Barrett House

Here follows an excerpt from the website of the Fairfax County Park Authority Resident Curator program:

The Barrett House was built in 1901 by William Pollock. In 1910, the District of Columbia established the Lorton Workhouse and Reformatory nearby. The Workhouse was built on the progressive-era ideals of rehabilitation and prison reform. The District purchased the Barrett House and used it as housing for the prison guards and then later as office space.

The house is a traditional example of the American Four-Square form with the exception of two rooms added to the first floor in the 1920s/1930s. The property gains its significance through its association with the Lorton Workhouse and is listed as a contributing structure in the District of Columbia Workhouse and Reformatory Historic District.


<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>
<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>

Here follows an excerpt from the Atlas Obscura website:

Barrett House
Lorton, Virginia
A weathered, American Foursquare-style house originally built for lumber merchant William Wimsatt.

The 20th-century Barrett house is believed to have been built in 1901 for lumber magnate William Wimsatt. The house was designed using the popular Foursquare style design, consisting of a box-like house with four rooms on both the first and second floors. These houses were quick, inexpensive, and easy to build.

Wimsatt sold the house only two years after its construction to government employee Willliam Pollock who called the house “Pine Croft.” An ode to the use of pine wood in constructing the floors and other elements of the house. Pollock sold the house in 1910 to two-year resident lessee Percy Skinner, who sold the house back to Pollock in 1912.

Two years later, the house along with several parcels of land and other homes, were purchased by the local government as part of the Washington D.C. workhouse and reformatory.

The name of the house is attributable to Eugene Barrett who lived in the residence in the 1960s while overseeing the agricultural activities of the Lorton workhouse inmates. Though many changes were made to the house over the years, the Foursquare style is still visible along with other original elements, including tapered porch pillars and original doors and windows.

The house and surrounding lands were eventually acquired by Fairfax County. There are several open fields and bike trails that run through the area behind the house.

Know Before You Go
The home is currently on a list of sites related to the Fairfax County Resident Curator program, which seeks to preserve historic properties by allowing one or more persons to potentially live on the property, in exchange for working to rehabilitate and maintain it in accordance with established preservation standards.

Barrett House is not presently open as of April 2021, but it is possible to park near the house and walk around the property. The house itself is fenced off awaiting future renovation but is very interesting to see from the outside.


<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>
<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>

Here follows an excerpt from the website of the Fairfax County Park Authority Resident Curator program:

Barrett House (originally Pine Croft) was acquired in 1914 through condemnation by the United States government. It is significant due it its association with the Occoquan Workhouse and Reformatory, later known at Lorton Prison. Lorton Prison is significant due the incorporation of Progressive Era reform ideals and for its association with the Women’s Suffrage movement of the early 1900s.

Originally the land on which the house sits was part of a land grant to Robert “King” Carter in 1729. John Lawson purchased 970 acres of this land grant in 1788 and in 1851 Edward Swan purchased 258 acres of this farmland. By the Civil War the farm property had again changed hands. In 1891, William Wimsatt, a lumber merchant, working and living in the District of Columbia purchased the 258 acres on which to build a country home. Based on construction materials, construction methods, house style, and land tax records the house was likely constructed circa 1901.

In 1903, William Pollock, then a stenographer and then science aid for the U.S. government, the purchased the property naming it “Pine Croft,” likely for the use of pine wood used in the construction of the house. Pollock sold the house in 1910 to Perch Skinner, a tenant, but repurchased the property in 1912. Along with other parcels and homes, the Barrett House was purchased the U.S. government in 1914 for the District of Columbia Workhouse and Reformatory, which had been constructed in the area.

Captain Morris Barnard, Superintendent of D.C. Penal Institutions likely lived in the house during all or part of his tenure. In the 1920s, Eugene Barrett, who was in charge of the large farm operation that raised food for the workhouse inmates lived in the house. The house is likely named after him.

The Barrett House is a vernacular two-story, wood frame building that has undergone modifications and additions. It has a gable roof with overhanging eaves and large full-width front porch (likely originally, hipped). The original portion of the house is square in plan with four principal rooms per floor. Prairie style details included the sloped sided porch posts, first floor battered newel post and balusters, built-in casework, and the flat built-up door and window casings.

The façade of the original central portion of the house, which is three bays wide and symmetrically balanced, has a central door with two double-hung windows on each side and three second floor double-hung windows above. Three dormer windows with gable roofs an side walls penetrate the roof, though it is believed a fourth northwest dormer was removed when a stairway was constructed to the third floor. The side elevations have both single and paired double-hung windows. Two brick chimneys are located at each gable end. The appearance of the house changed when the kitchen addition was constructed and the full width porch was converted into a wraparound veranda. The six battered porch posts that supported the original full width porch were relocated along the veranda.

Most of the materials that make up the house were installed when the house was originally constructed circa 1901, exclusive of the materials in the shed additions on the east and the west of the house; these were added later. Construction materials and methods used at the Barrett House are typical of residential housing construction of the early 1900s.