Hayfield (Historical Marker)

Here follows the inscription written on this trailside historical marker on a pedestal in the middle of the park's central pavilion:

Hayfield
In 1785, shortly after the Revolutionary War, George Washington deeded 460 acres of his Dogue Run Farm to Lund Washington, a third cousin and the "faithful and trusted manager" of the General's Mount Vernon estate. The tract was named "Hayfield" and a brick dwelling house, completed in 1784 by Lund in anticipation of General Washington's return home, was the site's only substantial structure during Lund Washington's ownership. Upon his death, the farm was conveyed to Lund's widow, Elizabeth Foote. Thereafter Hayfield was used by various owners as a school, cattle farm and residence.

Perhaps the most unique feature of Hayfield was its Round Barn, built for William Clarke between 1874 and 1887. Clarke's "Big Red Barn" stood 100 feet high, 100 feet in diameter as a 16-sided, double octagonal shaped barn. Damaged by fire in 1892, Clarke quickly improved the building with an open circular threshing floor, a 250-ton silo at the center, and 200 steps leading to a cupola which topped the new roof. Farm manager J.H. Shertzer boasted that the enormous barn could store 400 tons of provender (hay) and that a wagon and team of six horses might drive around the inside with ease. The structure was indeed a "large and commodious barn" adorned with gutters, downspouts and cast iron ornaments in which the initials "W.E.C." were the central design.

Lund Washington's brick house was destroyed by fire in 1917. Hayfield's second Round Barn outlasted successive changes in ownership until it too was lost in a fire on September 22, 1967.

Erected by Fairfax County Park Authority Resource Management Division


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

The Hayfield farm belonged to Lund Washington. George Washington sold 460 acres of Mount Vernon to Lund Washington for overseeing Mount Vernon while he was away fighting in the Revolutionary War. The house was destroyed by fire in October 1916. The circular sixteen sided barn patterned after the original barn built by George Washington was built in 1893 and was destroyed by arson in the late 1960's.

CAPTAIN FREDERICK RICHARD WINDSOR, FIFTH VIRGINIA CAVALRY
Captain Windsor was born in Alexandria in 1832. He was the son of Richard and Ann M. (Lowe) Windsor, and lived at Hayfield. Windsor's occupation before the war was attorney. He also went to California as a "forty-niner." He remained there four years. Also, Beulah Street and Hayfield Road and a former railway stop were named "Windsor" in honor of the family.

Captain Windsor enlisted May 15, 1862 at Richmond, Virginia. Union Colonel R.D. Goodwin claimed a Negro servant, owned by Windsor, informed against his master as being a colonel in the rebel army, then about to go to his regiment.

The Union captain in command went with a squad of his men and overtook Windsor on the road. He had his carpet-bag, containing his uniform, a brace of pistols, and other items with him. Windsor offered the Union captain all his money ($500) if he would let him go, but the captain was one of those men who would not be bought. The temper of the rebel then gave way, and Windsor declared that he was a secessionist, and would never be anything else; also that he would soon be out of the scrape.

Windsor then wrote a letter to his friend Union General Irvin McDowell, who promptly sent orders for Windsor's release. At the same time McDowell ordered the honest Union captain into confinement, but was never brought to trial.

It was reported that Captain Windsor was wounded between June 3, 1863 until he was captured June 17, 1863 at Aldie, Virginia. He was sent to the Old Capital Prison, in Washington City. On August 2, 1863, he was sent to Johnson's Island, in Lake Michigan. He was exchanged on February 24, 1865 at City Point, Virginia.

He was a resident of Fairfax County. He was described as dark complexion, brown hair, gray eyes, and six feet tall. he died October 28, 1893, at age sixty-four, and was buried at Methodist Protestant Cemetery, in Alexandria.


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Here follows an article from the Connection newspapers written by Mike Salmon on April 10, 2020:

A Burning Barn was Part of Hayfield Farm’s Past
The second of three articles exploring historic Telegraph Road in southern Fairfax County.

Heading north from Mount Air, past several gated entrances to Fort Belvoir, is Hayfield Farm, a development that was built in the 1960s in an area that was considered country at that time. Now there is the community of Hayfield Farm, as well as a shopping center, elementary and high school, and a connecting townhouse community up the hill called Hayfield View.

In 1761, George Washington bought the land to grow hay on for his livestock, which was how it first got the name Hayfield. After the Revolutionary War, Washington sold the land and mansion to his cousin Lund Washington in 1785 for managing the Mount Vernon plantation and mansion at Mount Vernon while he was away in the war.

Lund Washington and Elizabeth Foote lived in the manor until her death in 1812, and was buried in a boxwood garden area, according to an old Hayfield Citizens Association newsletter. Her remains were later transported to the Pohick Cemetery at Pohick Church in Lorton.

The land was used for raising cattle in the 1950s until it was purchased by Wills and Van Metre in 1963, and the first house was built in 1965. When the community was built, there was a 16-sided barn on the property, and local lore had the barn belonging to George Washington himself. In reality, the barn was built in 1893 by William Clark, who modeled it after another barn that Washington did build on the Mount Vernon plantation a few miles away. There was a manor house on the Hayfield land near the current park, that was built by Washington himself, but it burned down in 1916.

Barnyard Blues

County officials were considering using the barn for a theater, until Sept. 22, 1967, when the barn was destroyed in a fire. One of the children that lived in the newly built community of Hayfield was playing with matches that started the fire. There were legal wranglings in the aftermath, just before the statute of limitations expired.

The 16-sided barn was 100 feet in diameter and 100 feet high. The middle ceiling was supported by a spiral staircase that led to the cupola. There was talk of turning the barn into a theater of sorts by the county, but those plans were dashed after the fire.

At one time, Hayfield Secondary School was one of the largest schools around, and the gym was used for many activities besides basketball games and school graduations. In the 1970s the Baltimore-Washington Cats roller derby team had a match there, the Harlem Globetrotters put on a show, and after the Washington Redskins played in their first Super Bowl in 1972, the players were part of a presentation in the gym.

Hayfield Farm has a flood plain that backed up to the woods of Fort Belvoir, and during the Vietnam War, soldiers trained in those woods and the gun shots and explosions could be heard by the residents of Hayfield.

North of Hayfield on Telegraph Road is a Coast Guard station that’s been at that location since 1941. It was originally a radio transmitting station that moved over from a location in Fort Hunt, where it had been since 1934. Currently the Coast Guard Honor Guard is stationed at this small station.


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Here follows an excerpt of the Hayfield property history from the Hayfield Farm neighborhood website:

George Washington purchased the property that is now Hayfield Farm from George and Mary Ashford in 1761. When General Washington returned to Mount Vernon after the War of Independence, he sold 360 acres of the western section of Mount Vernon (Hayfield) to his manager and kinsman, Lund Washington, in order to settle a debt. Lund married his cousin, Elizabeth Foote, in 1779. The Hayfield Manor House, where they lived, once stood near the corner of Hayfield Road and Bing Court. Lund died in July 1796 and left everything to his wife. Elizabeth died in 1812, and left her entire estate to her nephew and adopted son, William Hayward Foote.

In 1860, Richard Windsor purchased Hayfield from Francis L. Smith, executor of the Foote estate. William E. Clark bought the property from Mr. Windsor in 1874. During this time, a 16-sided barn was erected, said to be a larger copy of George Washington’s original barn that he built in 1793. The Hayfield barn was destroyed by an accidental fire in 1967.

Joseph R. Atkinson acquired the property in 1906. Mr. J.M. Duncan then purchased Hayfield from Atkinson, and he was the last owner to live in the manor house before it was destroyed by fire in 1917. After the fire, the land conveyed to Hayfield Farm Company, Inc. In June 1918, Stanton R. Norman acquired the property, and he sold the remaining bricks from the ruins of the manor house to collectors. Marguerite Merigold and her mother later purchased 175 acres of the land and allowed the Junior Equitation School to use it.

In 1952, the property was sold to W.S. Banks and W.M. Orr who used the land to raise cattle. Wills and Van Metre, Inc. purchased the land in 1963 and developed the subdivision as it is today. The first home was sold in 1965, and the project was completed in 1972.

If you want to get even more history about Hayfield Farm, check out this article that was included in the “Historic Franconia Legacies” newsletter (pg. 4) in Fall 2009. Or this historical information from a presentation in 2015. Additionally, learn more about how the U.S. Coast Guard was able to secure some of this land in 1939.

The Hayfield Farm Barn (pictured top right) is also rooted in our history, as part of the property owned by George Washington.

Lastly – did you know that the original sales price for a split level was $25,950!?


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Here follows an excerpt from the Fall 2009 edition of the "Franconia Legacies" newsletter published by the Franconia Museum:

"Hayfield" By Dr. Dennis Pfennig

Editor’s note: Since we have a story in this issue about the Mennonites at Hayfield I thought it was appropriate to give some more background history about the farm. I found this information on the Hayfield Secondary School Website, and thought it fit the bill. It also included a small picture of the manor house, which I believe was the front side of the building.

It is thought that George Washington acquired the land on which Hayfield was built around 1761, in order to increase the holdings of his Mount Vernon Estate. Colonel Washington came to use the land he purchased as his hayfield - hence the name of the school. When General George Washington returned from the Revolutionary War, he decided to ease his debt by selling 360 acres of the western section of his land to his cousin and plantation manager, Lund Washington, who was married to the former Elizabeth Foote, also one of the General's kinsman.

Lund and his wife built the lovely Hayfield Manor House which remained standing until a fire destroyed it in 1917. Also on the site was a formal boxwood garden that was said to be one of the finest in the state of Virginia. Lund died in 1796, and his wife later bequeathed the land to her nephew William Foote. His widow conveyed the land to Richard Windsor in 1860, who then sold the land to William Clarke in 1874.

Clarke added more acreage, and is credited with building the famed double octagon, or sixteen-sided barn, apparently based on the plans of a barn built by General Washington. It was located across from the school in the vicinity of what is now Hayfield Park.

The shape, it is reported, was such to ensure that the devil would have no corner in which to hide in his ever ending quest to drag souls into the fires of hell. Reportedly, the barn remained standing until 1967, when it also fell victim to a fire.

In 1906, Clarke's widow conveyed Hayfield to Joseph R. Atkinson, who in turn sold it to J.M. Duncan. In 1918, after fire had destroyed the farm dwellings, it was conveyed to Hayfield Farm Co., Inc. It was during this time that some of the historic Hayfield boxwood was sold, and it is said that some of it thrived at the National Cathedral (placed there by Mrs. Woodrow Wilson). Some of it may also have been planted at the National Masonic Memorial.

In 1954, the property was sold to W.S. Banks and W.M. Orr, who developed a herd of Charolais cattle there. They sold to Wills and Van Metre in 1963, and their construction company began to develop housing plans. That, of course, brought about the need for a school, and on January 13th, 1969, Hayfield Secondary opened its doors. During excavation, workmen unearthed a pre-Civil War cemetery, with a total of thirty-one gravesites.

The identity of the deceased remains a mystery even today. The coffins were all aligned with heads to the west and feet to the east - this to conform to the tradition that men are born like the sunrise, and die just as the sun fades to the west. The remains of the thirty-one were reburied in Fairfax Cemetery.

Classes were to begin at Hayfield Secondary on January 13, 1969. However the school was not finished on time; thus, the first high school classes had to held at Edison High and Mark Twain Intermediate. Both of those buildings had to double shift. Edison students, for example, went from 7:30 until 11:30 am; Hayfield students arrived at 11:30 and left at 3:30 pm. That four-hour school day was great noted many who can remember back that far. But by September 1969, Hayfield Secondary was off and running. Some construction still had to be completed, but classes were in place – all 7 ½ hours of them!

The surrounding area was still “in the middle of nowhere”. There was no Giant Shopping Center, no Kingstowne. The houses in Hayfield Farms sold at the amazingly large sum of $30,000. There was a working farm with a cow next to the football field on Hayfield Road. The new school was shiny and modern. The principal, Floyd Worley, insisted that the faculty be young and beautiful as well. The student body was overwhelming Anglo-Saxon. The years have changed the physical structure of the building and the composition of the student body, but the dedication of the faculty; the support of the surrounding community, and the determination of the students to succeed in life have not. This is Hayfield’s lasting legacy. Thanks to Dr. Dennis Pfennig, who taught at Hayfield for thirty years, for writing this history.

Editor’s note: Myself and Donald Hakenson went to Edison during the split shift semester when Hayfield was being finished in the Fall of 1968. We did not have a four hour school day, but the schedules were staggered to allow shared areas like the cafeteria to serve all the extra students. Our freshman class was split at the end of the 1967-1968 school year, and about a third of the class became Hayfield students. These students were the first graduating class from Hayfield in June 1971. The split included our Fall 1967 Gunston Champion Edison Freshman Football Team, with a good portion of the team ending up at Hayfield. This created quite a rivalry, because in the Fall of 1968 we shared the same practice/game fields, and culminated in two very good varsity football teams during the Fall of 1970. Edison won the district title and lost to an Ed Henry coached Marshall High School team in the regional championship game, and Hayfield finished with a winning record. This rivalry will make a good future story for the newsletter.


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Here follows an excerpt from the Fall 2009 edition of the "Franconia Legacies" newsletter published by the Franconia Museum:

The Mennonites At Hayfield Farm
A Forgotten Franconia Story
By Jim Cox

Early this spring I came in to do some work at the Franconia Museum and found a printout of a web page in my mailbox. The page was from an Eastern Mennonite University Publication, and had a small picture of the Hayfield Manor House off Telegraph Road. I got pretty excited by this because the museum did not have any pictures of the Hayfield House. I don’t know who dropped off the web page in my mailbox, but I want to thank them, because their contribution resulted in this story.

The picture was from the 90th Anniversary issue of Crossroads; a publication from Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, published in the summer of 2007. The story containing the Hayfield picture was about the Mennonites trying to establish an educational institution in Fairfax County, Virginia. The following is an excerpt from the article:

Can you imagine Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) nestled in densely populated Fairfax County, just across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C.?

The earliest version of EMU was a four-week Bible institute held in January, 1915. Forty-nine students, taught by five men, lived and studied in a 19-room mansion. It was old even in those days, dating to the late 1700s, but it was a built-to-last structure, originally home to Georg Washington’s property manager and cousin, Lund Washington. The property was six miles from Washington’s home place, Mount Vernon. It was being offered for purchase on favorable terms by Christian Garber, who lived in the mansion and who shared the dream of a Mennonite school.

Garber offered to donate his mansion with 2 ½ acres of land if the board would purchase an additional 300 acres for $13,000 (in today’s dollars that would be $268,000) to help free him from a burdensome mortgage. Hubert R. Pellman, author of Eastern Mennonite College, 1917-1967: A History, noted that the Garber offer was good since the mansion alone was valued at $40,000 to $50,000.

The mansion, known as Hayfield, was big enough to suit all the school’s purposes – classrooms, offices, and dormitory rooms. The founders liked the fact that the building was on hundreds of acres of productive farmland, away from the corrupting influences of the city.

But the idea got snagged on the age-old dilemma faced by folks trying to raise money for a brand-new proposition: The school’s founders could not sigh a contract to buy the property without some money in hand from donors, and donors would not put up money when the viability of the school and the desirability of the site were uncertain. At least one key Mennonite felt the site was too close to the militarism of the nation’s founding fathers.

One cannot help speculating … If Mennonite leaders had built what came to be known as Eastern Mennonite School (EMS) in Northern Virginia, their $13,000 investment would be worth mega-millions at today’s real estate prices. In every financial crisis -- and there would have been many for the school-they could have sold a bit of land to dig out.

We can speculate today that the face of the Hayfield community would have differed greatly today if EMU had successfully established itself in Franconia. Hayfield Farms, Hayfield Secondary School, Hayfield Elementary School, and the other subdivisions on Telegraph Road would probably not exist. Gravel pit operations might not have been as extensive in the present Kingstowne area. The expansion of Camp Humphreys into Fort Belvoir and the annexation of land by the US Government would certainly have provided some of the “militarism” that Mennonites were worried about. I am not sure when the Coast Guard Station was established on Telegraph Road, just to the north of Hayfield, but it would have bumped up against the school. One pleasant thought is that the Hayfield Barn might still be standing, and full of hay and livestock, even today.

After reading the magazine I found several e-mail addresses for the Crossroads publishing staff and sent several messages asking about pictures, and any further information about Hayfield that EMU had. I quickly got an answer and several days later received a copy of the Crossroads Magazine containing the story. I also received an electronic scan of the Hayfield House picture, and about a dozen photocopied pages from Mr. Pellman’s history of the school.

These pages contain a much more detailed description of the Hayfield events which began in 1913. The house itself is described as “it had beauty and quality of workmanship. The walls were constructed of brick made in England and, according to the investigation committee, were as firm and compact as when they were put in - not a single crack or crevice to be detected. Woodwork in the three-story building was of heart pine … and showed no signs of decay. It was graced on three sides by porches twelve feet wide. The front lawn had shrubbery and box-wood, with great trees all about the premises planted by George Washington.”

So the house was in great shape as of 1913, about 150 years after it was built. The land itself was described as “crops well in corn and such grasses as timothy and clover, is level with however slope enough for drainage and the overcoming of malaria conditions- sub-soil clay with good lively top soil well adapted to cultivation. Being so near the waters of the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay the winters are mild and the summers tempered by sea breezes. (Too bad he did not live here; the summers are tempered by HUMIDITY!)

The school’s goal was going to equip “students for Christian service,” courses included “Bible doctrine, Sunday school work, worship, young people’s meetings and vocal music.” The students that enrolled were from Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Indiana, and Ohio.

“Serious minded, most of the students were of college age but without a high school education. The majority of them sacrificed to attend, even though it was tuition-free and other expenses were modest enough: board and room $3.00 per week; heat, books, stationary and laundry expenses extra.”

One of the students was J. Irvin Lehman, a later well known evangelist and Bible teacher. He earned twenty five dollars selling religious publications in order to attend. His earnings “paid his railroad fare both ways from Chambersburg (PA), his room, textbooks, and other expenses, and left him with several cents in change.” Students helped with the upkeep of the property, the young men played leapfrog, the students walked the property, and climbed up to the cupola of the barn to view the countryside. Three students walked to Mount Vernon, climbed the back fence and toured the buildings and grounds without seeing anyone. One of the instructors made them send a dollar to the keeper of the shrine with who he was acquainted. For most of the students this was their “first experience away from home for study and because of the impact of the spiritual atmosphere and teaching.” Most of the students experienced a “deepening of Christian life and a strengthening of conservative convictions.’

Eventually, the quest to establish the school fell apart due to a lack of financial commitment, and the school was established next to Harrisonburg, Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley. I want to thank Nathan E. Yoder, Ph.D., University Archivist, Lindsey M. Roeschley, Project and Video Coordinator, and Bonnie Price Lofton, Publications Editor, for kindly providing the information I used to assemble this story. I have deliberately stayed strictly to the historical events, what I don’t know about Mennonites could fill volumes, and what I do know would not fill up much space. I spent a week in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania this summer taking a class at the university, many Mennonites and Amish live in this area, they seemed to me to be an industrious and prosperous group of people.


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Here follows an excerpt from the Spring 2010 edition of the "Franconia Legacies" newsletter published by the Franconia Museum:

Elizabeth Washington of Hayfield
A Colonial Era Franconia Story
Written by Jim Cox

Recently Don Hakenson, one of our museum directors, obtained some old issues of The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography published by the Virginia Historical Society in Richmond. In the April, 1925 issue he found an article by William Buckner McGroaty, entitled “Elizabeth Washington of Hayfield.” The article included three photographs of Hayfield dated 1924. Two of the pictures show the ruins of the house after it burned.

The article states that George Washington named five women as “equal beneficiaries under his will”. Elizabeth Washington of Hayfield was one of the women and Washington left her “a mourning ring of the value of one hundred dollars.” The rings were “not left for the intrinsic value of them, but as mentos of my esteem and regard.”

Elizabeth Washington of Hayfield was Elizabeth Foote, and the widow of Lund Washington. Hayfield was originally part of the Mt. Vernon Estate. One of the article footnotes states that General Washington returned from the war $15,000.00 in debt. To liquidate the debt he sold the 360 acres and house at Hayfield to his kinsman and “trusted manager” Lund Washington. Lund died in the Fall of 1796, and was pre-deceased by his children. He requested that his slaves be freed. Before Elizabeth died in 1812 she emancipated all of the Hayfield slaves.

The article contains references other publications about Lund Washington stating the following:

“For twenty-five years he was manager of Mount Vernon. He was married to his cousin, Betsy Foote, about 1782, and had two daughters but both died in infancy. He left his estate to his widow (Elizabeth) who left it to her nephew William H. Foote, who has lately died without issue and left it to a charity school in Alexandria.”

The farm is described as “a stately mansion; although of three elevations it would appear that it was all constructed at the same time -- the brick, mortar, and style of masonry are all of one period. It fronted a sweeping lawn which gradually merged into the wide-spreading fields which gave it its name. On the East and the South is a boxwood maize, neglected but still luxuriant and beautiful; there are remnants of a formal garden-mimosa trees and ancient rosebushes still blooming.”

William Hayward Foote, Elizabeth's nephew, left a will containing unusual language when he passed away in 1846:

“I direct that my body be buried in a plain coffin at the East end of my house where my wife may be placed when this world's strife and care is ended….Everything to my wife for as long as she remains my widow or for life … If, however, she should cease to be my widow or marry again, she must account for all these things and take her dower at law. It is not my purpose to give any Cur a Sop.”

Editors note: Added to the articles in last Fall's museum newsletter we now have a more complete picture of what life was like at Hayfield from colonial times through the early 20th Century.