Historic Structures Preserved: Pine Croft (Historical Marker)

Here follows the inscription written on this trailside historical marker:

Historic Structures Preserved: Pine Croft
Laurel Hill Park

At the turn of the 20th century, the proximity to Washington, D.C. and inexpensive land made Lorton's wooded countryside popular with families wanting a vacation home. This house was constructed around 1901 as a country residence for Alexandria lumber magnate William Wimsatt and his family. During their tenure the home was known as Pine Croft. This American Four-Square home was built with pine wood planed at Wimsatt's lumber mill.

Around 1900-1920 the design of an American Four-Square house was a popular choice with middleclass America. The name is derived from the floor plan of a square, box-like house with four rooms on both the first and second floors. Modern influences simplified the details and form of houses, departing from the highly decorated and overly complex architecture popular in the late 19th century. Four-square or box houses were quick, easy and inexpensive to build using readily available lumber and balloon framing. Designs for this type of affordable and modern house began in the Mid-West but quickly spread across the country in popular publications like Ladies Home Journal, architectural pattern books and mail-order house catalogues, such as Sears, Roebuck and Company.

In 1914, Pine Croft and the surrounding land were purchased for the expansion of the Occoquan Workhouse. Captain Morris Barnard was the first prison employee to live in the house, and in 1923 he was appointed General Superintendent. Over the years this house underwent many changes, including rear additions, and a new kitchen chimney constructed with bricks manufactured by the prisoners. This house is now known as the Barrett house, commemorating Eugene Barrett who lived here in the 1960s when he oversaw the agricultural activities of the workhouse inmates. Despite changes made by the prison, the 1901 four-square form and many original design features are still visible, including the tapered porch pillars, built-in cabinetry, radiators, doors and windows.

Photo captions:
[Top right] This drawing shows a typical American Foursquare-Style house - compare it to the house you see before you.
[Center right] The American Foursquare style was comprised of two stories which held four rooms each
[Bottom right] This decorative radiator from a second floor bedroom was made by National Radiator Company in Johnstown, PA, and is likely original to the house.
[Bottom center] 1937 USDA aerial photo of Barrett House and surrounding area.


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

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

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


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Here follows an excerpt from the Atlas Obscura website:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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Here follows an excerpt from the Northern Virginia History Notes website:

Barrett House
by Debbie Robison

COLONIAL FARM:
In 1729, at a time when the Virginia colony was under England’s rule, Robert Carter, Jr. was granted 3,500 acres of land from Thomas Lord Fairfax, Baron of Cameron.

The road that The Barrett House was built adjacent to was called the Ox Road by 1813. Originally, the Ox Road was constructed, beginning in 1728, by Robert “King” Carter to transport western farm commodities and copper to his warehouse at Occoquan. It is possible that the portion of Ox Road at The Barrett House was not part of Carter’s original road to Occoquan.

Giles Run, which passes through the tract, was named after Giles Tillett, who obtained an early land grant along another portion of the run.

SUBSEQUENT PROPERTY OWNERS:
The property had several owners over time. The original 3,500 acre tract was subdivided into lots in 1788 when John Lawson purchased a lot of 970 acres. The tract was further subdivided in 1851 when Edward Swann purchased 258 acres.

During the Civil War, the property was owned by Augustus Carusi.

WIMSATT OWNERSHIP:
In 1891, William Wimsatt purchased the 258-acre property. Barrett House was likely constructed around the turn of the twentieth century as a country home for a lumber merchant working and residing in the District of Columbia. Based on construction materials, construction methods, house style, and land tax records, the house was likely constructed c. 1901 when lumber merchant William Wimsatt owned the property.

The house value in 1901 is listed in the tax records as $774. This value remained constant through the time that the house was purchased by The United States government for use by penal officials.

A newspaper story noted that many District of Columbia residents were purchasing property in the Lorton area for country homes:
"The little village of Lorton, which is the railroad station for the workhouse, lies in a beautiful rolling and well-wooded country. Land is not expensive there, and a number of citizens of Washington have in the last five years purchased tracts of land, built homes, and settled, with the intention of remaining, and have spent large sums of money in improving, painting, and fertilizing their lands…" January 13, 1911

Wimsatt founded the Johnson and Wimsatt Lumber Company, of the District of Columbia, with his brother-in-law, Eratus Kurtz Johnson. Wimsatt’s family had previously been in the lumber business. His older brother, Samuel, worked as a clerk at a lumber yard when William was 15 years old.

In 1893, Wimsatt sold one-half interest in the property to E. Kurtz Johnson, his partner in the Johnson and Wimsatt Lumber Company. Johnson died the following year. In 1899, Johnson’s widow sold the interest back to Wimsatt.

The Johnson and Wimsatt Lumber Company owned a three-masted 91-foot schooner, which carried raw lumber to the company wharfs in Washington, D.C. The ship was named the JOSEPHINE WIMSATT, likely after William Wimsatt’s wife, Florence Josephine Wimsatt (nee Cleary.)

Johnson & Wimsatt suffered losses in 1902 when a fire swept the company wharf on Water Street. The planing mill, machinery, and lumber (valued at $15,000) was destroyed. William Wimsatt sought to rebuild and proposed specifications for a wharf extension and new planing mill. The wood construction material was consistently pine.

"At the channel front and along the sides of the proposed wharf extension…large pine piles will be used, sawed off at extreme low water. These will never rot. On top of these piles 12 by 12 Georgia pine caps will be used and on top of the caps Georgia pine floor six inches thick. The walls will be of Georgia pine twelve inches thick. The inclosure will be filled in with dirt and oyster shells. The planning mill which the applicant wishes to erect will be of Georgia pine frame, with North Carolina pine joists and weatherboarding; boiler and engine room of brick. Roof, corrugated iron or tine, all of good, substantial construction."

POLLOCK OWNERSHIP:
When William Pollock purchased the property in 1903, he entered into a trust agreement and used the property as collateral to secure payment to Wimsatt. He was further required to obtain insurance on the house for the value of $700. In 1904, Wimsatt mortgaged his household furniture and library effects, which he had in his Fairfax County house, for $90.

At the time of purchase, Pollock was 25 years old and unmarried, though he married shortly thereafter. His occupation in 1900 was listed on the census record as Scientific Aid – Government. In the 1910 population census, Pollock’s occupation was listed as stenographer for the Bureau of Manufactures. William and Ray F. Pollock, his wife, used the District of Columbia as their legal residence. Trust agreements, which used the 258-acre property as collateral, indicated that the Pollock’s were residents of the City of Washington.

During Pollock’s ownership, the house was known as “Pine Croft.” The use of pine wood in the construction of the house, including the wood floors, suggests a probable basis for the name origination.

Mrs. Pollock was active in the community and, as president of the local Woman’s Good Road Association, held an oyster supper at the house.

In August 1910, Pollock sold the house to Percy Skinner, who had been leasing the house for two years. Pollock purchased the house back in 1912.

Along with other parcels and homes, The Barrett House was purchased by the United States government in 1914 for the District of Columbia workhouse and reformatory, which had been constructed in the area.

Captain Morris Barnard, Superintendent of D.C. Penal Institutions, likely lived in the house during all or part of his tenure.

"Barnard’s home, a handsome, almost pretentious place, is about a mile down the road from the Lorton reformatory. It is about half-way between the reformatory and the workhouse, where prisoners for lesser offenses are confined…"

"Capt. Barnard seemed tired as he sat with reporters on the spacious veranda of his white, wood home, a little more than a mile from the reformatory…"