Barcroft Mill (Site)

These coordinates mark the exact spot where the mill once stood. No visible remains exist since Hurricane Agnes washed away all remains in 1972. This mill went by several different names over the years, including Thornton's Mill, the John Smith Mill, Douglas' Mill and Barcroft's Mill.

The original mill was constructed by John Douglas in 1811. Benjamin Thornton purchased the mill in 1816. In 1824, R. Taylor, as an agent for the Banks of the Potomac, was conveyed the mill. Ambrose Barcroft purchased the mill in 1848.


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Here follows an excerpt from the 1970 Fairfax County Master Inventory of Historic Sites which contained sites from the Historic American Buildings Survey Inventory:

Barcroft Mill:
The ruins of the Barcroft Mill are located on the east side of Holmes Run, just south of Columbia Pike (Route #244). The date of construction of the mill and the name of the original owner are uncertain, due to the contradictory sources of information. The court record books ahow that by deed dated 22 March 1866 Ambrose Barcroft sold to Dr. John W. Barcroft (for $1,500) "a tract of land, on Holmes Run, ...known as the Adams' Mill Lot, containing 24 acres." Ambrose Barcroft had acquired the old Adams property in 1848, but it is unclear whether the old Adams mill was standing or if a new mill was built by Barcroft.

Mrs. Milton Barcroft Payne, wife of Dr. Barcroft's grandson, states that the Federal troops returning from the Second Battle of Manassas damaged the property so badly that the milling enterprise was abandoned. The map of northeastern Virginia drawn in 1862 for General Irvin McDowell shows other Fairfax County mills, but none at this location. After the war, Dr. Barcroft purchased another mill, the Arlington Mill, on the site where Columbia Pike crosses Four Mile Run.

The remains of Barcroft Mill can be reached on foot from Columbia Pike. They include most of one long wall with a window opening, and part of an adjacent wall. The mill stones measure 35 inches in diameter.

The Barcroft name has been perpetuated in this area. When Holmes Run was dammed in 1913, the lake and the surrounding residential community were named Lake Barcroft.


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Here follows an excerpt from the "Grist Mills of Fairfax County and Washington, DC" written by Marjorie Lundegard in 2009 for the Friends of Colvin Run Mill:

BARCROFT MILL SITE
This mill site is located below the dam of Lake Barcroft, on the east side of Holmes Run, south of Columbia Pike. Since the mill was built on the flood plain the mill site is not visible from Columbia Pike. Deeds dating back to the 1700’s refer to this property as “Adams Mill Lot”. This mill was probably built by a man named Douglass. It was built on the site of an earlier mill around 1810. In 1812 Douglass sold the property to George North for a sum of $15,000. It is believed that Douglass had built a grist mill and a cotton mill.

This mill has had many owners and this indicates that the earlier millers in this area had limited success in milling. When North died in 1817, the mill was sold at auction to pay off his debts. Benjamin Thornton bought the mill but by 1822 he too had fallen on hard times and the mill was foreclosed. Robert J. Taylor, in 1824, purchased the mill. Robert was an agent for the Bank of Potomac. In 1831, Robert conveyed the mill property to William Kehoe by an unrecorded deed. In 1838, Kehoe conveyed the property to Smith Minor by another unrecorded deed. In 1848 Ambrose Barcroft acquired this mill but it is not clear if the old mill was still standing or a new one was built.

It appears that Ambrose, in 1866, sold the mill and twenty four acres of land known as Adams Mill, to Dr. John Barcroft for much less than he had paid for the mill. Dr. John had come to Fairfax in 1849. Perhaps the reason for such a low price was that the mill had been severely damaged during the Civil War. It is thought that the mill only had limited operations during the Civil War. Dr. Barcroft apparently decided to rebuild Arlington Mill on Four Mile Run instead of this mill. A Mrs. Milton Barcroft Payne, wife of Dr. Barcrofts’s grandson, said that the Federal troops, when returning from the Second Battle of Manassas of Bull Run, damaged the property severely. The mill ceased operating at this time. Dr. Barcroft returned to New Jersey and abandoned the milling enterprise until after the war.

After the battle of Appomattox, Dr. Barcroft returned to this area. In 1880 he bought the Custis Mill Tract that included the war-wrecked Arlington Mill on Four Mile Run. Dr. Barcroft rebuilt this mill and operated the mill for several years and finally rented it out to various millers one of which was John Newton.

In 1873, Dr. Barcroft sold the Barcroft mill to Mr. Arnold for $6000. Soon, he suffered foreclosure on the mill and a William Reed bought the mill property. Thus the mill became known as the Reed Mill. In 1879, there was a grist mill and sawmill at this site. In 1905, the town of Barcroft had a gristmill, a railroad station, a general store, a blacksmith shop, a cattle pen, a stone quarry, a farm machinery shop and twenty homes. In 1920 the mill burned. Local children used the water wheel as a Ferris wheel. The mill had a thirty six foot water wheel and this was said to be the largest water wheel on the eastern coast. The millrace was eight feet wide and four feet deep. By 1970 the mill was in ruins. During the flood of Agnes, 1971, the dam at Lake Barcroft was washed out and the rest of the mill ruins were washed away. Today, there is no evidence that a mill ever existed below the Lake Barcroft dam. There is a thriving housing community in this area where the mill once existed.


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Here follows an excerpt from the Lake Barcroft Association website:

The Lake Barcroft Story

Barcroft Community was named in memory of a doctor who built his home here and also operated a mill. The man was Dr. John W. Barcroft, originally from New Jersey. In 1849 Dr. Barcroft came to our area and built both a home and a mill on Columbia Pike at Holmes Run near the present dam. He practiced medicine throughout the surrounding community and ran his mill up to the time of the Civil War.

During its retreat from the Battle of Bull Run, the Union Army overran Dr. Barcroft's home. His property was so damaged that he went back North until the end of the war. He then returned to Fairfax County and built a new home on what became known as Barcroft Hill.

Before the time of Dr. Barcroft, our neighborhood was not without some notable history. The original residents were the Doe and Necostin Indians of the Algonquin tribes. (Anacostia derives its name from the Necostins.) Artifacts of these early natives are still occasionally found. Howard Uphoff has uncovered arrowheads on his land at 6308 Lakeview Drive.

Munson Hill Farm was a large tract between what is now Bailey's Crossroads and Seven Corners. It was settled and developed during the early 1700's. Timothy Munson bought the land in 1851 and gave his name to the farm. In the time to come his name was also applied to a community and a street just north of our lake area. Columbia Pike was constructed as a toll road in 1808, and was then called the Washington Gravelled Road.

During the Civil War both Munson Hill Farm and Bailey's Crossroads were scenes of action. At the beginning of the war Bailey's Crossroads was a Union Army camp. At the same time the Confederate Army occupied locations at Annandale and Fairfax. Later, Federal troops built Fort Buffalo at the present site of Seven Corners, and it became one of the ring of forts protecting the District of Columbia in 1861. At about that time Bailey's Crossroads was the site of the largest military review ever held anywhere. General McClellan reviewed 75,000 troops, and President Lincoln was among the additional 75,000 spectators who came to watch the Army of the Potomac's vast parade.

It was during this grand review that Julia Ward Howe was inspired to write new words for the music of a song called John Brown's Body. The new song became one of the most stirring anthems of all time, the Battle Hymn of the Republic.

Bailey's Crossroads is named for the Baileys, a circus owning family whose menagerie and shows were merged with those of P.T. Barnum about 1870. The Barnum and Bailey Circus was then billed as, "The Greatest Show on Earth." For many years Bailey's Crossroads was its winter quarters.

Lake Barcroft came into being in 1915. An increasing need for water by the City of Alexandria led the Alexandria Water Company to build the dam and establish a reservoir to store the waters from the branches of Holmes Run. The North Branch of Holmes Run is now called Tripps Run.

Dam construction was begun in 1913 under contract with the Piedmont Construction Company. Specifications for the Barcroft Dam were severe and the construction was massive. The structure is of cyclopean masonry and concrete. The foundation is laid upon bed rock. A railway was built to transport the masonry stones to the dam site. The contractor went broke completing the job.

The result was a dam 400 feet wide with the spillway at the top 205 feet above mean sea level and 63 feet above the stream bed. Behind this dam there formed a lake of 115 acres and over five miles of shoreline. When full it held nearly 620,000,000 gallons and had an average daily runoff of about 10,000,000 gallons. In 1942 gates were installed at the top of the dam to raise the spillway level five feet. This increased the size of the reservoir to 135 acres and the capacity to about 800,000,000 gallons.

In the late 1940's the reservoir became too small to serve Alexandria and other water sources replaced its use. In 1950 the reservoir and its surrounding land were put up for sale by the Water Company. There was a movement to turn it into a Fairfax County park, but the Board of Supervisors considered the economics and decided in favor of private development. A partnership of developers from Boston bought the lake and 680 acres of land in the spring of 1950 for about one million dollars.

The principals in this venture were Joseph V. Barger and Charles E. Dockser whose association had resulted in several preceding real estate developments. Homesite sales began in the summer of 1950, and by early fall the bulldozers moved in to begin the community construction. Early in 1951 a 60-acre Malbrook tract was added to the Lake Barcroft area. In the time that followed the 750 acres were divided into 1,020 lots on which now stand 1,000 homes.

The honor of being first residents at Lake Barcroft is shared by the families of Dana Messer, at 3703 Tollgate Terrace, and Robert Oshins, at 3620 Stanford Circle. They built at the same time and it seems that the Messers moved in, in a tent, while their house was being completed, the Oshins being the first to occupy their permanent structure. Thus the title of "First resident" depends on definition, but both share the claim to being Barcroft's pioneers.

The relationship between the Lake Barcroft property owners and the lake as a community recreational facility was provided by the Barger-Dockser owned management corporation, Barcroft Beach, Inc., which retained title to the lake, the dam and the beaches. In return for an annual fee paid to this corporation, as a condition specified in his deed, each property owner was granted permission to use the lake and the beaches. Although the community members had exclusive use of the lake, through payment of their fees, they did not own it. Joseph Barger was the original and only Managing Director of Barcroft Beach, Inc. to the time of his death, and the residents used the lake under his terms and rules. From time-to-time uncompleted proposals occurred for the Lake Barcroft residents to buy the lake for themselves, an idea that has persistent presence since the first moments of the community.

In November 1969 Joseph Barger and Charles Dockser died within two days of each other. The heirs to their estates immediately announced intent to sell Barcroft Beach, Inc., and with it, of course, the lake, dam and beaches. To prevent possible outside acquisition and commercial use of the lake, the community joined in the creation of the Barcroft Lake Management Association, a non-stock, non-profit organization which acquired Barcroft Beach, Inc., and thus control of the lake. Initially, 725 members joined at $300 per membership. Since that time, the membership figure has risen as non-member households have joined. There were 992 in July 1998.

The Management Association, under the acronym "BARLAMA", undertook revitalization of the management, maintenance, and operation of the lake and was well into its 2nd season when, on June 21, 1972, a low-grade tropical storm heavy with rain, dubbed "Agnes" by the Weather Bureau, dumped the heaviest rainstorm of the century -- a 125 year downpour -- on the mid-Atlantic seaboard and washed out the earth at the west side of the dam, nearly emptying the lake in a matter of hours. The threat of permanent loss of the lake inspired immediate coalescence of community leadership, joining in the task of solving the problem of restoration and with unprecedented community support. The success of this enterprise and the creation of the Watershed Improvement District.

BARLAMA and the Lake Barcroft Community Association (LABARCA) merged in 1992. The organization is now called Lake Barcroft Association, Inc. (LBA).

Adapted from "Lake Barcroft Origins" by Will Fazar, Lake Barcroft Directory 1967, and "Some Virginia History" by Rex Lauck, Lake Barcroft Directory 1970. Revised, 1974 & 1979, by Myron Birnbaum. Revised, 1992 by William Lowenthal.