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.)


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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:

Huntley was built about 1820 on Mason family land for Thomson F. Mason, a grandson of George Mason of Gunston Hall. It was not the personal residence of the Mason family, however, but was used by a succession of renters, overseers and farmers. The property passed out of the Mason family in 1862, in payment of Mason's son's debts.

Huntley consists of a dwelling; necessary with flanking storage rooms; root cellar and storage room; ice house; dairy-spring house; and tenant house. All are brick and from roughly the same period, the first quarter of the 19th century. The brick is laid in common bond ranging from three to five stretcher courses. The ice house is a domed structure, fully below ground, laid entirely in headers.

The house is essentially Federal in character, though possessing certain elements transitional to the Greek Revival. Most doors, including the center section doors with fan and side lights, all mantels, sash and moldings are Federal. The house is built into a hillside in an "H" shape so that the center section is three story to the front, two to the rear, flanked by projecting wings two story to the front, one to the rear. The roof is now a ridge one with shed extensions over the wings which have projecting ridge roofs. There is evidence that the center section roof was originally hip. Massive chimneys are located on each side at the intersection of the wings and center portion. The center section has been extended to the end of the wings at the rear.

Certain stylistic elements of the house appear in this area principally in structures designed by George Hadfield, one of the superintendents of the construction of the U.S. Capitol. For this and other reasons, it is possible that the house derived from a design by Hadfield.


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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.


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

Huntly
Why Was it Built That Way?
by Debbie Robison
January 2, 2015

Huntly was built ca. 1825 for Thomson Francis Mason as a rural retreat. The house and grounds were designed based on prevailing principles for achieving elegant taste in rural architecture for wealthy gentlemen of discernment. Mason, a grandson of George Mason of Gunston Hall, was an influential lawyer, mayor of Alexandria, and District Court judge. He resided in Alexandria, Virginia. Huntly was likely named after Castle Huntly, the ancestral home in Scotland of Mason’s maternal grandmother. The house is nestled within a hillside south of Alexandria overlooking the Hybla Valley.

PUZZLING QUESTIONS
The architecture and construction methods of Huntly present a curious puzzle. The building has an H-shaped plan layout that is different from the typical rectangular-shaped houses prevalent in the area during the period. The two wings were built first then the walls that form the center block were inserted between the wings. This is evident because these brick walls merely butt up against the wing walls rather than being bonded together. Why didn’t the brick mason construct the center block walls while he was constructing the wings and interlock the bricks together? Was the center block an afterthought?

There are two rooms in each wing and each room has its own door to the exterior. Originally there were no doorways from the wings to the center block. These doorway penetrations were made by demolishing the brick wall at these interior door locations. Why would you want each room to have an exterior door but not have direct access to the interior room?

Lastly, was the house originally painted, stuccoed, or were the brick walls left without a finish?

Research into building plans of the period suggest some answers.

THE H-PLAN:
Published British essays on cottage architecture from the period likely influenced the construction of Huntly. A house design with some similarity to Huntly was provided in architect John Plaw’s 1794 book titled Rural Architecture or Designs from the Simple Cottage to the Decorated Villa. His Cottage, or Shooting Lodge design differed from Huntly in that it had a front elevation with a flat façade rather than projecting wings.

British architect James Marton may have strongly influenced the design of Huntly. Marton published H-shaped house designs for rural settings. By projecting the wings out from the structure he broke up the flat façade and provided variations in light and shadow that he felt were more suited to rural landscapes.

James Marton was a proponent of picturesque cottage architecture. In his 1798 Essay on British Cottage Architecture he provided several designs, one of which is remarkably similar to Huntly. Marton’s purpose in writing the essay was to perpetuate the rustic habitations found in rural England appreciated by artists and poets as ornaments to nature. He wanted rural houses to be picturesque rather than uniform boxes with flat façades and linear roof lines. Elements he felt were necessary for cottage architecture were odd, irregular forms, one part higher than another, an entrance porch, irregular breaks in the direction of the walls, casement windows, and fronts built of various materials. His cottage designs for peasants were more in keeping with these ideals than his more uniform designs for gentlemen’s retreats. He excused this lack of irregularity by offering that additions could be haphazardly added to the design as desired.

In answer to the question of whether the center block was an afterthought, Marton’s cottage design for a gentleman is so similar to Huntly that it is reasonable to assume that it was the original intention of the builder to construct the center block as an integral component of the house. Another clue is that when the wings were constructed, the western chimney was built significantly wider than the eastern chimney in order to accommodate flues for the fireplaces in the center block.

IN HARMONY WITH THE LANDSCAPE:
In the early 1800s, various architects provided their opinions on what characterized a suitable design for a wealthy gentleman’s rural residence. In 1803, architect Richard Elsam wrote "An Essay on Rural Architecture" refuting Marton’s opinion that buildings with irregular forms and varied materials embellished a rural landscape. Elsam argued that symmetry was the leading feature of beauty. In his view, a rural cottage for a gentleman of fortune should have a simple uniform plan with the distribution of several outbuildings harmonizing with the main building. Huntly’s design is uniform and two outbuildings were symmetrically placed in the landscape. In most respects though, Elsam’s concepts differ from the design of Huntly in that he advocated a humble building with steep roofs, gable ends, and large projecting eaves to shade the walls.

Elsam also wrote that the walls should be covered in stucco, or similar material, having a very neat, cleanly, and grateful aspect when surrounded by a variety of trees. Originally, Huntly may have had a stucco covering the brick (as evidenced by a few remnants of stucco discovered on the building).

DEFINING A VILLA:
Architect Robert Lugar took a conciliatory view in his 1823 Architectural Sketches for Cottages, Rural Dwellings, and Villas by remarking that both regularity in some figures and graceful variety in others constitute the beauty we see in them. He noted that much had been written respecting the most pleasing form of cottage architecture with both views “warmly” expressed. Lugar resolved the issue by differentiating between cottages and villas: villas, unlike cottages, were uniform.

By Lugar’s definition, written around the time of Huntly’s construction, Huntly would be considered more as a villa than a cottage due to the uniform building design and symmetrical location of outbuildings. For a villa, Lugar believed that it should have simple architectural elements, nothing too heavy such as commanding porticos that would take away from the lightness of the building. The building should be stucco or stone, but not brick alone since it would take away from the harmony, delicacy, and simply ornamental appearance which constitute the true characteristics of the Villa.

Lugar advocated a terraced landscape on the garden side of the villa, believing that terraces gave an air of grandeur and elegance. On the entrance side of the villa, Lugar recommended that the front have a simple appearance in keeping with the simple appearance of the sides of the house. He allowed that a small portico to shelter the door might have two to four Doric columns and remain tasteful.

He also appreciated the value of having a good view from the living spaces of the villa. This could be achieved, he wrote, by building the cellars partly above ground, and afterwards raising the earth over them. He felt that the view was worth having to go up a flight of stairs to reach the main level.

USE OF INTERIOR SPACES:
Due to the similarity of James Marton’s cottage design to Huntly, his floor plans may suggest possible uses for the rooms at Huntly. Marton labeled the plans for his three-level cottage as the under story, ground story, and bedroom story.

Marton’s under story, or cellar level, was used by the servants as a living space and work space including a kitchen, servant bedrooms, and servant hall. At Huntly, one room in each wing of the lower level has a fireplace, which suggests that the cellar level at Huntly may have also been used by servants as bedrooms and/or work spaces.

Marton’s cottage design had more bedroom space on the bedroom story than Huntly and was therefore able to provide for a variety of uses on the ground story. The large space in the center block was indicated as a dining room. Other spaces were designated as a waiting room, library, breakfast parlour, and withdrawing room. It is quite feasible that the large center block room at Huntly was used as a dining room. None of the other spaces are large enough to seat a large family at dinner. Due to the smaller bedroom space on the upper level, the Mason’s may have used rooms on the main level as bedrooms.

The floor plan of Marton’s cottage design provided for additions to be attached to the wings of the structure for use as storage closets or convenient water closets (restrooms). Perhaps what was thought of as a design for Huntly with exterior doors for every room was really a design that included doors to closet spaces.