Huntley (Historical Marker)

Here follows the inscription written on this roadside historical marker:

Huntley

On the hill above stands Huntley, a Federal-style villa built about 1825 for Thomson F. Mason, a grandson of George Mason of Gunston Hall. Thomson Mason, a prominent Alexandria lawyer, served on the city council, as mayor, and also as president of both the Little River Turnpike and Alexandria Canal companies. The thousand-acre Huntley property stretched across the valley below. Remaining dependencies include a subterranean icehouse with a vaulted ceiling, and a combination privy and storage building. The author of Huntley’s unusual design remains unknown, but the house has been attributed to Benjamin H. Latrobe or George Hadfield, two notable early architects.

Marker Erected 1994 by Department of Historic Resources. (Marker Number E-96.)


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

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

The Huntley house was built circa 1825 by Thomson F. Mason, the grandson of George Mason. It was George Mason who wrote the Virginia Constitution of 1776. Thomson Mason was President of the Middle Turnpike Company, the Alexandria Canal Company and was also Mayor of Alexandria.

During the Civil War George W. Johnson was a tenant at Huntley. George Johnson had two nephews in the Union Army. Sergeant John W. Johnson was in Captain Samuel Means Loudoun Rangers, the only organized body of troops from the state of Virginia to fight for the Union Army, and Richard Barnhouse, an ambulance driver in the Army of the Potomac. George Johnston wrote after the war:

"I offered to shoulder any musket with others to go out and shoot the Rebels, who had been shooting at our pickets along Pike Run, just outside Alexandria ... I sat on my porch and listened to the Battle of Bull Run and we hoped we would have a great Union victory. I felt pretty badly when I found out how the battle had gone."

George Johnson also stated that he believed that a short time after the Union Army returned from the Peninsula campaign that all the corn was taken by General Sickles' men, and that many of the hogs were killed by the Garibaldi Regiment. It was also reported by neighbors that Richardson's Brigade was camped on the Huntley house grounds. The Huntley farm was occupied by Union troops in the fall of 1861 and the winter of 1862.

The Huntley house is on the National Register of Historic Places because of its architecture.