Bush Hill House (Site)

This electronic pin marks the exact site of the Bush Hill House. No visible remains exist. This is private property, so all visitors must be pre-approved by the apartment manager.


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Here follows the text on a roadside historical marker located out near Eisenhower Avenue:

BUSH HILL:
Josiah Watson, a wealthy merchant and postmaster of Alexandria, established his 272-acre plantation, “Bush Hill”, in 1791. Richard Marshall Scott purchased the plantation in 1791; his family stayed here for 200 years. Scott was an attorney, bank president and planter who married three times, due to the death of his first two wives. In 1833, with Scott’s death, his son Richard and Virginia Gunnell moved here and produced wheat, oats, rye, and corn on the plantation. Richard died at age 27 of tuberculosis. Virginia, a northern sympathizer, and two sons shared the house with Union officers during the Civil War while a Massachusetts regiment camped on the land.

(sidebar)
Bush Hill
Retired and apart from the world’s busy hum,
This rural and lovely retreat,
By the genius of talent and taste, has become
To the stranger and curious, a treat.

’Tis a model, deserving of copy from all
Who wish’to improve their estates;
’Tis a spot, where the spring & the summer and fall,
Man’s bosom delighted elates.

Should I search far & wide, there
is not a place
My soul would prefer to ‘BUSH-HILL’
For Natural charms, and for many a grace
Conferr’d by industry and skill.
—Phenix Gazette, November 26, 1825

Marker erected by KSI in cooperation with the Alexandria Archeological Museum, Office of Historic Alexandria.

The Bush Hill Plantation House:
The main house at Bush Hill Plantation was a twelve-room brick Georgian structure. The property included a brick barn, a granary, corn house, cow and sheep shelters, overseers’ house, “negro quarters”, dairy and ice house. Virginia Room, Fairfax County Public Library

Holly Hill School:
My mother and father, Stephen and Betty Balazs operated Holly Hill School and what is not noted and maybe unknown is that this was the first private school in the area to accept a black student, who I am still in contact with. This building has a full circle of history from slaves to the first black student accepted into the first grade. The car in front of the building, was my first car.

Bush Hill Serves As A Prison:
During World War II the federal government leased Bush Hill from the Gunnell family for use in the internment of Adolf Hitler’s counselor of foreign affairs, Ernst “Putzi” Hanfstaengl, who was assisting the Allies. Putzi was considered one of the only men who could detect whether or not German broadcasts of Hitler were authentic or done by stand-ins. Virginia Room, Fairfax County Library

Bush Hill Abandoned as a School, Burns:
After World War II, Bush Hill served as the “Holly Hill School” until March 6, 1977, when it was vandalized and then abandoned. The house was destroyed by arson one week later. Washington Post, March 17, 1977

Richard Marshall Scott Assets:
The Richard Marshall Scott’s lived well, as reflected in their 1815 personal property tax list: 13 slaves; 5 horses; 9 cattle; 2 carriages; $4500 house; ice house; gold watch’ mahogany furniture: bookcase, 14 chairs, 3 chests, sideboard, 6 tables, 6 calico curtains; 11 prints; looking glass; 4 silver goblets. Mutual Assurance Society

The Indians Occupied This Land First:
Native Americans were the first to occupy this land. Archaeologists discovered 3500 year-old camps in the vicinity. By the 1600’s, the local Algonquian-speaking population was referred to as the Dogue by the colonists; they all died or moved away by the 1700’s. These people left behind in the soil, rocks from their hearths, stone tools and thousands of pieces of stone debris from tool making.

Orange and Alexandria Railroad:
In 1850 workmen began to clear a line through Bush Hill for the Orange & Alexandria Railroad. Richard William Scott described the first passage of the train in his Day Book, July 4, 1851: “We witnessed for the first time today, a train carrying about 600 people going on an excursion on the road to Backlick, a distance of 11 miles from Alexandria and the present termination of the rails—as seen from the north windows (6 in number) passing through our meadow with their gay passengers, presented a very pretty sight and to me one of great interest.”


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Thunderbird Archaeological Associates was contracted for a site report on Bush Hill back in 1999. Here follows an excerpt from the documentary study written by William M. Gardner and Gwen J. Hurst:

HISTORIC BACKGROUND:
The 10.67 acre parcel located on Eisenhower Avenue contained an estate known as Bush Hill. Bush Hill was formerly located in the Mount Vernon District of Fairfax County, Virginia, until 1950 when this portion of Fairfax County was annexed to Alexandria Fairfax County was created from the upper part of Prince William County, formerly a part of Stafford County, on 1 December, 1742. Documents for the early land owners of Bush Hill, prior to the creation of Fairfax County in 1742, are located in the circuit courts of Stafford and Prince William counties. Bush Hill mansion, a sixteen room colonial Georgian brick house laid in Flemish bond, is claimed to have been built in 1763. which is within three or four years of the first brick house, Gunston Hall. built in the northern area of Virginia by George Mason. The earliest documented existence of the mansion house at Bush Hill, and the first appearance of the flame of Bush Hill, is found in a Mutual Assurance Policy issued to Josiah Watson, owner·resident of the property, in 1796. Bush Hill was burned by an arsonist. or arsonists, on 13 March 1977.

EARLY LAND OWNERS:
The project area containing the Bush Hill estate is located within a 4,639 acre Northern Neck land warrant from Marguritte. Lady Culpeper to William West. William Harrison, Thomas Pearson and Thomas Harrison of Stafford County on 12 April 1706. The annual rental fee for this grant was one shiIIing sterling for every fifty acres. The property is described in the land grant as being below the great fork on a branch of Dogues Run, and on Indian Branch adjoining Colonel William Fitzhugh. In 1714, the grant was divided in eight parcels between [Major] John West, Thomas Harrison, William Harrison, Thomas Pearson and Michael Regan. The acreage of each parcel in the 1714 division is unknown. When this property was sold by John West's grandson in 1787, that part of the grant above Backlick Run was surveyed at 460 acres, and that part below Backlick Run (Bush Hill) was surveyed at 272 acres.

Colonel John West, the son of Major John West and Susanna Pearson, married his cousin, Margaret Pearson. In 1749, Colonel John West was elected to the Truro Vestry, he served as Lieutenant of the Virginia Regiment during the French-Indian Wars in the late 1750s, and was a Fairfax County Justice of the Peace for many years. In 1755, he was seated in the Virginia Assembly at which time he was residing in the town of Alexandria. At the time of his retirement from the Virginia Assembly in 1776, John West was living on his plantation on the south side of Great Hunting Creek known as West Grove (ibid.).

The will of Colonel John West written in 1776, and probated in 1777. mentions land and money given to his married daughters Ann Talbot and Hannah Aston. and annuities for his minor daughter Ann West, and provisions for his wife Margaret. Roger West, apparently his only son, was given the bulk of his estate including his dwelling plantation and 205 acres of land, two contiguous tracts of land containing 295 and 500 acres each with eleven slaves, "my oId quarter and the land whereon Benjamin Boylston is now over seer" containing 450 acres with ten slaves, and a "new Quarter of 450 acres lying on the mane road where Connor Maguire now teaches school." Ten slaves were to go with the new quarter. The specific locations of the two quarters called the "old quarter" and the "new quarter," devised to Roger West by his father's will in 1776/1777, have not been identified.

All of John West's stock of horses, mares, colts, cans, plows, hoes, and plantation utensils for making a crop of Indian com, wheat and tobacco. also two iron pots and hooks, two frying pans, two feather beds and furniture, four work oxen, and one-fourth part of the residue of his cattle, sheep, hogs and geese were to be kept upon the several plantations given to his son Roger. Executors of his will were to keep in good repair two seines and one boat or scow "to carry on the fishing business for Roger's estate." The remaining three·quarters of his stock and other personal properties were to be sold and divided among his children. in the meantime placing his son Roger under "the sole guardianship, management, care and tuition" of his "very good friend George Washington, Esq." (ibid.).

An appraisement of John West's personal property estate in March 1778 allotted Roger West, twenty eight slaves. livestock including seven horses, the fanning utensils and hand tools, two beds and bedding, an iron pot and hooks. and two frying pans. Total value of the personal estate set aside for Roger was assessed at £3,678.2.8 (approximately $16,330.00). The total value of the residue of Colonel John West's estate, including the remaining three quarters of his livestock, household and kitchen furnishings and tableware. books. clothing. fabrics, liquors. lumber and cash "left in the house by Colo. John West." was assessed at £1,256.14.9 (approximately $5,576.64). A listing of the remainder of John West's slaves do not appear in this inventory and there is no indication that inventories were taken at either the old or new quarters.

Roger West of West Grove. a planter and a gentleman. was a Fairfax County Justice of the Peace, and a member of the Virginia House of Delegates. In 1787. Roger West appears in the Fairfax County Personal Property Tax List "A" with fourteen slaves over the age of 16, eleven slaves under the age of 16, two horses and thirty·five head of cattle. His mother. Margaret, presumably still residing at West Grove, was taxed for twenty six slaves, eight horses, and twenty-three head of cattle. It is unknown whether Roger West was residing at this time at West Grove with his mother, on contiguous property, or on one of the two quarters.

In 1787, Roger West deeded 272 acres inherited from his father, John West, on the south side of Holme's. or Back Lick Run, to James Hendricks of the town of Alexandria for £ 1,360 (approximately $6,038.00). The sale price of this tract of land indicates that there were major improvements on the property. This property later became known as the Bush Hill plantation. The remaining portion of this tract. 460 acres on the north side of Holme's Run. was sold to Charles Lee who was to share in "one half of the water of Holmes's or
Back lick run".

The 272 acres of land conveyed to James Hendricks in 1787 was deeded by Benjamin Stoddard of Georgetown, Maryland, and Josiah Watson and William Hartshorne of Alexandria, Virginia, to John Richter on 10 June, 1790. Rickler's purchase price was £800 ($3,552.00), a decrease in evaluation of almost fifty percent. The following year, on 6 October 1791, John Richter of the county of Fairfax conveyed the property to Josiah Watson, an Alexandria merchant at Watson's Wharf, for £1,060 ($4.706.40)

Josiah Watson, an Alexandria merchant, appears in the 1791 Alexandria City Directory as the owner and occupier of properties at Pitt, Union, Boswell and Fairfax Street in Alexandria. Other properties owned were on Pitt. Prince. Fairfax and Water Streets occupied by, or leased to various persons. In the 1816 Blue Book Register of the employees of the United States, Josiah Watson, a native of Ireland, is listed as the postmaster of Alexandria, Columbia at an annual salary of $1,653.33.

Josiah Watson insured his dwelling house for $3,000, an attached kitchen valued at $1,200, and a bam at Bush Hill valued at $1,500 with the Mutual Assurance Company (Policy Nos. 46 and 47), on 9 June 1796. The dwelling house with attached kitchen is described in the policy as constructed of brick, two stories high measuring 38 by 33 feet The attached kitchen is described as built of brick, two stories high, and measuring 30 by 16 feet The two-story wooden barn, measuring 60 by 30 feet, was insured for $1,500.00. Bush Hill, occupied by Josiah Watson at that time, is described as situated between the land of William Cash on the west. and Benjamin Dulaney on the east. A survey of Benjamin Dulaney's Rose Hill plantation, adjoining the east side of Bush Hill, shows Josiah Watson's residence located southwest of the confluence of Backlick and Holme's Run.

The following year, Josiah Watson and his wife Jane Watson of the town of Alexandria, conveyed Bush Hill and the surrounding 272 acres "with the use and privileges of one half of Backlick Run," to Richard Marshall Scott of Alexandria for $10,000.00. Included in the conveyance was an additional adjoining 82 acres on both sides of Hepburn's Mill Road that Josiah Watson had purchased from the Michael Regan estate in 1796.

THE SCOTTS AT BUSH HILL:
Richard Marshall Scott, a Dumfries merchant who became the British Collector at the Port of Dumfries in 1789, a member of the Virginia House of Delegates in 1811/1812, and director of the Bank. of Alexandria studied law with Charles Lee of Leesylvania, his later neighboring land owner at Bush Hill. Richard Scott fIrst
appears in the county documents of Prince William in 1786 when he purchased Lot 46 in the town of Dumfries from John Langitt. Mr. Richard M. Scott took the Oath as prescribed by the Congress of the United States to support the Constitution on I September 1789, apparently in order to qualify as the British Collector at Dumfries.

A narration of the history of John Scott's arrival in America, his settlement and marriage in Maryland colony, and later in Virginia, appears in an 1835 chancery case in Fairfax County. Richard M. Scott's father, John Scott, a native of Scotland. emigrated to Maryland in about 1753 "bringing with him a cargo of dry goods in order to carry on the business of a merchant." Arriving at the age of 21, John Scott "settled with his store at a
place called Allens Fresh" in Charles County, Maryland. In about 1759, he failed and became bankrupt.

At this time he returned to Scotland to seek assistance, leaving his wife Mary Marshall, with her mother, Mrs. Marshall. After his return to Maryland, John and Mary Scott had three children: David Wilson Scott born in 1766, Richard Marshall Scott born in 1769, and Anna Scott born in 1772. John Scott continued to reside in Maryland with his family until 1780 when he moved to Fairfax County, settling a few miles from Colchester on lands that he rented from Alexander Henderson. In 1791, Richard M. Scott purchased a place called Farmington in Loudoun County (now in Fairfax County) near Centreville, where he moved his parents and his sister Anna. John Scott died in 1792 at Farmington, and his widow Mary died in 1795.

In addition to Lot 46 in the town of Dumfries that Richard Scott purchased in 1886, he and his brother, David Wilson Scott. jointly purchased Lot 173 in the town of Dumfries in 1789. In the 1789 deed, Richard Scott is identified as residing in the town of Alexandria. However, in a 1791 deed from Henry Lee of Westmoreland County conveying Lots 176 and 177 in the town of Dumfries to David and Richard Scott in 1791, Richard was identified as residing in Dumfries. Richard Scott appears to remove to Alexandria in about 1794 when he purchased a plot of land on the south side of King Street from John D. Orr. Richard Scott. "gentleman" is listed in the Third Ward in the Alexandria tax list for 1796. At his death in 1833, Richard M. Scott owned properties including Bush Hill and Farmington plantations in Fairfax County, Dipple at St. Marysville in Stafford County, Cherry Hill in Piccawaxe, Charles County, Maryland, and three separate properties of real estate in Alexandria.

Richard Marshall Scott's first marriage was to Mary Love who died on 13 January 1812 following the tragic theater fire in Richmond in December 1811. In 1828. he married his second wife and cousin, Eleanor Douglass Marshall who died in 1830, five months after the birth of his first son, Richard Marshall Scott on 23 August 1829. His third wife was Lucinda Fitzhugh who he married in 1832 shortly before his death in 1833. A second son named Jonathan Mordecai Scott was born to Richard and Lucinda Scott in 1833.

Described as a "gentleman gardener," printed abstracts from Richard M. Scott's diaries show a devotion to horticulture in fruit orchards and bushes, a variety of berry vines and grapes. and flower gardens set in squares bordered with trimmed cedar, or boxwood hedges. Trimmed cedar hedges apparently edged the "avenue," or roadway to his house, and hyacinths and tulip bulbs, along with strawberries and asparagus, were set in his garden squares. Annually, during the month of March, lemon trees were brought up from the cellar and placed in the hallway. Fruit orchards mentioned in his diaries are apricot, peach, and cherries. A large number of apple trees at Bush Hill were also advertised for sale in 1812. During the 1950s, two holly trees that Richard Scott had set out, had reached the incredible heights of fifty and sixty feet.

In 1805, Richard Scott of Bush Hill took out a Mutual Assurance fire policy (policy No. 22), for the buildings on Bush Hill previously insured by Josiah Watson. The brick dwelling house and attached kitchen apparently had been covered in the interim with wood. and reassessed at $4,500.00 for the dwelling and $1,000 for the kitchen. Chimney placements are shown as two end chimneys on the dwelling and one end chimney to the
kitchen. Alterations had been made to the barn since Josiah Watson owned the property. The barn had a new wooden shed addition one story high measuring 15 by 45 feet, and a wooden square addition to the one story addition, two stories high, measuring 16 by 16 feet square. The bam, with a Slone foundation, and additions were insured for $1,500.00. A separate policy (policy No.2), was for a wooden "gardeners house," one story high measuring 16 by 24 feet underpinned with brick and valued at $350.00. Included in the second policy was a one story wooden "servant's hall" measuring 15 by 30 feet underpinned with brick valued at $300.00. Both the gardeners house and servants hall are shown with central chimneys.

Insurance on these structures was renewed by Richard Scott in 1815. In the 1815 policy, the bam is identified as a "bam and stable" with the square addition identified as a "carriage house." The locations of the bam, gardener's house, and servants hall in relationship to the Bush Hill residence is unknown.

The Fairfax County census record for the year of 1810 lists Richard M. Scott with one male under the age of 10, his wife and himself between the ages of 26 to 45, and owning nine slaves. The 1820 Fairfax County census for 1820, lists a young male in his household between the age of 16 and 26, Richard over the age of 45, and thirty-two slaves. As far as is known, Richard M. Scott did not have a male child living in his household. Chancery Court depositions taken in his estate in 1845 state that Richard M. Scott raised Chary M. Scott, the only child and daughter of his deceased brother, David Scott who died in 1827. Richard Scott's sister Ann Scott was also residing at Bush Hill when she died in October of 1821.

The 1830 U.S. Population Census for Fairfax County enumerates Richard Scott with one male under the age of 5 in his household who would have been his infant son and namesake, Richard M. Scott, himself over the age of 60, and owning twenty nine slaves. Richard Marshall Scott died on 31 August 1833 at Berkeley Springs in Morgan County, Virginia (now West Virginia).

By the terms of Richard M. Scott's will written on 23 August 1832, he left his sister-in-law, Elizabeth Scott, widow of his deceased brother, David Scott, $150.00 for life and a room and a home at his farm called Farmington. To his cousin, Elizabeth Scott, wife of Gustavus Hall Scott, he rescinded the debt her husband owed in excess of $7,000.00 plus interest. His brother-in-law and relation, Robert Marshall, was also released from any balance appearing on his ledger except for $1,000.00 which was to go to his estate. A friend, Banon Lunch, was released from any balance due on "Ledger E" and $100.00. To other relations, Mary S. Froble, Elizabeth D. Scott, Eleanor S. Causin, and Mary M. Foete, he left $50.00 each. To Mary M. Foote, he also left two adult slaves and their three children.

To his nephew, Richard M. Scott, Jr., son of his cousin Elizabeth D. Scott who was residing at his plantation in St. Marysville, he left all his land and real estate in Stafford County, Virginia (Dipple plantation), with the slaves attached to the estate, livestock, household and kitchen furniture. and fanning utensils in trust through his friend. William Fitzhugh, and his brother-in-law, Edwin C. Fitzhugh. Richard M. Scott was also released from a debt of $7,030.94 on his ledger (ibid.).

Citing a marriage contract dated 15 March 1831 with his wife Lucinda Fitzhugh, Richard Scott left Lucinda the ground rent of $250.00 per annum from a lot at the comer of King and Water Streets in the town of Alexandria until she remarried, $1,000.00 cash, a carriage and a pair of horses. As his wife appeared to "be with child" at the time of writing his will. he left his wife and her brother, Edwin Fitzhugh, 200 shares of stock in the Fanners Bank of Alexandria. a servant named Lucy and her children, and a lot in the town of Alexandria
on Royal Street for the benefit of the expected child (ibid.).

Providing that his servant and friend, "negro Nelly Shanks," should enjoy all the freedom that can legally be bestowed, he left Nelly $10.00 every three months during her lifetime for her fidelity and domestic care, and a home at Bush Hill. He requested that all of his servants be kindly treated, and left his servant, Moses [Johnson], $50.00 (ibid.). The remainder of Richard Scott's estate, including Bush Hill and Farmington, with all personal property attached to the two plantations, was left to his son, Richard Marshall Scott, at that time. "the only child of my body" (ibid.).

A codicil to Richard Scott's will on 3 July 1833 states that he had a child born on 22 January called John Mordecai after his grandfather Scott and grandfather Fitzhugh. To John, he left the farm called Farmington, a slave couple and their three children, and all the personal property attached to Farmington. Believing that there was another child expected. the third child was to have his estate in Maryland called Cherry Hill. An additional request in his codicil asks his wife "to retain and preserve the bottled wine on the floor under the staircase which I have promised to my son Richard M. Scott (ibid.). All of Richard Marshall Scott's real and personal estate, by terms of his will, went to his relatives and friends and no inventory of his personal estate was taken.

William H. Foote. one of the executors of the estate of Richard M. Scott. was appointed guardian of Richard M. Scott "Jr." on 16 June 1834. William H. Foote died in the month of November 1846 and Dennis Johnston (Johnson) was appointed guardian of Richard M. Scott at the June Term of the Fairfax County Court in 1847. In depositions taken in the Fairfax County Chancery Court in 1847 (Richard M. Scott vs. Dennis Johnston ), Richard Scott stated that he was put into possession of his estate by William H. Foote. Upon possession "it was found absolutely necessary to make considerable repairs to the dwelling house and the various out houses, to build a barn (the old one having been burnt down), to purchase horses, cattle, farming utensils, household and kitchen furniture, and other essential articles ... ". Richard M. Scott was married at the age of 17 on 15 September 1846. in Washington D.C.. with the approbation of his guardian, to Virginia Gunnell. the
daughter of James and Helen Mackall-Gunnell.

Children born to Richard M. and Virginia Gunnell-Scott were Frank, Eleanor, Richard M .. and Anna Constance. The 1850 U.S. Population Census for Fairfax County enumerates Richard M. Scott at the age of twenty-one with an estate value of $41,420.00. His wife Virginia is listed at the age of twenty-four and their two oldest children. Eleanor M. and Frank. at three and one years of age. Eleanor Marshall Scott was born on 7 August 1847 at Bush Hill and Frank Scott was born on I July 1849. Richard and Virginia's third child, Marshall Scott, was born at Bush Hill on 13 September 1851, and their fourth child, Anna Constance was born on I December 1853 "in the chamber over the dining room".

The 1850 Agricultural Census shows Richard M. Scott with 240 acres at Bush Hill (205 unimproved) with a cash value of the farm assessed at $22,000.00. Other items listed in the Agricultural Census were farming implements ($300.00), six horses, fifteen milch cows, and twenty sheep valued at $1 ,000.00. Crops raised within the past year at Bush Hill were 500 bushels of wheat, 120 bushels of rye, and 1,200 bushels of Indian com. The 1850 Slave Schedule of Fairfax County lists Richard M. Scott with twenty slaves.

The first major impact to the Bush Hill estate was the construction of the Orange and Alexandria Railroad. Organized in 1849, articles of agreement were concluded on 19 April 1850 to build the Orange and Alexandria Railroad from Gordonsville to Alexandria by way of the Orange County and Culpeper court houses. Anticipating the construction of the railroad right-of-way through his property, Robert Scott wrote in his account book for November 1849 that: "I sent in proposals to the office of Orange and Alexandria Railroad to furnish them 1640 cross ties of white oak, box oak, locust. cedar and chestnut. seven and one half feet long for $1.00 a piece to be delivered by myself at the section of the road called the crossing at Holmes Run".

In May 1850, a right-of-way "238 poles by 80 feet wide" was taken by the Orange and Alexandria Railroad (0 & A) on the south side of Backlick Run through the northern part of Bush Hill, compensating Richard M. Scott $200.00 for the land taken. In the agreement of taking the land, the 0 & A railroad was required to construct a cattle stop at or near each end of the land for joint use of the property owners, and one cattle stop at a suitable intermediate point on the Bush Hill route. On 4 July 1851. the Orange and Alexandria Railroad made its first run, eleven miles from Alexandria through Bush Hill to Backlick.

The second railroad right-of-way through Bush Hill was taken by the Manassas Gap Railroad in 1855. Incorporated by an Act of the Virginia Assembly on 9 March 1850, the Manassas Gap Railroad lines were extended between Manassas Junction in Prince William County to Strasburg in Shenandoah County, and south to Mt Jackson in 1858. Originally, the Manassas Gap Railroad leased use of the Orange and Alexandria Railroad tracks to Alexandria and survey for a separate right-of-way, parallel to the 0 & A railroad grade through Bush Hill, was done in 1854. Some of the grading and bridge abutments for the Manassas Gap Railroad were completed between Manassas and Alexandria. Facing financial difficulties, much of the construction work was curtailed prior to the Civil War. During the Civil War, destruction of the railroads by
Confederate and Union armies permanently halted further construction of the Manassas Gap railroad to Alexandria and the remainder of this line was never completed. In 1867, the property of the Manassas Gap Railroad was transferred to the Orange and Alexandria Railroad and the name of the company was changed to the Orange, Alexandria and Manassas Railroad Company.

Income generated from Bush Hill, expenditures for improvements to the property, labor costs, and personal expenses during Richard Marshall Scott's lifetime appear in his account books kept from 11 December 1847 through 16 February 1856. Entries in the account books indicate that income was generated during this period from the sale of cord wood and pot ashes, crops of potatoes, com and wheat, chickens, rents received from houses owned on Washington and Prince Streets in the town of Alexandria, and the hire of
slaves. One slave was sold from Bush Hill as noted in Richard Scott's account book on 10 March: "Note sold runaway negro Basil to Mr. Winston this day of Baltimore, Md. and took from him a written obligation to take said negro to the South, which paper is filed among my receipts."

Expenditures during this period included paying Ed. Crumpton for building a laborer cabin, to l. Keene for building a chimney on the quarters, to Risdon and Davis for a wire fence at Bush Hill, to Chris Neale for stone work for an iron gate, and H. Javins for brickwork. Improvements to the "negroe quarters" were also made during this period.

Suffering from lung hemorrhages beginning in December of 1854, Richard Marshall Scott of Bush Hill wrote his will on 19 December 1855. Richard Marshall Scott died at Bush Hill on 13 November 1856. On 19 November 1858, the will of Richard Marshall Scott was proved in Fairfax County. Bequests were made to his relatives and former school teachers, leaving Bush Hill and the remainder of his estate to his wife. Virginia who was also named as his sole executor. In his bequest to his wife, he requested that each of his children receive a liberal education and the boys, "when at a suitable age," to be given property. "In memory of my departed father from whom I inherited all of my worldly possession ... to make every effort to keep our family residence and domicile Bush Hill in the name and if possible to let it descend from her to our son bearing the name of my respected father, Richard Marshall Scott".

Included in Richard Scott's will were requests for the care of two slaves, called friends and servants, Moses Johnston. Sr., and John Allen. To Moses Johnston, his "friend and excellent servant" he left "all the freedom that I can legally bestow upon him and the sum of $10.00 every three months for his lifetime" with a lifetime home at Bush Hill. To his servant ~ John Allen, he left all the freedom "I can legally bestow upon him. If he should be willing to go to Liberia, I hereby direct my executor to send him there" providing passage. a good outfit, and $100.00 (ibid.). In the January Court held for the County of Fairfax: "It appearing to the Court by satisfactory evidence that John Allen, a black man, was manumitted by the Will of Richard M. Scot! the younger and that Virginia Scott his executrix assents thereto, it is ordered that he be registered as a free man according to law.

Fairfax County's 1859 Personal Property Assessments lists Richard Scott's widow, Virginia Scott, taxed for fourteen slaves, nine horses, sixty head of cattle. one gig, a watch, a clock and a piano, and fifty gold and silver. The 1860 Agricultural Census for Fairfax County (p.17) lists Virginia Scott with 430 acres of land (200 improved and 230 unimproved) at a cash value of $25,000.00. Farming machinery was evaluated at $25.00. Livestock, including two horses. six asses and mules. ten milch cows, eight other cattle, thirty sheep and twenty swine were evaluated at $1.500.00. For the previous year, Bush Hill had produced 500 bushes of wheat, 200 bushes of rye, 800 bushels of Indian corn, and 500 bushels of oats.

Virginia Scott and her children: Eleanor (age 12), Frank (age II), Richard M. (age 9), and A. Constance (age 7) appear in the 1860 Fairfax County Census, in the Mount Vernon District of Fairfax County on the south side of the Orange and Alexandria Railroad. Bush Hill was assessed at $25,000.00 and Virginia Scott's personal property was valued at $30,000.00 in this census. Microfilmed copies of the 1860 Slave Schedule for Fairfax
County are illegible.

In the first event of the Civil War between the states. Federal troops garrisoned at Fort Sumter in the Charleston , S.C. ship channel were fired upon by Confederate secessionists in the early morning of 12 April 1861. Five days later, on 17 April 1861, Virginia succeeded from the United States. The advance of the Union Army. and occupation of Alexandria as part of the defenses of Washington. was accomplished on the morning of 24 May 1861 (Scott 1880:23-27. Anne Frobel, a secessionist living with her sister Lizzie (Elizabeth) Frobel throughout the Civil War at Wilton Hill, located several miles southeast of the project area near Fort Lyon, wrote in her diary that Bush Hill was occupied in the late summer of 1861 by "some Massachusetts regiment" under a Captain Edwards; probably 1st Lieutenant-Adjutant Oliver Edwards of the 10th Massachusetts. Union camps about Bush Hill, and Clermont adjoining the east side of Bush Hill, were
mentioned in Anne Frobel's diary in March 1862.

Mrs. Scott at Bush Hill is shown on an 1865 military map below the abandoned Manassas Gap Railroad grade east of Commander Forest at "Clarmont". The Frobel residence at Wilton Hill, to the south east of Bush Hill is designated as "Frabes."

Reportedly, Bush Hill was used as officer's headquarters throughout the Civil War. By December of 1862, there were approximately 800 cases of small pox in Alexandria. Clermont, adjoining Bush Hill on the east, was being used as a contraband hospital at this time, many of the small pox patients being removed from a house on King Street in Alexandria to Clermont "hospital" during the small pox epidemic. On 9 December, Ann Frobel stated that the man left in charge at Clermont had sold all the crops, cattle, and other goods and "cleared out" leaving Clermont House "a wreck".

At the end of the Civil War, following General Robert E. Lee's surrender in early April 1862, and by the end of April and early May, the area around Washington was filled up with soldiers. Ann Frobel reported that: "There are soldiers, soldiers everywhere. Cameron valley is flied with tents." Sherman's army arrived on the 19th of May and the roads were then filled with thousands of soldiers and lines of white wagons. The area from Baileys Crossroads to Washington was observed to be "one vast encampment" and Rose Hill, to the north of Bush Hill, was "literally covered with Sherman's army".

Virginia Scott appears at Bush Hill in the Mt Vernon District of Alexandria County (sic) in the 1870 Census at the age of 44 with her four children, Eleanor, Frank, Richard and Constance. Also in her household are two "black" servants, and four "black" farm hands. One of the farm hands enumerated was John Allen (age 55), who was manumitted by Richard M. Scott's will in 1858, and registered as a free black in Fairfax County in 1859. The U.S. Agricultural census for that year lists her farm value at $30,000.00 with improvements of $1,000.00, and livestock (five horses, one muled ass, two milch cows, thirty swine) valued at $730.00. Crops produced for the year at Bush Hill were wheat, rye, corn and oats.

Virginia Scott deeded all of the Bush Hill estate on the south side of Cameron, or Backlick Run, to her brother, Francis Mackall Gunnell, on 28 November 1870 for $8,000.00. The deed included all of the household and kitchen furniture in the dwellings, the farming implements, and stock on the farm. Francis Gunnell (1827-1922), a Washington, D.C. resident, retired in 1889 as Surgeon General of the U.S. Army. He is not known to have ever lived at Bush Hill.

Hopkin's 1879 Map of Mount Vernon District shows Dr. Jas. Gunnell, another brother of Virginia Scott, as the owner of Bush Hill. The 1880 census, the following year shows Virginia Scott as the resident of Bush Hill with her son Richard and daughter Anne, John Scott a nephew, three servants, and a West family of six residing here who had also had four servants. Hopkins 1894 Map of the Vicinity of Washington, D. C. shows Francis Gunnell the owner of Bush Hill, then consisting of 509 1/2 acres.

The interior mechanisms of the family arrangement between Virginia Scott and her Gunnell relations in the Bush Hill estate are not clearly understood. Dr. James Samuel Gunnell, a retired physician of Washington. D.C., who is shown as the owner of Bush Hill in 1879, died on 15 February 1907 while visiting his sister. Virginia Scott at her home, Bush Hill. Two months later, Francis M. Gunnell of Washington, D.C. deeded to Leonard G. Gunnell, all his right, title and interest in and all land in the county of Fairfax known as the farm called Bush Hill, formerly the property of the late James S. Gunnell.

Virginia Gunnell-Scott died in 1913. By the will of her son, Richard M. Scott, dated 19 February 1915, and probated 28 April 1915, all of his estate both real and personal was bequeathed to his cousin, Leonard Coleman Gunnell. In contrast to the will of his father in 1858 desiring that Richard receive a liberal education, it is curious that Richard M. Scott was illiterate, signing his will with an "x" mark.

In 1923, condemnation proceedings were taken by the Southern Railroad in the Fairfax Circuit Court against Leonard Gunnell to condemn a portion of Bush Hill for a right-of-way. Damages were fixed in December 1923 at $1,650.00 for the land taken. Bush Hill is shown in 1929 located on the south side of the Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad tracks.

Leonard C. Gunnell's will, written on 30 July 1906, leaving his entire estate to his wife, Emily Nelson Gunnell, was probated 20 December 1941 before the District Court of the U.S. for the District of Columbia.

Ernst (Putzi) Hanfstaengl, Adolph Hitler's counselor of foreign affairs was held by the British government in the early stages of World War II. In 1942, the British lent Ernst Hanfstaengl to the United States to prepare written reports on Nazi broadcasts. Bush Hill was leased from the Gunnell estate to house Ernst Hanfstaengl where he remained under guard for two years, finally being returned to the British in 1944.

Bruce C. Gunnell, a Fairfax engineer and son of Leonard C. Gunnell, inherited Bush Hill from his father's estate in 1941/1942. In early March of 1977, Bush Hill was being used as the Bush Hill (nursery) School. The school appears on the photo-revised 1977 Alexandria 7.5 minute quad as Holly Hill School at the end of Bush Hill Drive. The interior of Bush Hill was destroyed when the house was broken into and vandalized on about 6 March 1977. Bruce Gunnell placed plywood over the windows and the nursery was abandoned that week. A week later, on 13 March 1977. Bush Hill was completely destroyed by arson.


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Here follows an article excerpted from the "Franconia Legacies" newsletter published by the Franconia Museum in 2003:

The Scott Family at Bush Hill Farm
Like so many other 18th century dwellings in Fairfax County, the site of Bush Hill off Eisenhower Avenue just inside the Beltway has been obliterated by new townhouses. However, unlike most early structures, the remains of this house were archaeologically investigated and photographed before that event took place.

Richard Marshall Scott, who had lived in Dumfries, bought the plantation from Josiah Watson in 1797.
Watson had advertised his 270 acres four miles from Alexandria in September 1789, mentioning a large elegant brick dwelling. This same brick house was still owned by Scott’s family when it was destroyed by arson in 1977.

The Scott family was dogged by bad luck. Richard’s father, a merchant “of easy temper, and perfectly unsuspicious and credulous,” had declared bankruptcy in 1759, and later went to Scotland to settle a family estate. On his return voyage the British captured the ship. John Scott was held on a British prison-ship until the end of the Revolution. He subsequently moved his family from Charles County, Maryland to Prince William County, Virginia. His son Richard grew up in Dumfries.

Richard Marshall Scott, a member of the General Assembly, lost his first wife in the renowned theatre fire on December 26, 1811, at Richmond. Her tombstone at Farmington states that she died in his arms, on January 13th.

His Journal entry for that day read, “This day and hour, ten o’clock, terminates twelve months of the most unhappy year of my life.” They had been married for 24 years; each year on the anniversary of her death he penned a prayer in his Journal. His second wife Eleanor was the younger of his two wards, whom he married in 1828 just three months after her older sister Ann Marshall had rejected him and wed a man of whom he greatly disapproved.

Scott quickly recovered from his chagrin and wrote in his Journal, “My dear and beloved wife Eleanor, just nine months and two days from our wedding day, was happily delivered of a male child.” Richard M. Scott, Jr., was only five months old when Eleanor also died in her husband’s arms.

Scott was married for the third time in 1832, to Lucinda Fitzhugh. By her he had a second son, born in January 1833. John Mordecai Scott, named for his grandfathers, John Scott and Mordecai Fitzhugh, was only seven months old when his father died. After his mother remarried she made his life miserable with a series of lawsuits relating to the ownership of his property.

George Washington nominated Richard Marshall Scott for the post of Deputy to the Naval Office of Customs for the South Potomac District in 1789. He seems to have lived in Dumfries until 1794, although he bought the Farmington tract in western Fairfax County in 1791 and settled his parents and sister there. His brother David apparently had little aptitude for business, applying for insolvent status in Alexandria in 1807.
Richard moved David and his family to Farmington, where David managed that estate until his death in 1827.

Unlike his father and his brother, Richard Scott became prosperous. In 1797 he was able to purchase the 460 acre Bush Hill tract, containing a two story brick house, 38’x33’, a two story brick kitchen, 30’x18’ and a two story wooden barn, 60’x30’. The buildings were insured the previous year for $5,700. In February 1812, he listed his household linens in his Journal as well as his china and silver -- 18 large knives and forks, a smaller set with ivory handles, 13 tablespoons, 13 teaspoons, 11 dessert spoons as well as earthenware and Liverpool china.

By 1815 Scott had 13 slaves, 5 horses, nine cattle and two two-wheel carriages. His house was then valued at $4500. Scott had constructed a private icehouse, one of only two dozen in the county. The structure was later described by his son as having a roof of cypress shingles, with the gable ends of the icehouse weather boarded. The interior was walled with white oak poles 15’ long, while dirt and brush walled on the outside.
Those contents of his dwelling, which were considered luxuries, were subject to a special tax imposed for one year to lower debt incurred by the government during the War of 1812. His mahogany furniture included a sideboard, three chests of drawers, a bookcase, three beds, six tables and fourteen chairs. Other items included a mirror, two carpets, six calico curtains (which had been manufactured, not made at home), eleven prints and 4 silver cups, in addition to his double case gold watch.

Although he lived alone, he made frequent use of the fourteen chairs. All but one was occupied when he entertained dinner guests in the spring after his wife’s death. The company consisted of eleven ladies and two gentlemen. The entire vestry of Christ Church dined at Bush Hill on another occasion. His relatives were frequent visitors. Elizabeth D. Scott spent four weeks and three days in April 1812. Shortly after she left Nancy Scott and her children arrived for three weeks.

Scott served as a Justice of the Fairfax County Court. He owned several other properties, including a town house on Queen Street in Alexandria, and was a major stockholder and President of the Farmer’s Bank. At Farmington he had nine slaves, six horses, twenty head of cattle, fifty sheep and over seventy hogs. A methodical man, Scott in 1825 listed his stock of wines -- 1060 bottles, 611 of these in demijohns -- a demijohn of peach brandy, two of whiskey, one of gin, one of French brandy, etc. [A demijohn held five
gallons.]

1828 was a momentous year in his life. On the front piece of his Journal, Scott wrote, “Introduced on Tuesday June 24, 1828; engaged partially on the 29th, positively on July 7th, and married on August 5th.” He was referring to Ann D. Marshall, the elder of his two wards. The entry on August 3rd was emotional. “James Irwin and Joseph B. Ladd came out in a hack to take Ann to town to prepare for a marriage with Irwin on Tuesday (without) my will and consent, for reasons which I (believe) myself are well founded, known only to herself, myself and our God, and which I verily believe would be approved at the Bar of Eternal Justice. I begged her not to go in this evening with these men because it would seem indelicate, that if in the morning she wished to go into town I would either send her or carry her myself in my own carriage but she insisted, after they had left the house, she would follow them. I immediately set out; following them overtook them and went into town… . God grant that she may be forgiven all the woe with which she has afflicted me and if my conduct toward her I have been in any wise offensive to the Almighty’s will I humbly pray to be forgiven.”

On the 6th he wrote, “Ann, my once loved relation, though now cruel and faithless toward me, was married last evening.” The next day he explained, “In reference to what I have said on the 3rd of Ann I may here state, that on the 24th day of April she was distressed and most angry to me, that she would spend many a dollar for me and cause me to feel many a pang, often before that time she had caused me to feel many a pang, and since that time she has redeemed her pledges to make me feel more.”

But the disgruntled guardian quickly recovered. On August 26th the newlyweds were at Bush Hill; on Sept. 2nd they returned to stay several days. On Nov. 14th Scott made his annual entry in the Journal noting that he had put on his flannel shirt that day, at the first freezing weather, and a week later he announced that several relatives had arrived for his wedding “to my beloved relative Eleanor D. Marshall.” The bride, his younger ward, had celebrated her 21st birthday two weeks before. Sixty-two people arrived the next day to celebrate the occasion. {Forty-nine more had been unable to attend.}

For months Richard M. Scott was a happy man. He noted on May 28th that they ate the first dish of garden peas and strawberries. He took off his flannel underwear and replaced it with cotton. And his “once beloved” Ann, now referred to only as his relation, had a baby daughter. On August 28th his wife presented him with a son, whom they christened Richard Marshall Scott, Jr. The last entry in Scott’s Journal was on November 14th. On January 13, 1830, Eleanor died. Two years later he married Lucinda Fitzhugh, who bore him another son. In August 1833, Richard M. Scott died in the town of Bath, now Berkley Springs, West Virginia. He was 62 years of age. Engraved upon his tombstone are the words, “His remains, dear and sacred to his family, were translated from Bath to this place.” He lies in the graveyard at Farmington in western Fairfax County, with his parents, his brother and sister, and two of his three wives.

Bush Hill was leased to others until 1846. Lucinda Fitzhugh Scott remarried. The plantation then passed to Richard Marshall Scott’s son and namesake, who had been studying law in Alexandria. The sixteen year old was faced with putting his property, which had been leased to others for the past twelve years, back into its former condition. Young Scott approached the task with a touch of humor. When his oldest mule “very unexpectedly laid herself down in the road this morning and departed her weary life,” Richard noted, “No doubt she is in a better state than when she was devouring my haystacks.” Slaves who had been hired out returned to the farm, a new barn was built, and he met with some of the neighbors to discuss the chances of building a church in the area. [The origins of the present Olivet Episcopal Church.]

Only seven months after regaining his inheritance, Richard married Virginia Gunnell, of Washington, and wrote in his journal, “I now say, in sincerity, ‘I am happy, nay, thrice happy!” His daughter Eleanor was born a year later, just before his 18th birthday. “I am a father, husband and master- what a responsible situation for one so young and inexperienced.”

In August 1849, Scott celebrated his 20th birthday and rejoiced in the health of an infant son. He began furnishing oak, cedar and chestnut ties for the railroad, which would run through his land. On July 4, 1851, he wrote:“ We witnessed for the first time today, a train passing over the Orange & Alexandria Railroad carrying about 600 persons who were going on an excursion up the road to Backlick, a distance of 11 miles from Alexandria and the present termination of the rails-as seen from the north windows the cars (six in number) passing through our meadow with their gay passengers presented a very pretty sight and to me one of much interest.”

On May 29, 1853, the family attended religious services, “on the outskirts of my land on the Backlick Road at the place where we intend building a small chapel.” In two weeks he wrote, “Our little Chapel, called ‘Olivet’ on the Backlick Road was open for divine service this afternoon.” At the end of December, Mr. Owens the plasterer finished the Chapel by giving it a white coat of plaster.

The following year surveyors were at work on the line of another railroad through the farm, the Manassas Gap. The Scotts installed a hydraulic water ram, which provided a supply for the house and the kitchen. “The constant supply, particularly the hot water, we find of incalculable comfort and convenience to our family.”

Richard Scott was told in 1856 that he had developed consumption. He spent part of the winter in Cuba, then six weeks that summer at Red Sulphur Springs. When he returned to Bush Hill he felt worse than before, and died on November 13th. Virginia Scott soon found that the burden of the estate became too much for her; she turned over her property to her brother to manage. During the Civil War, Col. Oliver O. Howard (the founder of Howard University) established his headquarters for the 3rd Brigade on the property. Virginia Gunnell Scott lived at Bush Hill until her death, then her nephew Leonard Gunnell, his son Leonard C. Gunnell and lastly his grandson Bruce Gunnell occupied the farm.

During the Second World War Bush Hill was leased by the State Department to house Hitler’s counselor Ernst Hanfstaengl during his detention. In the 1970s the house was used as a private school. Finally, on March 13, 1977, this ancient structure was set afire. Today the only traces of this early plantation survive within the pages of the Journals kept by its owners.


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Here follows an excerpt from Donald Hakenson's "This Forgotten Land" tour guide:

In the 1950's Bush Hill Drive was the access road that led to the Bush Hill Plantation house, located on the other side of the beltway and a bridge that extended over the railroad tracks. This road would take you to the residence. Unfortunately, Bush Hill was destroyed by a suspicious fire in the 1970s, and only a few bricks, a commemorative plaque, and its memory remain today.

COLONEL OLIVER O. HOWARD ESTABLISHED HEADQUARTERS AT BUSH HILL.
Immediately after the First Battle of Manassas Colonel Oliver O. Howard established his headquarters for the Third Brigade, Third Division at Bush Hill near Franconia Road. The exact location of the camp has not been ascertained. Colonel Howard later became a Major General and was the Commanding Officer of the Eleventh Corps that was flanked and routed by Lieutenant General Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson at Chancellorsville on May 2, 1863. After the war Major General Howard established Howard University in Washington City and served as its President from 1869 to 1874.

Colonel Howard wrote in a report, dated July 26, 1861, while base camped at Bush Hill, "The best men in camp are the best in the field."

MAJOR BEVERLY RANDOLPH MASON.
Major Beverly R. Mason was born in Fairfax County in 1834 and lived on Franconia Road before the war, not far from Bush Hill. Beverly Mason was the great-grandson of George Mason, author of the Virginia Bill of Rights.

The Confederate Veteran described Major Beverly's service in the Confederacy:

"It would be difficult to conceive Mr. Mason in any other light than that of a "whole souled" Confederate. At first bugle note he volunteered in the celebrated Black Horse Cavalry of Fauquier County, Virginia, as a private in the ranks. His energy, his broad view, his fine manners, and his business qualities made his recognition easy, and he was detailed to act as commissary sergeant. Mr. Mason's knowledge of men mad him acceptable. he was a volunteer and a gentleman of the old school who could approach all classes; he was ready for any duty and always in a pleasant way. His brave spirit often chafed when his comrades were reported killed or wounded; but his office was the "mainspring," and he was most efficient in supplying food to the command. He won a captain's commission in the Fourth Virginia Regiment, and later a major's rank as assistant commissary in Fitz Lee's division, where he was universally beloved and respected. In that capacity he served with great distinction. Occasionally, he secured opportunity to go to the front, which was a source of gratification to him, and his courage as a soldier made his friends often suggest to him 'discretion was the better part of valor.' He never let an opportunity pass to go to the front."

After the war he returned to his home on Franconia Road. He would walk along Franconia Road to the railroad station every day, and teach class at Miss Cabell's school. In 1875 he married Miss Bettie Nelson, of Albemarle County. After a few years, Mr. and Mrs. Mason started a boarding school in Georgetown, which developed into the Gunston Hall School in Washington City. On April 22, 1910, Mr. Mason passed away and was buried in his native State of Virginia in Ivy Hill Cemetery in Alexandria.

A UNION SOLDIER'S LAST DANCE AT BUSH HILL.
Bush Hill was built prior to the War Between the States and was the home of one of the oldest families in Franconia.

While researching the Union regimental histories titled, Vermont in the Civil War, a History of the Part Taken by the Vermont Soldiers and Sailors in the War of the Union, 1861-5, Volumes I and II, written by G. G. Benedict, I found a very interesting and sad tale.

A young lad of twenty-three, from Roxbury, Vermont, a blacksmith by trade, enlisted as a private in Company F, Second Vermont Infantry Regiment. He was a great favorite with his comrades, apparently had a very outgoing personality, and liked to have fun. His name was Victor Goodrich.

In July 1861, a few days before the First Battle of Manassas, Private Goodrich and Company F, Second Vermont Infantry, found itself camped in the Franconia area. Their camp was located on the grounds surrounding the Bush Hill Plantation house. The unit was busy drilling, marching, and preparing itself for its first taste of combat. One can only imagine what these youthful men were thinking about at that point in time.

One of the Vermonters from the regiment related an event that occurred just before the unit left camp at Bush Hill. The soldier stated Goodrich mounted a box, and began to dance, exclaiming for all to hear, "Boys I am going to have one more good dance and it may be my last one." Sure enough he was right! Young Goodrich fell soon after the initial shots were fired at First Manassas. He was killed when a Confederate musket ball pierced his head, passing through one ear to the other. His body was left where it fell.

The Second Vermont was opposed by the Confederate brigade gallantly led by Colonel Thomas Jonathan Jackson, a veteran of the Mexican War. Only a few weeks earlier Jackson had been a peaceful professor teaching at the Virginia Military Institute, in Lexington, Virginia. As the world would soon know, Jackson would earn the war title of "Stonewall" in this battle.

The Second Vermont fought Jackson and was finally forced to retreat. The unit did so in an orderly manner until it reached the spot where a jam of ambulances, artillery and ammunition wagons filled the road near Sudley Ford. At this point a panic swept the Vermonters, and it was every man for himself. By eleven o'clock that night most of the stragglers were back in their camp, established at the city market building in Alexandria until moving back to Bush Hill on July 25th, 1861.

The Second Vermont lost two enlisted men killed, besides Goodrich; one officer was killed; Captain Todd of Brattleboro, Vermont. Todd received a ball through the throat. Thirty-four enlisted men and one officer were wounded; Captain J. T. Drew, of Burlington, Vermont. In addition, thirty enlisted men were captured, for a total of sixty-eight personnel losses to the regiment. It was not a good day for the Second Vermont Regiment.

Additionally, I wonder if poor Goodrich had a premonition that day, before he climbed that rectangular wooden structure at Bush Hill, possible knowing that he would die shortly thereafter. No one will ever know for sure.


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Here follows an excerpt from the Fall 2006 edition of the "Franconia Legacies" newsletter published by the Franconia Museum:

Mary Newbold Rittenhouse Gunnell Phillips died peacefully at Goodwin House, Bailey’s Crossroads, Falls Church, VA on April 13, 2006, at the age of 100. The daughter of Emily Nelson Gunnell and Leonard Coleman Gunnell, she was born in Washington, DC on October 5, 1905. Known at “Rit” by family and friends, Mrs. Phillips grew up at Bush Hill, an old family home near Alexandria, VA, and attended Gunston Hall and George Washington University. In 1928, she married Donald Boyer Phillips, a career officer in the US Army Air Corps. Following her husband’s retirement, the couple resided in Alexandria, VA, where she was a member of the Garden Club of Alexandria for many years. She was preceded in death by her husband, their son Duncan Boyer Phillips, her sister, Amenie Gunnell Boatner, and her two bothers, Leonard Coleman Gunnell Jr. and Bruce Covington Gunnell. She is survived by the five remaining children of her family, Sky Phillips Beaven, Mary Rittenhouse Phillips Rainey, Bruce Covington Phillips, Natalie Phillips Hughes, and Amenie Nelson Phillips Schweizer, and also by most of her other descendants, 31 grandchildren, 40 great-grandchildren, and four great-great-grandchildren.


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Here follows an excerpt from the Fall 2018 edition of the "Franconia Legacies" newsletter published by the Franconia Museum:

BUSH HILL HOUSE
Written by Carl Sell

Retired and apart from the world’s busy hum,
` This lovely rural retreat,
By the Genius of Talent and Taste, has become,
To the stranger and curious, a treat.
“Tis a model, deserving of copy from all.
Who wish to improve their estates;
“Tis a spot where the spring & the summer and fall;
Man’s bosom delighted elates.
Should I search far & wide, there is not a place
My soul would prefer to BUSH HILL,…

Those lines start a poem by an unknown author that was published on the front page of the Alexandria Gazette on November 26, 1925. They perfectly describe the recollections of Mary Ritenhouse Phillips Rainey and Natalie Phillips Hughes, who visited their grandparents at Bush Hill on numerous occasions before World War II.

Mary and Natalie are the daughters of Donald Boyer Phillips and Mary Newbold Ritenhouse Gunnell Phillips. Their mother was the daughter of Leonard Coleman Gunnell and Emily Nelson Gunnell, who lived at Bush Hill at the time, along with Emily’s older sister, Mary. Also visiting Bush Hill were Helen Schuyler Phillips and Duncan Boyer Phillips, Donald’s children from a previous marriage to Rosmond Drexel Holmes Phillips, who died in 1927. Mary and Natalie’s brother, Bruce Covington Phillips, and sister Amenie Nelson Phillips, joined them at Bush Hill. Helen Schuyler (Sky) Phillips Beaven is a founding member of the Franconia Museum. She died at age 90 in 2012.

The story began to unfold when Natalie, her friend Howard Singleton and his daughter Susan DiCaprio visited the Museum last year with a picture of Bush Hill taken in May 1937, showing the house along the railroad tracks. They were trying to determine which side of the tracks from which the picture was taken, toward Franconia or toward what is now Alexandria (it was all Franconia in 1937 as that portion of Fairfax County wasn’t annexed into Alexandria until 1952). The puzzle was solved by looking at a copy of the Museum’s aerial view of the area, taken in April of 1937. The picture was taken from the Franconia side looking north toward what is now Eisenhower Avenue.

As a result, the Museum received a copy of the picture that is now framed and on display. However, the story didn’t end there. Natalie agreed to share her recollections of her grandparents’ house she had visited as a little girl. When she arrived for the interview, she brought along her sister, Mary, who also has fond memories of visiting Bush Hill. The sisters’ enthusiastic memories have not dimmed over the years.

Mary (1929), Bruce (1930) and Natalie (1931) were all born in the Philippines during the time that their father was stationed there with the U.S. Army Air Corps. Sister Amenie was born in Maryland in 1933. Mary currently lives in Maryland, Natalie in Washington, D.C., Bruce in Williamsburg and Amenie in Lexington, Virginia. The children’s mother grew up at Bush Hill and rode the train to Alexandria on the way to attend Gunston School for Girls in Washington, D. C. She lived to be 100 years old.

Mary Smith, a member of the Museum’s Board of Directors, sat in on the interview of the sisters because of her institutional knowledge of Franconia in its early days. She came up with this gem: Mary’s mother, Evelyn Broders Smith, lived near the Franconia stop and caught the train to attend Alexandria High School. She later was a schoolteacher at Franconia Elementary in the 1930s. Mary’s mother remembered the train being flagged to stop at Bush Hill to pick up Mr. Gunnell. Sometimes, the engineer didn’t get the cars stopped right at the platform, so Mr. Gunnell would insist that the engineer back up the train so he could get on board. The Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad ran right in front of the house on land that once was owned by the estate.

“I remember that we would always run toward the tracks when we heard the train coming,” Natalie said, “so we could wave to everyone. The engineer usually had passed by the time we got there to wave, but we always got a wave back from the caboose.” Railroads had been a part of Bush Hill since the mid-Nineteenth Century when steam locomotives began pulling cars on tracks in America. The Orange and Alexandria Railroad was organized to build a line from Alexandria to Gordonsville, Virginia, in 1850. A right-of-way 80 feet wide on the south side of Backlick Run through the northern part of Bush Hill was obtained for $200.00. The deed included a cattle stop at each end of Bush Hill for use by neighbors, and another in the middle for the property owner. The first train rolled through on an 11-mile trip to Backlick station on July 4, 1851.

Five years later, the Manassas Gap Railroad obtained a right-of-way through Bush Hill parallel to the O&A as part of a system stretching through Manassas and the Blue Ridge Mountains into the Shenandoah Valley. At first, the Manassas Gap used the O&A rails and started work on its own line. Work was halted during the Civil War and never completed.

In 1871, the Alexandria and Fredericksburg Railroad Company condemned 19 acres of Bush Hill for a new line that would eventually connect with the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac (now CSX) at Aquia Harbor, then the northern terminus of the line from Richmond. Travelers from Washington, D.C., and Alexandria took a steamer on the Potomac to Aquia Landing and then went by rail to Richmond. President Lincoln took that route on his trip to Chatham, the estate overlooking the Rappahannock River, in April 1862.

The railroad was reorganized in 1905, and the Bush Hill stop was moved within the gardens in the front of the house. That is the double track alignment shown in the 1937 picture, and the one that Mary and Natalie and their siblings would visit. Their mother was born the same year the railroad was moved. As part of the 1952 annexation, Alexandria took over the job of providing protection for Bush Hill. However, it was easier to access the property from Franconia than Alexandria, so Mary Smith’s dad made a deal with his comrades in the City that Franconia would be the first responder. They would turn the fire over to the Alexandrians when they arrived from the round-about route. It was part of one of the first reciprocal response agreements that are common practice today.

The ornate terraced gardens were partially destroyed and had overgrown by the time the children arrived in the mid-1930s. However, they did rediscover a section of the stone steps that had been hidden by bushes. Their grandparents restored the steps and they are shown in the photo closest to the tracks. “An area between the house and the tracks was an open lawn and we called it ‘the circus’ because that’s where we would play,” Mary and Natalie both agreed. They both recalled their mother telling about servants having to haul water from a nearby stream during the early part of her life. The sisters had vivid memories of the 16 room house, but admitted they weren’t allowed to play in the large parlor that included a piano. “We’d peek in every chance we’d get,” Emily said.

Emily and Mary also remember the long walk to reach the mailbox on Franconia Road. They passed the gate house on the same side of the tracks as the house, crossed the bridge and hiked down what is now Bush Hill drive to get the mail. There was also a trail that led to Alexandria, but the girls never used it.

The Phillips family was constantly on the move to military bases in Alabama, Texas and Maryland, so their time at Bush Hill was always like a homecoming. They remembered the laundry and the kitchen, which was separate from the main house, the nearby ice house and the gate house across the tracks. After World War II, Bush Hill was the site of a private nursery school until it was burned by arsonists in 1977. The house had been vandalized just a week earlier. Bruce Gunnell, the owner, had nailed plywood across the windows and doors to prevent further damage.

All that remains of Bush Hill today is a commemorative markers display on Eisenhower Avenue adjacent to I-95 in Alexandria. It was part of a project by KSI Corporation in cooperation with the Alexandria Archeological Museum and is part of the Alexandria Heritage Trail. The Franconia Museum does have a copy of the extensive archeological report done in conjunction with the markers. The area is lined with industrial and commercial buildings.

Bush Hill originally was part of a 4,639-acre land grant from Thomas Lord Fairfax and Marguerite, Lady Culpeper in 1706 to John West, William Harrison, Thomas Harrison and William Pearson. When the land grant was surveyed in 1714, the property on which Bush Hill was later developed was allocated to John West. Although the Fairfax County Will Book for the time was lost, it is believed the estate was inherited by his sons, Hugh, William and John II. A 1760 Fairfax County map shows 1,120 acres located near the mouth, and on the south side of Great Hunting Creek as being owned by Colonel John West.

After several transfers of the deed to the land, during which time improvements had been made, 272 acres were sold in 1991 for $5,140.40 to Josiah Watson, who was one of the directors of the Bank of Alexandria. In 1795, Watson purchased an insurance policy for the dwelling houses and a barn. The location of the dwelling, a two-story brick house measuring 32 feet by 38 feet with an attached two-story brick kitchen, is shown on a 1796 survey of Rose Hill, a property adjoining Bush Hill owned by Benjamin Dulany.

In 1797, Watson sold the property to Richard Marshall Scott for $10,000. In the early 1800s, Scott added an addition to the barn, a gardener’s house, an ice house, a meat house, a corn house, front porch, blacksmith’s shop and a bath house. The barn burned in 1815 and was rebuilt as a carriage house with a covered way from the main house. Although gardening was his passion, a July 1824 “inventory of spirits on hand” lists 1,060 bottles of wine, a demijohn (gallons) each of peach brandy, another of French brandy and old gin. Remains of a large number of black glass, approximately quart sized, cylinder liquor bottles dated during the late 1700s, were recovered during archeological excavations.

About 1816, Richard M. Scott began acquiring adjacent small portions, including one southeast of Bush Hill a short distance north of a large bend in the Old Fairfax Road (present day Franconia Road.) Three years later, he added 261 acres of the Clermont estate to his holdings. A major fire in 1823 destroyed the servants hall, barns, stables, carriage house, corn house and covered walkways. Scott described the barn as being a large wooden two-storied building 60 feet by 30 feet. All the horses were saved by two servants.

Scott’s first wife, Mary Love-Scott, was one of the victims of the Richmond Theatre fire in December of 1811. Scott was serving in the House of Delegates at the time. She died on January 13, 1812, at the age of 43 and is buried in the Scott family plot in Centreville. Scott married his cousin, Eleanor Marshall Scott, in November 1828. Eleanor died on January 24, 1830, following the birth of son Richard Marshall Scott II. She was also buried at Centreville, Scott married a third time, to Lucinda Fitzhugh, in April 1832. She bore him a son, John Mordecai Scott, born in January 1833. Soon thereafter, Richard M. Scott died at age 63 at his house called “Bath” in Berkley Springs, West Virginia. He was also buried in the family plot.

In addition to Bush Hill and Bath, Scott owned numerous other properties when he died, including a town house on Queen Street and seven other residential properties in Alexandria. He also owned properties in Virginia in Centreville, Middleburg, Stafford County, and Frederick County, and in Charles County, Maryland. To his wife, Lucinda, he left the Queen Street property, 100 shares of bank stock and other income producing properties. A codicil to the will, written July 3, 1833, after the birth of Mordecai, gave Farmington estate to his new son, and his estate in Maryland, known as Cherry Hill, to any future children, as he believed his wife to be pregnant with another child.

Lucinda Fitzhugh-Scott married Dr. Edward H. Henry of Upperville, Virginia, on January 29, 1846. John Mordecai Scott lived with his mother until he married Mary Fitzhugh of King George County, Virginia, on July 7, 1853. Richard Scott also named in his will William H. Foote as the guardian of his son, Richard II. Foote was also the trustee of the remainder of the estate, including Bush Hill, which went to Richard II. Upon assuming his role of trustee, Foote made considerable repairs to the house, built a new barn and rented the property. On September 15, 1846, 17-year-old Richard M. Scott, with the consent of his guardian, married Virginia Gunnell. The couple occupied the Bush Hill property soon thereafter.

Richard M. Scott II died at the young age of 27 on November 13, 1856, leaving his widow and four children, Eleanor, born in 1847, Frank, born in 1849, Richard Marshall III, born in 1853, and Anna, born in 1853. He also made bequests to former teachers and servants and asked that slave John Allen be registered as a free man. Scott II was buried in the family cemetery at Bush Hill. All deceased family members buried at Bush Hill were relocated to Ivy Hill Cemetery in Alexandria because the RF&P Railroad was rerouted and passed through the garden near the cemetery at Bush Hill.

Virginia and her family remained in the house during the Civil War when Bush Hill became the Union headquarters of General Oliver O. Howard. Francis M. Gunnell, Virginia’s brother, served as a Union surgeon during the war and was the Surgeon General of the United States Navy (1884-1888). Francis Gunnell bought 100 acres from his sister in 1870. Dr. James Gunnell, another of Virginia’s brothers who was a physician in Washington, D.C., lived at Bush Hill from 1879 until his death in 1907.

Mrs. Gunnell Scott died at Bush Hill in 1913. Her remaining son, Richard III, died in February 1915 and left all the estate to his cousin, Leonard Coleman Gunnell, who moved his wife and family to Bush Hill soon after the inheritance. His wife, Emily Nelson, was a descendant of General Thomas Nelson, a Revolutionary War leader, signer of the Declaration of Independence and Virginia’s Governor in 1781. Leonard Coleman Gunnell worked for the Smithsonian Institute.

The Gunnells had three children, Emily, Mary and Bruce. They would all grow up at Bush Hill and would inherit the estate from their parents. Leonard Gunnell died two days after Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese on December 7, 1941. He and Emily were living at Bush Hill during the time his grandchildren from the marriage of Mary Newbold Ritenhouse Gunnell to Donald Boyer Phillips would visit.

During World War II, Bush Hill was leased to the United States government and became the secret residence of Ernst (“Putzi”) Hanfstaengl, former counselor of foreign affairs to Germany’s Adolph Hitler. After falling from grace and fearing death, Hanfstaengl escaped to Great Britain in 1937. The British sent him to America during the war and he lived at Bush Hill under the control of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and authenticated Hitler’s voice on Nazi radio broadcasts. An accomplished pianist, he no doubt found time to play on that piano in the parlor described by Mary Ritenhouse Phillips and Natalie Phillips, the Gunnell grandchildren, earlier in this article.

(This article is a team effort written by Carl Sell that relies heavily on the memories of Natalie and Mary Phillips, the KSI archeological report, the recollections of Mary Smith, the proofreading of Howard Singleton and Natalie Rainey Peters, and the editing by Don Hakenson. The photos were taken by Carol Hakenson. The map showing the location of the house and the route to the mailbox on Franconia Road was created by Nathaniel Lee.)