Ferry Landing House (Site)

These coordinates mark the exact spot where the home once stood until it was torn down circa 2000 to make way for new home construction. No visible remains exist.


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

Ferry Landing:
The property takes its name from the ferry established there by an act of the Assembly in 1735. It was part of the 1669 Spencer/Washington land patent, and was sold to Thomas Marshall of Maryland who sold it to John Posey, from whom George Washington bought it in 1769, when it became part of Union Farm.

According to Dorothy Troth Muir, in "Potomac Interlude," William Neitzey bought about 150 acres of land on the Potomac River in the early 1870's and used it for a fishing shore. When the District Jail was demolished in 1876, Neitzey purchased the used brick, loaded it on his fishing boats and took it two the shore where he then built the house. The Neitzey family residence was in Washington and the Ferry Landing house was used as a first home for each son when he married. The family shared the property after Neitzey's death in 1908, until a partition was made in 1935 and the house became the possession of John Neitzey.

The original one-story brick structure has two interior end-chimneys and diamond-shaped ventilators in the gables. It contained three bedrooms and a kitchen, each with its own fireplace. The interior walls were of plaster made with animal hair. There was a front porch facing the river. This was enlarged in 1936, by John Neitzey, who also built the one-story clapboard addition which houses the newer kitchen and livingroom with fireplace. The original four fireplaces in the early structure were sealed up at this time.

The District Jail was located on Judiciary Square at 4th and G Streets, N.W., in Washington. In April 1865, the "Lincoln conspirators," four persons involved in the assassination plot, were housed in the Jail until they were hanged in July 1865. The four were Mrs. Mary Surratt, Lewis Payne, Davy Herald and George Atzerodt.