to the joys of what Philip Roth called the "ecstasy of sanctimony." How, we are asked, can one admire any man willing to claim ownership of other persons?
While we nod our head in agreement, at the same time, we must also remember that the Custis family, from John Custis II to Martha's grandchildren, a span of time of more than two hundred years, owned a staggering number of enslaved humans. In the case of dower slaves, they could not be freed upon the owner's death.
Our second thought is to share the great news that a long gap is going to be filled. Other than biographies of George and Martha, and a few others, no one has published a book on the Custis family since Lynch. We now know Dr. Cassandra Good is currently working on one, titled, "First Family: George Washington’s Heirs and the Making of America." Her previous work tells us this will be a terrific book.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the following people for their help not only with this research, but as on going sources for insight into area history. Don Dahmann, Dave Cavanaugh, Ted Pulliam, Amy Bertsch, Char Bah, Jim Bish, Patsy Rogers, Garrett Peck, Tammy Mannarino, Hal Hardaway, Dick Hamly, and Mary Thompson. At age 63, my synapses aren't as strong as they once were, so apologies if I forgot anyone.
Others who turned lights on or opened doors on the Custis family stories include Steve Livengood, Kurt Moser, Grant Quertermous, Susan Langley, Judith Grove, Shane MacDonald, Jennifer Stabler, and Beth DeFrancis Sun.
Sources
While there is a dearth of Custis titles, there is a bounty of books where they are part of the story. I benefitted greatly from a good number of them. Below is a select list. In particular, we heap praise on "Tudor Place, America's Story Lives Here" and Lynch's two volumes on the family. Founders Online is equally indispensable.
Armstrong, Erica Dunbar. Never Caught: The Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge
Brady, Patricia. George Washington's Beautiful Nelly: The Letters of Eleanor Parke Custis Lewis to Elizabeth Bordley Gibson, 1794-1851.
Callcott, Margaret Law. Mistress of Riversdale.
Clark, Ellen McCallister. Worthy Partner: The Papers of Martha Washington.
Evans, Emory G. A Topping People, The Rise and Fall of Virginia's Old Political Elite.
Fraser, Flora. The Washingtons: George and Martha.
Lynch, James. The Custis Chronicles, The Virginia Generations. The Custis Chronicles. Years of Migration.
Miller, Helen Hill. Colonel Parke of Virginia.
Peck, Garrett. The Smithsonian Castle and the Seneca Quarry.
Plater, David. D. Plater. The Butlers of Iberville Parish, Louisiana: Dunboyne Plantation in the 1800s.
Pryor, Elizabeth Brown. Reading the Man: A Portrait of Robert E. Lee Through His Private Letters.
Thompson, Mary. The Only Unavoidable Subject of Regret: George Washington, Slavery, and the Enslaved Community at Mount Vernon.
Tudor Place, America's Story Lives Here. White House Historical Association.
Wiencek, Henry. "An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America.”
Decided to put together a thumb nail look at the growth of neighborhoods in Southeast Fairfax County. Apologies for not getting in all of the neighborhoods and I limited this look to single family homes. In some cases on the map I preparded, I used a catch all label, such as Bucknell for Bucknell Heights and Bucknell Manor. Feedback certainly welcomed, tell us about your neighborhood’s beginnings.
1900
On fields once worked by enslaved humans, Fairfax County remains mostly farmland. In some cases, diary farms are the biggest money makers. There are small communities in the southeast portion of the county, such as Gum Springs and a sprinkling of homes on the hills and along the dirt roads.
New Alexandria would have been a new suburban set of homes in this part of the county, but it never got going after a promising start in 1894. Older landmark homes such as City View, Spring Bank and Mount Eagle dotted the area.
1930s
FDR’s New Deal creates a migration of folks into Washington, those who want to help out with the programs. On the heels of Belle Haven, which got its start in the 1920s, Groveton sees some of is first suburban homes on both sides of US Route One. More and more roads are paved and Route One becomes a major artery with businesses and some new homes on both sides.
1940s
The next driver of growth in Washington is World War II. The city’s population explodes, going from 486,000 in 1930 to 663,00 in 1940, and then to 802,000 in 1950. Groveton, New Alexandria, and Belle Haven gain more homes as the farmers begin to see the writing on the wall. Along the Old Mount Vernon Road, today’s Buckman Road, some homes sprout up. Gum Springs also sees new homes as well as New Alexandria.
1950s
The transformation of this part of Fairfax County hits full steam ahead. Even before the Beltway is built, neighborhoods such as Huntington, Jefferson Manor, Tauxemont, Hollin Hills, Hollin Hall, Bucknell Manor, and subdivisions in the Woodlawn area begin to sprout up.
Most of the house stock is typical -- ramblers, Cape Cod and split-levels -- but Tauxemont and Hollin Hills offer mid-Modern homes.
1960s
For the first time ever, and signaling a trend that won’t stop until half a century later, the District of Columbia’s population drops, going from 802,000 in 1950 to 763,000 in 1960. As a result, the wave of suburbia over the former farm land south of Alexandria is on, with Fairfax County’s population leaping from 98,000 to 275,000 in the same timeframe.
Many of the modern day neighborhoods we know today — Burgandy Village, Belle View, Westgrove, Virginia Hills, Waynewood, Stratford Landing — are built in this time frame.
City View is demolished (1959) and the airport closed down to make way for a new shopping center in Groveton. The Hybla Valley airport was also torn down and also makes way for homes and a shopping center.
1970s
With the completion of the Beltway and the widening of Route One, the rat race has never been faster. The county’s population takes another leap, going from 275,000 in 1960 to 455,000 in 1970. All signs of the past — the two airports, City View, Spring Bank and Mount Eagle — are gone. Much of the single family home landscape seen today has been built.
In the years to come, there will be some infilling. In sharp contrast to the quiet leafy neighborhood living, Richmond Highway’s traffic reaches epically bad proportions.
Elected officials and planners respond. A new era kicks off in 2012 with the opening of Beacon of Groveton, the first mixed-use units on Richmond Highway south of Alexandria and on the highest point for miles around. Other new developments follow in Huntington and Penn Daw, all part of the effort in Southeast Fairfax County that will use Transit Oriented Growth principles and planning.
On the drawing boards now are plans for mixed use in and around the Huntington Metro and funding continues for the Rapid Bus Transit system.
As we speak, folks continue to work from home, part of the response to the Covid 19 virus. At times, Richmond Highway is eerily quiet. If you look hard enough, you might see a farmer…
When the talk of landmark homes built in the eighteenth century in the Washington region arises, there are a number of places that come to mind. Alexandria and Georgetown are heavenly and Northern Virginia and Maryland are in the game, too. In the District, the part that was once called the “City of Washington,” the story is rather sad. A few such as the Octagon House and the Thomas Law House survived, but the oldest ones are long gone and forgotten.
Using Capitol Losses, and Historic Houses and Georgetown and Washington, DC, we came up with this list and map showing a select five and one Honorable Mention.
1. Notley Young’s Mansion
1750-1856
G between 9th and 10th, SW.
There Now: Banneker Circle
Built of brick in the Georgian style by Notley Young, this one was one of the first landmark homes in what would become known as the City of Washington. Large and impressive, it commanded a Position A spot near the Potomac River and Georgetown.
Notley Young was one of the 19 original proprietors. His mansion was described as, “One of the few places fit for a gentleman’s home.” It also served as place of worship for Catholics, who were prohibited from worshiping in public churches.
An historical marker on its site, just south of L’Enfant Plaza), tells us Young owned nearly all of today’s Southwest DC. Ever so sadly, he owned more than 200 enslaved humans.
Note: Probably because there is no image, James Goode did not include this one in his book. There has been digital imaging.
2. Burnes House
1760-1894
West Side of 17th Street, NW, between C and Constitution.
There Now: Organization of American States
Beginning in 1721, the Burnes family owned the land which encompassed most of the future site of the Penn Quarter, Pennsylvania Avenue, the Mall and the White House and grounds. David Burnes (1739-1799), grandson of the Scottish immigrant, built a cottage type dwelling for his family. It’s very likely he visited Alexandria to see the Scots there.
In 1791, in the midst of land negotiations for the new Federal City, George Washington famously referred to him as the “obstinate Mr. Burns.”
The home Burnes built in 1760 was “one of oldest existing buildings in the District” when it was demolished in 1894. Burne's daughter Marcia and her husband John Peter Van Ness married there. In 1813 they built a magnificent mansion near the cottage where they became one of Washington’s first power couples. Marcia was particularly beloved, especially for her work with orphaned children and arranging social events. Some have called her the first leading lady of Washington. She maintained her father's home after he passed away.
3. Duddington
F and 2nd Streets, SE, northwest corner
1793-1886
There Now: Row Houses
The Carroll family looms large in early Washington. Daniel Carroll (1764-1849) of Duddington was one of the wealthiest men in the area and the largest landowner in 1791, including some of Capitol Hill. He served in leadership roles, built early rental properties including Carroll Row, and donated lots to Georgetown.
In 1791, Carroll started building a home south of where the Capitol would rise. Pierre L’Enfant, fuming it blocked New Jersey Avenue SE, had it tore it down. L’Enfant, who had already rubbed important people the wrong way, was fired.
Carroll then completed his second effort in 1793. It spread out with nine bays wide, two and a half stories high, and a central pavilion featured three arched windows/ Described as “First important house erected in Washington after 1791.” and “one of the great Federal mansions of Washington.”
The Capitol Hill Restoration Society tells us:
Archimedes Heckman, a Philadelphia speculator, bought the entire square where Duddington was located and started building rowhouses.
A Washington Post article reported on the 50th anniversary of the Duddington Place block party. The benches on the street help knit the community.
4. Peter Family Home
1795-1960s
2620 Wapping (K) Street, NW
There Now: K Street Interchange
The Peters were an important family in the early history of Georgetown. Robert Peter distinguished himself as a land owner and agent with the Glasgow firm of John Glassford and Company, which also had a store in Alexandria. Robert’s son Thomas married Martha Parke Custis, second oldest of Martha Washington’s famed grandchildren. For a wedding present, he gave the newlyweds the house at 2618 Wapping (K) Street, just outside Georgetown.
The brick stuccoed, three-and-a-half story house was their temporary home before moving into Tudor Place. Family members often dined and stayed, including George Washington, who last stayed here about a month before he passed away. Martha's children might have been born here.
A number of British diplomats lived in the dwelling after the Peters moved out, followed by Count Phalen of Russia. At some point they became apartments.
In their 1950 book, authors Harold Donaldson Eberlien and Cortland Van Dyke Howland pointed out the home was “smugged up by a complete coat of roughcast stucco over the brick.” Nevertheless, they wrote the home deserved preservation and restoration.
The Columbia Historical Society, the predecessor to the Washington Historical Society, thought so, too. In 1959 its members tried to save the home. Their plan was to donate it to the Washington City Museum, which did not have a home. General Ulysses S. Grant III, president of the society, was quoted as saying, it’s the oldest historical house in Washington.
In 1956, real estate investor Leo M. Bernstein had offered the site behind the home for the relocation of the Union Engine Company (built 1837) at 2618 K Street. Bernstein also offered to sponsor the establishment of a museum of the city at the new site. The Association of Oldest Inhabitants had been located in the fire house. Both were demolished for the widening of K Street.
5. Analostan
Mason's Island
1796-1935
There Now: Historical Marking on Theodore Roosevelt Island
Before bridges were built across the Potomac, Mason’s Island was where folks cross the Potomac River, a combination of a causeway and ferry. Going back to 1724, George Mason’s father owned the land before it was bequeathed to General John Mason (1766-1849), a son of George Mason.
It was easy to get lost in the Mason family shuffle, but General John Mason did his upmost to distinguish himself. He spent four years in Bordeaux, France as agent for a firm there, served as a Brigadier General in the DC militia (1802-1811), helped found and served as President of the Bank of Columbia in Georgetown, took the helm for the Potowmack Company, the predecessor to the C&O Canan Company, and acquired the Columbia Foundry in Washington. Mason and his family lived at 3425 Prospect Street in Georgetown. Wealthy residents summered at hilly places away from Washington’s heat bowl. Mason uniquely built his on this island, which he made a “self-contained estate.” His home was Federal with neoclassical designs in the regency style.
His close neighbor was George Washington Parke Custis and his family at Arlington. Guests at his home included Thomas Jefferson and Marquis de Lafayette. Landscaping was “elegant.”
Like a number of early Washington figures, Mason lost his hat financially. He retreated to familiar Virginia soil south of Alexandria and lived at Clermont.
Honorable Mention
6. Van Ness House
C Street, Constitution, 17th Street and 18th Street NW
1813-1907
Designed: Latrobe
There Now: Organization of American States
In some ways, this one was perhaps the greatest loss. Designed by Benjamin Latrobe, two-story hipped roof, three bays wide, with pavilions crowned by parapets, stuccoed brick, Doric carriage porch. “Long regarded as one of the finest homes in the country.”
John Peter Van Ness, Congressman from New York, married Marcia Burnes, sole heir to David Burnes’ fortune. Their house was a social center for members of Congress and Washington upper elite. A storm damaged the home in 1894. Goode said the effort to save it was perhaps the first popular attempt at preservation in the city. In 1910, the Pan-American Union Building rose up on the site (organization changed their name to Organization of American States in 1948).
The better half and I have been living in Alexandria for the past 25 years. We are now permitted to pen look backs filed under large enough sample size.
With the cherry trees that ring the Tidal Basin now in the penultimate stage, all eyes are on when they will reach full bloom stage. Thought it fun, them, to write down some thoughts on our experiences of seeing them these past 25 years.
For me, the perfect day is when the blooms are in peak on a non-weekend day, the skies are blue and milder temps prevail. Off the top of my head, I’d say that perfect, or near perfect scenario only happens once every four or so years.
Of course, when we first got here, I didn’t have such thoughts. Like most everyone else, we could only go on the weekend. Another factor was going with visitors. Hey, it was great fun showing them around, but their needs dictated the date.
So in the first ten years or so, I remember we usually went on a crowded weekend. That can be fun, but when the peak is on a weekend and the weather is nice, it can get crazy.
Monitoring the peak forecast must be so frustrating for folks who don’t live here, and have to plan ahead. Despite all the technological gains made in weather forecasting, the National Park Service still seems to be reading different charts than the local meteorologists. It ain’t easy predicting more than five days ahead but The Capital Weather Gang seems to be the best.
I remember when I was doing temp work in DC, one of the persons in the office would go down to the Tidal Basin, check out the stage, and report back. Now we can all benefit from someone who does the same thing. For the last several years, the person who blogs at Cherry Blossom Watch has given daily updates. In my opinion, they reign supreme.
Of course, we didn’t have such luxuries before. The local news did a good job and still does, but nothing beats a dedicated blogger with great photos.
In the beginning, just getting to go made us happy. But after a while, I felt a desire to go on that perfect day with clear blue skies, warmish temps, and a non-weekend day. I alway go in the morning to beat the crowds, so that adds another factor.
Obviously the biggest variable is the weather. Warmer weather this time of year often brings clouds, while the clear days are colder. I have learned not to worry about the colder morning, as long as everything has lined up.
So, as you can imagine, there is a tension that builds every year. Will the peak coincide with good weather on a non-weekend day? Will a front move through and blow away the petals? Is there something on the calendar I can’t get out of?
This year the C-virus has thrown us the mother of all curve balls. Should we go or not? Maybe just drive around the tidal basin?
After 25 years of living here in Washington, we don’t need to go every year, but with everything that is going on right now, we are feeling the need to feel that joy.
Time for another spring ritual, fingers crossed…
Note: Photos from our previous visits.
The other day I was looking through James Goode’s “Capital Losses” book, the section on Residential Homes. We mourn these losses, including what were arguably the two greatest -- the palatial Van Ness mansion a few blocks west of the President's House, and Daniel Carroll’s Duddington Manor Home (F and 2nd, S.E.) Closer to our heart were Belvoir, West Grove and the Addison plantation home on Oxon Hill.
On the other hand, these losses make us cherish the ones that have survived, and whittle down the field so to speak.
History is a serious business, but it does not mean one cannot have a little fun. Here then, is our ranking of the Top Ten Historic Houses in the Washington region. We can’t say we have been to all of the ones in the DMV, but we have visited the ones below and a good number of others.
Anyway, here we go.
Note: My visits to these historic homes are not all recent ones. Staff and interpretation change.
All photos are from my visits.
1. Mount Vernon
Whew, number one sure is easy. Visited by about a million people each year, and the staff at Mount Vernon has not rested on their laurels. Although across the country there is much work to do in terms of interpreting the enslaved humans history, Mount Vernon has certainly turned a corner and has shown leadership this way.
2. Cedar Hill
Southeast DC sometimes gets shut out from lists, but not so here. In addition to all the great things he accomplished in his lifetime — self-emancipator, abolitionist, Civil Rights activists, orator, author, publisher - Frederick Douglass was the most photographed individual in the nineteenth century. The bicentennial of his birth last year brought needed attention to this greatest of Americans. The views from the hilltop are also a treat and one can get in some good hill work walking up to the crown of the hill. The Park Service presence is great, where events are held.
3. Tudor Place
After George and Martha passed away, their story was carried on by Martha’s four grandchildren. Woodlawn (Eleanor Parke Custis), Arlington House (George Washington Parke Custis), Tudor Place (Martha Parke Custis) and the homes of Thomas Law and Eliza Park Custis all played a role. Martha and Thomas Peter’s Tudor Place had it all - architect (William Thornton), the cachet of Georgetown, and their friends who were among the inner circle of early Washington society. Martha was not only a member of one of the First Families of Virginia, she might also be considered a member of one of the First Families of Washington.
The Custis kids lost some steam after the Federalist party members lost theirs, but family name and opulence carried the day, and Thomas Peter was highly respected, too.
This architectural gem was owned and lovingly cared for by the Peter family for many years, and holds fine pieces, portraits, and archives. The 2016 publication of “Tudor Place, America’s Story Lives Here,” while lacking in coverage of the Custis family enslaved humans who toiled in bondage and made up a significant part of their wealth, is a masterpiece.
4. Hillwood
These folks sure do advertise a lot in The Washington Post. Of course, there's a good reason. Hillwood's mistress and the popular and generous philanthropist, Majorie Merriweather Post, filled it to the brim with decorative arts. Nestled in between Rock Creek Park and Cleveland Park, the landscaping and gardens are lovely. Some onsite parking and a cafe are a bonus. The house collection includes House of Romanov pieces, Faberge eggs, and eighteen and nineteenth-century French art. The grounds feature a circular rose garden; a French parterre, a crescent-shaped lawn; a Japanese-style garden, and a greenhouse for the orchids. If you haven’t yet, go see Marjorie.
5. Sewall-Belmont House
We’re not big fans of changing the name of a place. In this case, a thumbs up. Known previously as the Sewall House (1800–1929), Alva Belmont House (1929–1972), and the Sewall–Belmont House and Museum (1972–2016), this lovely house is now the Belmont–Paul Women's Equality National Monument.
Built in its first part in the early 1800s and home to the National Women’s Party since 1929, this corner spot brick dwelling near the Capitol will be front and center this year as it hosts events for the 100th anniversary of Women's Suffrage.
The architectural style is a mixture, but the house stands gracefully in a sea of overbearing limestone governmental buildings with its attractive brick, mansard roof and fanlight.
6. Arlington House
Interpreting a historic house is a huge challenge, and will be so as we go forward with the ever-pressing need to learn more about the untold sagas of enslaved humans. Arlington House, which will reopen this spring, is certainly grappling with this.
There are several major components to its history. On land his father, John Parke Custis, owned and bequeathed to him, George Washington Parke Custis build this Greek Revival dwelling not only as his country seat and modest farm, but also as a monument and museum for the step grandfather who helped raise him. His holdings included portraits of the Custis forebears such as John Custis IV of Williamsburg and Daniel Parke II of Queen's Creek plantation. His daughter Mary married Robert E. Lee, connecting the two famous families in a big way. The Custis enslaved humans, many of whom were dower slaves and could not be freed, were finally freed during the Civil War and Union Army occupation. They and other African Americans built communities nearby. Arlington Cemetery wrote a new chapter for the land which was symbolically linked to the Memorial Bridge. It all adds up to something difficult to grasp and tell, but very compelling. The view of Washington is worth the visit alone and like Cedar Hill, great hill work. And don't forget to pay your respects to Pierre L'Enfant, who had a little something to do with where some of these homes were built.
7. Surratt House
With their creaky floors, musty smells, dim lighting, time period pieces, and learned interpreters, historic homes are the closest thing we have to time travel. As hard as they try, some places can’t quite capture the visitors attention this way. This place does, even if some of it is a little creepy. A highlight of the tour is the "hiding of the guns," if you will. On March 17, Herold, Atzerodt and Mary’s son John arrived at the tavern and hid two Spencer repeating carbines. John Wilkes Booth and Herold, one of his co-conspirators, made a quick stop here around midnight on the night of April 15, 1865. They took one of the guns, and left one behind.
Some say Mary Surratt’s capital punishment was wrong, but on the afternoon of July 7, 1865, she was publicly hanged beside Herold, Powell, and Atzerodt. Surratt was the first woman ever to be executed by the United States government. A bonus here is a marker showing Booth's escape route.
8. Carlyle House
I risk being called "homer" on this one, but this Palladian stone beauty stands out in several ways. Completed in 1753 in the Georgian style, John Carlyle's mansion is one of the oldest homes in the DMV. Carlyle, one of Alexandria's first trustees, had the audacity (and power) to break the city ordinance that required homes on 1/2 acre lots to be built close to the street. Among the eleven original trustees of the seaport, a majority were tobacco planters. Carlyle tells the story of a merchant. His mansion perched on the edge of a bank overlooking the Potomac was put in mothballs in the 1850s when furniture maker James Green shoehorned a new hotel in front of it. It’s our guess the docents here enjoyed the ride that came with the short-lived PBS series,"Mercy Street," but surely they were also pleased to get back to normal with telling the story of General Braddock, the "Grandest Congress," and the Carlyle family history they know so well. The book, "Colonel John Carlyle, Gent" by James D. Munson," is wonderfully illustrated and authoritative.
Special events take place in the grassy front yard, pretty much the only one of its kind in Old Town. In the rear lies a quiet shady space with a lovely English garden. Recent historic marking is excellent and where else can the bored partner so quickly slip away and enjoy a bounty of bazaars?
9. Anderson House
More than any other city, Washington is a place with a history of power couples living in an impressive mansion home whose invitation lists included a unique combination of high-ranking politicians and government officials, and other A-listers who made up the elite party circuit.
For those of us who will never step inside the highest circles, we can get an idea of what it was like inside one of the homes. As one might guess, Anderson House is located on the famed Embassy Row on the edge of DuPont Circle. What it looses in not being all that old (completed in 1905), Anderson House makes up for in its Beaux-Arts style, interior holdings and the knowledge of those who rubbed shoulders here.
As detailed by Stephen T. Moskey ("Larz and Isabel Anderson: Wealth and Celebrity in the Gilded Age"), Larz and Isabel Anderson hosted hundreds of dinners, luncheons, and tea parties in their luxurious house. Their friends and guests included Henry and Clover Adams, Lord and Lady Curzon, Henry James, Robert Todd Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and John Singer Sargent. Larz earned fame as did, Isabel, who was active in the American Red Cross, the Daughters of the American Revolution and the National League of American Pen Women. She also wrote dozens of books and took long voyages around the world.
The Anderson House currently is hosting a terrific exhibition on the veterans of the Revolutionary War and their struggles to gain a pension. This is most appropriate, as the Society of the American Revolution calls the place home. Anderson House is active with talks and events and George Washington is always there to greet you.
10. Riversdale
Choosing number ten required some dental work, bending of neurons, fitful sleeps, and cleaning up hair loss. Before me was the rest of the field, an embarrassment of riches that includes the White House, Woodlawn, the Octagon House, the Heurich House, the Clara Barton House, Dumbarton, Sully, Riversdale, Mount Airy, the Freedom House and others. We also read the news that the Joshua Henson House could be ready to open as a museum this year.
We chose Riversdale for not only its impressive size and architecture ("one of the last of Maryland's great five-part Palladian mansions"), age (began in 1801), the immigration story it tells, its history as holder of “the most remarkable collection of Old World paintings in the country at the time,” and the valuable insight into early Washington that Rosalie Stier Calvert gave to the ages.
In 1794, Henri Joseph Stier (1743-1821), a wealthy Flemish financier and art collector, and his wife Marie (1748-1804), fled war-torn Belgium. In tow were their daughter Isabella and her husband Jean Michael (Baron) van Havre, their son Charles Jean and his first wife Mimi (sister of Jean Michael), and their 16-year-old daughter Rosalie.
Except for Rosalie, all of the Steirs returned to Belgium after the turn of the century. She and her husband finished the construction in 1807 and raised their children there.
Rosalie wrote over two hundred letters to her family back in Belgium. Dr. Alfons Bousse, an archivist in Belgium, discovered the letters in the 1970s. In 1992, Margaret Law Callcot wrote, “Mistress of Riversdale: The Plantation Letters of Rosalie Stier Calvert, 1795-1821.” The author notes these letters “provided an uncommonly readable account of America’s early history.” Her book has been praised.
Rosalie was very observant of life in Washington and not afraid to avoid sugarcoating. As the wife of a Calvert who was related by marriage to the Custis family, she stood within the inner circle, but not in the middle of it. From this vantage, she could afford to criticize in ways the others could not.
Rosalie's letters and Callcot’s footnotes are the kind of source material that can elevate an historic home from something good to something great. Let's hope the future holds more such discoveries.
A hot topic in the DMV right now is the coming together of planners in Alexandria and Arlington to develop dovetailing strategies in the wake of the arrival of Amazon’s HQ2. Although the majority of the office space will be in Arlington, Alexandria got a few slices of the pie, too.
We thought it might be helpful, especially to our newcomers, to talk about the history of the land where the company is setting up shop.
First of all, let’s nail down exactly where the workers will be located. Because the offices are in parts of Crystal City and Pentagon City (Arlington) and Potomac Yard (Alexandria), some confusion of the precise location remains for the less informed.
To the rescue is this nifty map prepared by the New Haven Register. As you can see, this axe-shaped part of Alexandria and Arlington (some might say that is appropriate), is south of the Pentagon and west of National Airport.
What the novice can’t see is where Alexandria ends and Arlington begins. Fortunately, it’s easy. The eastern most boundary between the two is Four Mile Run, that ribbon of blue running across the screen and flowing into the Potomac River south of National Airport.
Cyclists and walkers have a fondness for Four Mile Run, but what many folks may not know is that this body of water can tell us a lot about the history of this part of the area. Let's take a look.
The first roads in the colony of Virginia were the rivers and their feeders. The native Americans, who were the original watermen, fished and ate off this bounty. When they arrived, the planters built their homes overlooking the rivers. Their wharfs dotted the landscape, the place where the tall ships sailed in, discharged the merchant goods, and picked up the hogsheads of tobacco for the markets in the Old World.
In the first part of the eighteenth century, when the northward push of the tidewater planters began to arrive in this part of the colony, Four Mile Run served as one of the few place identifiers in what became this part of Alexandria and Arlington. In his oldie but goodie research, Charles W. Stetson tells us the name Four Mile Creek was used as early as 1694 on land records. Four Mile Creek or Four Mile Run was labeled on maps as early as 1737 (Robert Brooke’s, “A plan of Patomack River)” and 1747 (“A Survey of the Northern Neck of Virginia, being the lands of the Rt. Honorable Thomas Lord Fairfax”).
Note: The Fairfax Northern Neck Grant included what we know today as the Northern Neck and northern Virginia.
Whence Four Mile Run got its name is muddy waters. Educated guesses have pointed to either a faded sign (Flour Mill Run), the distance (actually about 10), or the favorite as stated by Stetson. In his presentation before the Columbia Society in 1932, he said - “It was the first considerable estuary above Great Hunting Creek and was about four miles north of it.”
Four Mile Run is not very wide, but it can take us deep into the history of this part of the Washington region. George Washington’s diary tells us he used the term a good number of times, including his 1774 purchase of a 1,200 acre tract of land from James and George Mercer. The modern day equivalent of this tract is south of Barcroft in Arlington, and southward across Route 7 into Alexandria.
This land later became known as the “Washington Forest.” Always a stickler for accuracy, Washington got on his horse a number of times and rode to his property to check his survey points and look for squatters.
In 1746, three years before Alexandria was founded as a seaport two miles south of Four Mile Run, Daniel Jennings prepared a “Survey of Robert Howson’s 6,000 acre patent.” It shows the “Howson Tract,” a shelf of woodland east of the Fall Line and lying between a spine of hills and the Potomac River. These lands on both sides of Four Mile Run became the easternmost portions of Alexandria and Arlington which include Old Town, Potomac Yard, Crystal City and Pentagon City. Early research thought Howson to be a Welsh sea captain, but this may not be the case. Either way, Howson gained title to these lands as payment for bringing immigrants to the part of the New World.
Histories of Alexandria sometimes begin in 1669, the year John Alexander (1603-1677) acquired this tract of land from Howson. Alexander came from Scotland, a country that gave Alexandria a good number of its first residents and a pride seen every December with the Scottish parade in Old Town. Alexander lived in Chotank, a riverside establishment about ten miles upstream from where George Washington would be born on the Northern Neck.
In a complicated twist we can’t explain here, Margaret Brent (1601-) also owned a smaller portion of the land that would become Alexandria. In 1638 she landed on the Maryland shore in a British ship. An obvious minority, Brent had to fight for her rights as a landowner and lawyer. With the overlap, Alexander had to pay twice for that part of his holdings.
It’s worth pointing out that, as it does today for Alexandria and Fairfax County, Great Hunting Creek was the southern divider for what became Alexandria. Its mouth was much wider then and its waters deep enough to float ships a mile or so inland to the village of Cameron (roughly, modern day Telegraph Road and the Beltway).
Seven years before Alexandria was founded in 1749, Fairfax County came into being. As seen on Beth Mitchell’s 1760 map, Fairfax County included all of northern Virginia. In 1801, Virginia officially ceded Alexandria and the future land of Arlington to the new District of Columbia. That land became Alexandria County, north and west of Alexandria. Virginia re-gained these lands in 1848. Remnants remain, including a down pipe in Old Town marked with “Alexandria, DC.” A number of boundary stones used to mark the Federal District can be found in both Alexandria and Arlington. The ceremonial first one was laid in what is now Jones Point Park, the southeastern tip of Alexandria.
In the days before Alexandria was founded at a crescent-shaped bay about two miles south of Four Mile Run, placing a location was a relative thing. For example, Hugh West’s tobacco warehouses, located at modern day foot of Oronoco Street in Old Town, were initially referred to as the warehouses at Great Hunting Creek. This has probably confused people through the years because West’s Point is about a mile north of Great Hunting Creek.
In the 1730s, John Alexander’s great grandsons inherited what had been the Howson Tract. South of Four Mile Run went to John Alexander (1711-1775). The Jenkins survey shows his dwelling located just south of the creek. The modern day equivalent is somewhere near the Barnes and Noble in Potomac Yard and within shouting distance of where Virginia Tech will built its new Innovation Campus overlooking Four Mile Run.
North of Four Mile Run went to Gerard Alexander (1712-1761). He lived in and probably built Abingdon (circa 1746), a landmark plantation home just north of Four Mile Run. Its historic site was saved in the 1990s, a win-win that sandwiched the ruins between the two large parking lots at National Airport. If you have a few minutes to spare before or after a flight, it’s quite the novel experience.
In 1778, John “Jackie” Parke Custis, Martha Washington’s only son and George’s adopted son, acquired Abingdon. In the distance southward, they could see the tall ships sailing in and out of Alexandria. The Georgian homes that dotted the seaport bespoke of the good times. For business and pleasure, George Washington visited the town many times. By the turn of the century, Alexandria had become the seventh largest port.
Washington scolded Jackie for paying too much for Abingdon, but he no doubt enjoyed the convenient location. The mansion home was roughly halfway between Mount Vernon and Mount Airy, the Maryland home of Eleanor Calvert, Jackie’s wife, and her family.
Eleanor gave birth to four children - Eliza Parke Custis (1776-1831), Martha Parke Custis (1777-1854), Eleanor (Nellie) Parke Custis (1779-1850) and George Washington Parke Custis (1781-1857). They each spent their first or earliest years living at Abingdon.
One can learn quite a bit through the lens of these four step grandchildren of George Washington. For example, their footprints are all over three of the most famous historic mansion museums in the DMV.
The county of Arlington gets its name from Arlington House, the Greek Revival mansion George Washington Parke Custis completed as a shrine to his step grandfather in 1818. It seems likely the name of the house came from the Custis family ancestral home, Arlington, whose site is in Cape Charles, Virginia.
The source of that one’s naming is up for grabs. Lord Arlington was a family friend. More is known about Arlington Row, a set of limestone cottages built in the fourteenth century in Bilbury Parish. Captain John Custis (b. 1592), high above George Washington Parke Custis on the family tree, is thought to have been born in Bilbury Parish. The great grandson of Captain John Custis is John Custis IV (1678-1749) who is buried at Arlington in Cape Charles. His son was Daniel Parke Custis who married Martha Dandridge. After he died, the wealthy widowed Martha married George Washington.
As a wedding gift to Eleanor and Lawrence Lewis, George Washington built Woodlawn, the impressive Federal style home is tucked away in woods overlooking Route One near Fort Belvoir.
Martha and her husband lived in Tudor Place, one of Georgetown’s finest examples of the Federal style and also financed by George Washington.
After all those years of use for agriculture, the land above and below Four Mile Run became a transportation corridor. Getting to and from Alexandria and the new Federal capital was made a bit easier with the construction of the Washington and Alexandria Turnpike in 1808. Its basic course followed where Route One runs today.
Joining the turnpike was the Alexandria Canal, which had a modest heyday hauling coal from the 1840s to the 1870s. The canal ran along the western edge of modern day Potomac Yard and crossed over Four Mile Run at a unique x-shaped bridge/tunnel where the railroad went through. Before connecting with the C&O Canal at Georgetown, the Alexandria Canal went along what became South Eads Street in Arlington. This is where Amazon will build two new tall buildings between 13th and 15th in Pentagon City.
The competition to win the coveted prize of landing Amazon’s HQ2 was a fierce one. 270 years ago there was another fierce competition to land a coveted prize. This one determined where a new tobacco port and town would be located below the Fall Line of the Potomac.
Two main groups petitioned the House of Burgess. One wanted the location to be the village of Cameron. Perhaps archaeology near the Eisenhower Avenue Metro will someday uncover its wharfs.
The ultimate winner was a coalition of powerful men in Fairfax County who had touted a crescent-shaped bay located a mile north of Great Hunting Creek. In the early 1740s, Hugh West had constructed a couple of tobacco warehouses at what would become known as West’s Point at the foot of Oronoco Street.
The lineup for this group was a who’s who of influentials in Fairfax County, including Thomas, Sixth Lord Fairfax and Lawrence Washington (George Washington’s half brother and the son-in-law of Colonel William Fairfax, cousin of Thomas).
What made the difference in the decision will probably be never known. It does give us a great “What If?” Had the Cameron site been chosen, silting would have doomed it as a seaport. Dumfries and Colchester suffered from this fate.
At first, it appeared the Cameron site would be chosen, Philip Alexander did not want to sell his land. It has been suggested that in order to “sweeten the pot” of the sale, the Fairfax County group agreed to name the town Alexandria.
Whatever the case, Alexandria was founded in 1749, and took off like a rocket as a seaport. In one of the Washington region's first major re-development projects, landfill in the 1780s created the straight line of shore seen today. A zip through Alexandria's long history starts with an initial golden era of international shipping and ship making. Helping to forge a new chapter after the Civil War were the iron horses of the railroads and manufacturing.
In the first part of the twentieth century, Potomac Yard, one of the nation's largest freight transfer operations, put paychecks in pockets and bustled with activity. After years of being contained to the oldest part of the city at what is now mostly Old Town, the City annexed its way more than five miles to the west. Four Mile Run formed some of the northern boundary.
In 1920, the name Arlington County was adopted on land that been called Alexandria County (mostly north of Four Mile Run). At that time, the land that is now Crystal City and Pentagon City was mostly a gritty landscape of brickyards and junkyards, and merely a place to pass by on the way to and from the job in Washington.
Closer to that spine of hills, what became known as the Aurora Highlands neighborhood sprung up. Initial praise included The Washington Post calling it, “the garden suburb of Virginia Highlands.” Beginning around 1894, residents used the Washington, Alexandria, and Mount Vernon Electric Railway line, which was part of the area’s first mass transit system. Long time residents there will tell you they remember when they could see the full flight of planes taking off from and landing at National Airport.
The Washington, Alexandria and Mount Vernon Electric Railway moved hundreds of thousands of people, but the coming of the cars signaled its demise. The paving of Washington-Richmond Highway, which was part of the predecessor of Route One, was a big deal. With everybody a captain behind the steering wheel, more bridges were needed across the Potomac. One of them was the Arlington Memorial Bridge. It opened in the bicentennial year of 1932 and symbolically linked the Lincoln Memorial with the Arlington House high above on the hill.
Then came the Pentagon and National Airport in the 1940s, forever changing the landscape of that part of Arlington. In 1954, the United States Marine Corps War Memorial (Iwo Jima Memorial) was unveiled. In 1958, Arlington House officially opened as a museum. Five years later, the nation, watching on TV, cast its eyes on Arlington in numbers never before seen. Ever so sadly, the reason was the laying to rest of President Kennedy at Arlington National Cemetery.
Mirroring what was happening in Montgomery and Prince George's County, the population of Fairfax County kept from 98,000 to 275,000 in 1960 and 455,000 in 1970. Land values in this part of Arlington began to rise as the suburban sprawl increased commute times to painful proportions. Named for a chandelier placed in the lobby of one of the new residential buildings, Crystal City sprung up with tall buildings rarely seen southward in Alexandria. After a late afternoon swim, a resident could pull up a chair on the balcony, sip a drink, and watch the commuter hell below them.
Arlington attracted visitors, but according to a travel-development story in 1974, some didn’t know they were in Arlington. As part of a tourism campaign, a number of Arlington signs went up on the major roads.
The county continued to work hard. It became a place that would earn accolades for progressive planning. Arlington began to show up on lists such as Best Places to Live. In recent years, both Crystal City and Pentagon City have emerged as places with great appeal for those who want walkable urban landscapes and a variety of mass transit options. A Metro ride from Crystal City to L'Enfant Plaza takes just ten minutes. Long Bridge Park has blossomed into a jewel. Eyeing the future, look for the roll out of Short Bridge Park at Four Mile Run. This will bring the Alexandria and Arlington in ways never seen before as the land belongs to both.
And so, another chapter in the history of these lands is being written. Our advice to the newcomer is to think larger picture, DMV, and not get hung up on place names such as “East of,” terms that can be divisive. Enjoy the bounty of history and nature, and be sure and take a walk along Four Mile Run.
Maps
1. Google, New Haven Register
2. 1736-37 map of the Northern Neck Proprietary, Library of Congress
3. Howson Patent, Survey Showing Land Ownership, 1741, Library of Congress, edited for Interpretive Marker at Potomac Yard
4. Fairfax County, Interpretive Map, 1760, Beth Mitchell
5. Atlas of Fifteen Miles Around Washington, G.M. Hopkins, 1878, Library of Congress, Edited for Interpretive Marker at Potomac Yard
6. Aerial, 1966, Historic Aerials, $12 paid.
A famous George, lived south of Alexandria in a mansion with a portico, first word of its name is Mount.
Aw, come on Jay, that’s too easy.
For sure, but can you name another George who lived south of Alexandria in a mansion with a portico, first word of its name is Mount?
We're talking George Shirley Kernan (1866-1962). Her story comes to light in a book on Mount Air (1970) by the late Edith Moore Sprouse. I bought a used copy several years ago and finally got around to reading it. We also learn about her daughter, Elisabeth Kernan Enochs.
The ruins of Mount Air are located between Fort Belvoir and Newington, near Telegraph Road (8600 Accotink Road) in the Village of Mount Air neighborhood. Sitting like a crown, the landmark home had a bird’s eye view of the main road into Alexandria (Potomac Path/King's Highway/today’s Telegraph Road) and a sweeping look down to a valley that ran to Accotink Creek and Pohick Creek. Mount Air also had a moat of sorts, wrapped by Accotink Creek and two of its branches.
Mount Air was initially part of a small world south of Alexandria that included some of the first families of Fairfax County -- Washington, Mason, Fairfax. Where three prominent necks jut out north of Occoquan River stood their landmark homes. Together, they signaled the coming prosperity to this part of the colony of Virginia. As members of the vestry of the Truro Parish, they held responsibilities such as caretaking. Sadly, they owned enslaved humans.
Much, of course, has been written about Washington's Mount Vernon, Mason's Gunston Hall and Belvoir, the grandest of them all. The Georgian manor, which burned down in 1786, was home to Thomas, Sixth Lord Fairfax and other members of the English family whose descendants included Lords of Cameron and distinguished ladies.
Mount Air, however, had something those and others did not. Across the span of more than 250 years, and on a continuous basis, some one lived here. Four different families and their succeeding generations called the place home until it burned down in 1992.
Note: There was continuous habitation, but the original home was lost, possibly through fire. Some of its materials such as the basement might have survived. The date of the original dwelling is not known. Bills of laden for material point to the 1740s. The Greek Revival rebuild took place in 1859, with later additions.
The Mount Air story starts in 1727, twenty two years before Alexandria was founded and fifteen before Fairfax County came into being. Dennis McCarty (1703-1743) acquired land north of the Occoquan River. The McCarty clan's roots were in Ireland. Dennis held leadership roles as a Sheriff, Justice of the Peace, vestryman, and member of the House of Burgess. In 1724, he married Sarah Ball, cousin of George Washington.
Dennis McCarty built two dwellings north of the Occoquan River. Cedar Grove came first, probably around 1732. Described as a "low rambling frame building," the home overlooked both Pohick and Accotink Bay.
Mount Air stood about two miles to the north and had sweeping views of what became that small world of planters including George Washington and George Mason.
(Map, 1760 Fairfax County, Beth Mitchell).
McCarty descendants lived at Mount Air for almost 100 years. Daniel, son of Dennis, owned 3,000 acres between modern day Newington and Fort Belvoir and knew George Washington quite well. In his diary of February 1768 ("Where & How -- my time is Spent"), Washington penned --
"Fox hunting with Colonel Fairfax, Captain McCarty, Mr. Chichester, Posey, Ellzey & Manley who dined here with Mrs. Fairfax & Miss Nicholas. Catchd two foxes.
The next family to own Mount Air was the Chichesters (1817-1860). Bringing together two known families, Richard Chichester married Sara McCarty, daughter of Daniel McCarty. Their first home was Newington, the name they gave to the Truro Parish Glebe house located less than a mile to the north and west. Likely made of wood, it was finished in 1760. Its site is less than a mile from Mount Air, somewhere along Newington Road and near the Chichester family cemetery.
When the fractures between North and South widened to a chasm in 1860, Frances Chichester sold Mount Airy to Aristides Landstreet and his wife Mary. The war not only divided the country, it split the Landstreet family. Don Hakenson tells us son Edward wore a rebel uniform while his brother William donned a blue Union one. When Union soldiers occupied the house, the family moved southward. When they came back, repairs were necessary. As Elizabeth Crowell tells us, the value of the property declined.
The next and penultimate occupant of Mount Air was Mrs. George Shirley Kernan (1866-1962). She bought the property from the daughters of Frances Aristides in 1914.
George (sometimes referred to as Mrs. Elisabeth Shirley) gave Mount Air a French flair. Born in France, her father was John A. de Sayve, great grandson of General De Blanmont, one of Napolean’s generals. Her mother, Caroline Shirley Randolph, gave her Virginia royalty blood.
George, who twice became a widow (John Carter Shirley and Dr. Thomas Kernan), filled her cups to the brim every day. She served as a correspondent for the Paris desk of the New York Herald, and helped get legislation passed for an eight-hour work day in St. Augustine, Florida. She rubbed shoulders with Eugenia de Montijo (1826-1920). Born in Spain, Eugenia was the wife of Napoleon III and the last Empress of France. Eugenia gifted George a suite of furniture that made an eye-catching addition to Mount Air.
George lived at Mount Air from 1914 to her death in 1962. Sprouse’s book includes a photograph (1918) showing the Second Battalion of the 304th Engineers posing for the camera in front of her house. They helped build the Fort Belvoir Military Railroad. Its nomination form tells us its construction in 1918 was “expedited due to the urgent need for troop mobilization for the World War I effort” and that “the railroad was the primary means of moving supplies to and from the installation for Camp A.A Humphrey’s initial construction, as well as Fort Belvoir’s later development.”
The tracks of the spur are mostly gone, but the eight-mile long right of way runs from Newington to the installation. Along the way it runs within shouting distance of the Mount Air ruins.
Feeling a sense of patriotic duty, George allowed the soldiers to bivouac near her house. Citing the "Official History of the 304th Engineer Regiment," Sprouse tells us the soldiers affectionately called their temporary home, "Camp Merry Widow.” After the soldiers left, George used some of the lumber from their camp to construct a garage and panel one of the rooms.
Service to others was a hallmark of George's life. In February 1941, she opened the doors of Mount Air and hosted an afternoon tea. Proceeds went to the Fairfax Committee Aid to Britain. Around the same time she donated a "large English boxwood bush" to the Red Cross.
George passed away in 1962 at the Circle Terrace Hospital in Alexandria's West Side. Her obituaries were published in the New York Times, The Washington Post, and a number of other newspapers. The Washington Evening Star called her, "Diversified Career Woman."
Services were provided by Demaine Memorial in Alexandria and held at the St. Louis Catholic Church in Groveton. George was laid to rest at Pohick Church Cemetery, joining some of the early famous people such as John Alexander, Hugh West and Daniel McCarty.
The story of a distinguished woman living at Mount Air did not end with the passing of George. Her daughter, Elisabeth Shirley Kernan Enochs (1890-1992), lived there and like her mother, lived her life to the fullest each day.
Elisabeth’s father, Thomas Barron Kernan, passed away in 1906. George and Elisabeth set sail for Europe and Russia. The ex-patriots returned to native soil in 1914 and purchased Mount Air.
A graduate of George Washington University, Elisabeth’s resume included President of the Inter-American Children’s Institute, President of the Society of Women Geographers, and a writer for The Washington Post.
In 1932, Elisabeth married Matt Enochs, a US Naval Officer. She was friends with Frances Parkinson Wheeler Keyes (1885-1970), who was born in Charlottesville. Keyes wrote books with Washington (Capital Kaleidoscope and All Flags Flying) and Southern settings. The two shared a passion for historic preservation.
Keyes' novel “The Explorer” (1965) uses Peru and Mount Air (Hill's End) as its setting. An artist's depiction of the home spreads across the inside cover. Keyes thanks Elisabeth for "checking all references to a typical ancestral estate in northern Virginia."
In her book, “Two Sisters for Social Justice: A Biography of Grace and Edith Abbott,” Lela B. Costin tells us Abbott once praised the work ethic of Elisabeth, saying, “She is a race horse type.”
In 1939, Elisabeth spoke in front of the Alexandria Business and Professional Women’s Club at the George Mason Hotel. It must have been a real treat. In the mid 1930s, she had covered global affairs with a specialty in Latin America and had just returned from Peru.
Elisabeth was also in the news in 1939 when she spoke a conference at the YWCA in Washington (614 E Street, NW). Perhaps she met Civil Rights activist Dorothy Height (1912-2010), who had spoken on "Problems of Negro Women Workers."
At age 65, Elisabeth was not slowing down. She wrote, “The Children of Latin America in an Age of Anxiety,” published in The Journal of Educational Sociology, Mar, 1955.
The August 30, 1961 issue of The Washington Post featured an article (Marie Smith, "She Works for Nobody's Children") on Elisabeth. In what might have been her most shining moment, President Kennedy had appointed her as US Representative on the Directing Council for the Inter-American Children's Institute.
Smith pointed out Elisabeth's mother had filled Mount Air with historic antiques collected from the surrounding area. Elisabeth owned religious paintings carved statues of saints she had collected in her many travels. She was quoted as saying she loved the Latin America people. After a trip in 1958 to Venezuela, the government awarded her the Order of Francescia de Miranda.
Elisabeth spoke five languages and served as a translator for the War Department. Somehow, she found time to care for Mount Air. The General Management Plan for Mount Air Historic Site tells us Elisabeth helped preserve Mount Air. In 1969, the house was registered with the Fairfax County Inventory of Historic Sites. Sprouse wrote the book the following year.
Elisabeth passed away in 1992 and was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery.
Sadly, this story includes one more obituary. Just weeks after Elisabeth was laid to rest, Mount Air burned down. The county made the ruins into the Mount Air Historic Site and erected several markers. Elizabeth Crowell tells us it was the county's first interpreted cultural resource park. In the April 2006 ceremony, Catherine Thorsen was recognized as "a champion for the preservation and protection of the site."
The county marker tells us:
Mount Air Mount Air represents in microcosm a history of Fairfax county -- the rise and fall of an economy based on tobacco in the 18th century; the subdivision of vast tracts of land after the American Revolution; and the damage that occurred from military occupation during the Civil War.
George and Elisabeth didn’t make the cut. Nevertheless, they, too, made their mark on the world.
In Part Five, we looked at the Fort Belvoir Military Railroad. In our sixth and final part, we look at some of the growth of Newington from the 1940s up to present day.
In the late 1940s, readers of The Washington Post, some of whom were veterans of World War II, turned their eyes to more and more news coverage of the “Iron Curtain” the Soviets were building in Europe. This was the beginning of the Cold War, Civil Defense, air raid alarm tests, and the Nuclear Age.
No bombs were ever launched, but an explosion related to the Cold War did occur in Fairfax County. Fueled in part by the GI Bill and VA loans, the population soared from 40,000 in 1940 to 98,557 in 1950. On its way to hitting the 1M mark in 2010, the number lept to 275,000 in 1960. A tsunami-like wave of suburban growth was at hand.
Aerial views from the 1940s show about a dozen homes along Newington Road. This was the beginning of the residential portions of Newington as we know it today. Ads in the paper touted affordable, new single family homes with a yard. Servicemen returning from the war qualified for VA and FHA loans.
A 1953 aerial shows homes dotting the new streets of Catskill, Higham, Franklin and Buckley, Hamilton and Ona. The 1967 aerial shows Hunter Estates labeled for those homes and streets.
The Washington Post of September 27, 1953 showed an ad:
For Sale or Rent, Hunter Estates, VA. 3 bedroom brick ramblers, 1/2 acre lot, convenient to Fort Belvoir and Shirley Highway. Price $16,950. Edna B. Hunter, Builder and Developer.
These homes may have gone quickly, as no other ads for the Hunter Estates appeared until 1962. A bi-level home was priced starting at $27,750. Ads continued for Hunter Estates in Newington. In 1978, a 5 bedroom home was selling for $93,000.
As late as 1995, Hunter Estates builders were placing ads in the newspapers. A large one appeared on February 11, 1995. Convenience to the Springfield Mall and close to I-95 were touted. These were larger two story homes with wings and the locations shifted to west of Accotink Road. The price - from only $239,000.
The following year, more ads were seen - Hunter Estates, Alexandria Area. Bi-levels, split foyers, ramblers and 4 bedroom homes were for sale. Directions were given as South on US Route 1 to Penn Daw Hotel, right on S. King’s Highway, left on Telegraph Road to right on Newington Road.
In the 1920s and 1930s, residents of the area around Newington had seen road improvements such as the full paving of the Washington-Richmond Highway (Route One). Another game-changer arrived in 1949 with the construction of the Shirley Highway, the predecessor to I-395 and Interstate 95 south of the Beltway. It ran less than 2000 feet to the west of the railroad tracks in Newington. Six years earlier its first segment had become Virginia’s first limited-access freeway.
Before the Shirley Highway, residents of Newington had used Back Lick Road to get to points northward. Parts of Back Lick Road may have gone along the same way as the old Road to the Courthouse seen on Mitchell’s map.
The Shirley Highway spawned businesses such as the Hunter Motel and Restaurant, whose site is the Embassy Suites in Newington. The hotel pays homage to its forerunner with a set of photos near the lobby and a framed primer. It tells us the motel was built in 1954 by Herbert C. Hunter with the help from his mother Edna B. Hunter. Hunter came down from upstate New York and with his wife Shirley, managed the hotel and restaurant until his death in 1976.
What the highway gave, it took away. 1971 marked the end of an era in Newington when passenger service on the trains ended.
Nathaniel Lee covers this nicely in his book. In 1955, the train station there had been renamed Newington. Lee writes:
"the name change better reflected the neighborhood that grew up around the station in the past eighty years, becoming a distinct community from its neighbors."
But passenger service was on the decline as drivers rolled down their windows and rolled down the highway at speeds that thrilled and killed. Freight hauls dropped too when trucks could do it cheaper and faster. In 1970, Congress passed the "Rail Service Passenger Act." The National Railroad Passenger Corporation was born. The RF&P became a member. Its cars and tracks were used, but the new service became known as Amtrak. The sparse usage at Newington and Lorton stations ended their 99-year long service.
The wooden train station at Newington was demolished. A December 1971 article in The Washington Post included a photograph. One sees a basketball hoop nailed to the porch.
Once again, something was lost but something was gained. In 1971, an Auto Train service was established at the Lorton Station. Still in use today, the car-filled trains leave around 3 pm and arrive at Sanford, Florida as the Sunshine State wakes up. A new facility at Lorton was built in 2000. Lee writes the Auto Train wins awards for its top notch service.
In January of that year, residents of Newington were shocked by a news report published in the Washington Evening Star. A pair of robbers shot and critically wounded Hunter. Fred Tyler, a family friend and his sons took the helm and managed the operation until its closing in 2010. Embassy Suites demolished the hotel and built the current one, popular with travelers. The Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce gives an annual award in Tyler's name to an individual who has helped improve the quality of life in the area.
Like a lot of places in Fairfax County, Newington saw new buildings and infrastructure go up and old ones come down in the second half of the twentieth century. Perhaps the saddest lost for some was the old country store. At a website, the grandson of Samuel T. Pearson commented he holds great memories of the store and the people of Newington.
One of the biggest and most visible structures in Newington arrived in the late 60s when a tank farm was built in the sliver of land between I-95 and the Fairfax County Parkway. The tanks were fed by the Plantation Pipeline. Financed by Shell, Texaco, Chevron and Exxon, they transported the refined petroleum products from Louisiana.
According to Kinder/Morgan, the 25 tanks at Newington can store 1,348,000 barrels of commodities such as ethanol and jet fuel. After being blended with additives and ethanol, trucks deliver the product to gas stations.
The facility made the news in 1979 when Phil McCombs of The Washington Post visited the operations. Washington, he reported, received 90% of its gasoline, heating and commercial oil and aviation fuel through the Plantation Pipeline “tap point” and another near Fairfax City. R.K. Richmond ran the plant in Newington.
The plant was back in the news in 2000, after approximately 4200 gallons of jet fuel were discharged due to a failed gasket. Some of the fuel polluted Accotink Creek.
Photographs found at the Virginia Room in the Fairfax County Library shed some light on other buildings that were located in Newington in the 1960s and 1970s, but are no longer with us.
The industrial park on either side of Fullerton Road was a gravel pit in the 1960s. The neighborhoods on the other side of Rolling Road were built in the 1970s and 1980s and include Newington Forest.
In the 2000s, a new segment of the Fairfax County Parkway was laid out, a missing link that better connected the county with Fort Belvoir and perhaps pleased residents of Newington.
Back on the east side of the railroad tracks, the aerials show that the four buildings at 8178 Newington Road were the first built on that stretch, constructed sometime before 1979. The distinct look of school buses can also be seen in the 1979 aerial view. The 1990s brough much of the footprint seen today on both sides of the railroad tracks.
On September 17, 2005, the Fairfax County History Commission and the Franconia Museum, Inc. held a Dedication Ceremony for the historical marker for Newington. The marker is located at Dupell Park, 6812 Newington Road. Levelle W. Dupell passed away in May 2009. Her obituary told of her service as a registered nurse and long time community involvement. She was laid to rest at Arlington Cemetery, alongside her husband, Lt. Col. Alfred Dupell (USAF).
Concluding Thoughts
A drive through the oldest part of Newington today reveals the mix of suburban homes, town homes such as those at Newberry Station, and businesses located in industrial and office parks. The historical marker is a great addition and makes for a good start. Perhaps some interpretive markers will touch on the other stories made here and nearby.
For the newcomer, part of the learning process is the mailing addresses. Newington residents and business use Lorton or Springfield. But don't let that fool you. Newington is rich in history.
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