Laurel Hill House

Here follows an excerpt from the Atlas Obscura website:

Laurel Hill House
Lorton, Virginia
Standing for over 200 years, the abandoned home of a Revolutionary War hero and later a succession of prison superintendents.

Shortly after the Revolutionary War, a man by the name of William Lindsay acquired a 1,000-acre homestead just outside of what is today Lorton, Virginia. Lindsay, who was a part of the Virginia Militia and a contemporary of both George Mason and George Washington, built his home on one of the more elevated portions of the land in 1787. The typical colonial home was dubbed Laurel Hill, supposedly in honor of his family’s original estate in Northern Ireland. It is said that during Lindsay’s ownership, it was possible to see the Potomac River from the front door of the home, though current urban development and vegetation make this impossible today.

Lindsay would not enjoy his new home for very long, as he died from gout in 1792. After Lindsay’s death, the Laurel Hill House was passed around his extended family. He was buried about a hundred yards from the back of the house, with his wife next to him in 1822. Officially known as the Lindsay Family Cemetery, the area is believed to hold numerous other, unmarked graves (most likely Lindsay children). The grave markers for Lindsay and his wife, it is said, were placed later by the Daughters of the American Revolution. The cemetery is denoted by four brick pillars connected by a low iron-pipe rail. It is found in tall grass near the base of the what was once the No. 9 Guard Tower of the D.C. Workhouse and Reformatory—a hint of what came next for the property.

The home saw many owners throughout the 19th century before coming into the possession of a D.C. attorney named Howe Totten in 1906. Totten used the home as a country house, and a place to breed champion Great Danes. It is believed that during his ownership several additions, including a wraparound porch, were added. By 1910, the D.C. Workhouse Prison (also known as the Occoquan Workhouse) was established only a couple of miles down the road. Totten was not very pleased with his new neighbors and began sending letters to the editors of local newspapers complaining about the prison’s lack of security, among other issues. In 1914, the federal government purchased 153 acres of the Laurel Hill property to use for an adjoining reformatory for incarcerated people with longer sentences. The purchase included Laurel Hill House itself.

The house then became the residence of many different staff members of the prison, mainly its superintendents. During this time even more rooms were added and modifications made, including three new rooms on the east side and more. By 1918, Reformatory Entrance Drive was laid along the west side of the house and served as the primary access route into the reformatory until the 1950s. Today the walled road is mostly eroded and covered in vegetation, with portions now fenced off.

By the late 1930s, a neoclassical terraced garden was constructed on the east side of the hill that the home sits upon, including extensive brickwork, a fountain, a retaining pool, and a magnificent view. Though the origins of the garden are somewhat shrouded in mystery, it is believed to have been built by incarcerated individuals and used as a means of teaching them new skills such as construction and gardening. Today, the garden is almost completely hidden in plain sight by heavy vegetation. A Cultural Landscape Report was compiled by the Fairfax County Park Authority in 2009, with treatment plans detailing the potential restoration of the garden, though these plans have yet to be implemented.

By the early 1970s, Laurel Hill House had been vacated and abandoned. Pictures from this time period show that the house was still maintained, but many decades of neglect brought it into disrepair. By 2002, the D.C. Workhouse and Reformatory had been dissolved, and ownership of the house and 2,400-acre property was obtained by Fairfax County. It was established as a historic district and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2006. The former workhouse was converted into a cultural arts center in 2008, and the reformatory is currently being reimagined as a new urban living community known as “Liberty.”

According to numerous online resources and reports made available by Fairfax County, Laurel Hill House has been in consideration for restoration since 2007. These plans have yet to come to fruition, and the house and terraced garden still stand in a decrepit state, a shadow of their former glory.

Know Before You Go
The easiest way to get to the house is by going through the main entrance of the "Liberty" Community located off of Silverbrook Road. You'll keep driving straight on Power House Road and you should see the house ahead of you before the road turns. The house is situated in a residential area, so please be mindful of parking. The house can be enjoyed from behind the chainlink fence that has been erected around it.


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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:

Laurel Hill was the plantation of Major William Lindsay, eldest son of Robert and Susanna Lindsay of "The Mount" in Dunn Loring. William Lindsay served in the Virginia Militia during the Revolution and was severely wounded in May 1781, at the battle of Guilford Courthouse, under the command of General Nathaniel Greene. About 1766, he married Ann Calvert of Culpeper County, Virginia, a great granddaughter of Cecil Calvert, Lord Baltimore.

"Laurel Hill" and the graves of William and Ann Lindsay, marked by the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, are presently within the boundaries of the District of Columbia Reformatory at Lorton. It is used for an employees' residence and guest house.


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Here follows a history of the house as published on the Fairfax County Public Schools website:

What’s in a Name?
Our school and the surrounding community are named for a historic estate established by the Lindsay family in the late 1700s. Learn more about the history of our area and the origin of our name in this video produced for the FCPS cable television channel Red Apple 21:

Laurel Hill Elementary School opened in September 2009. The school and the surrounding community are named for a historic estate established by the Lindsay family in the late 1700s. In 1787 and 1790, William Lindsay, a carpenter merchant and slave holder who lived in the town of Colchester, purchased two large tracts of land in southern Fairfax County totaling 960 acres. William and his wife, Ann Calvert, named their new plantation Laurel Hill. Their house was built on a high hill that provided picturesque views of the Potomac River to the southeast. There are several theories as to why the Lindsey's chose the name "Laurel Hill." Some researchers think the name relates to mountain laurel, an evergreen shrub which is native to the eastern United States and is commonly found in elevated areas of Fairfax County. Another strong possibility is that the Lindsey's chose the name Laurel Hill because the word Laurel embodies the concepts of victory achievement and status in ancient Greece. Victorious athletes in the Olympic Games were crowned with wreaths made of bay laurel, a fragrant plant native to the Mediterranean region. In modern times, laurel wreaths adorn Olympic medals, college and university diplomas, and film and television awards as a symbol of accomplishment. The Laurel Hill House is still standing today, but would look quite different to William and Ann Lindsay due to the many additions, including several rooms and a wraparound porch which were added in the 19th and 20th centuries. William's time at Laurel Hill was very brief. He passed away in 1792, leaving his widow Ann to care for their 10 children. In 1813, the estate was divided among William's heirs and the house remained in the Lindsay extended family until the 1870s. In 1910, the District of Columbia workhouse and reformatory was established in southern Fairfax County on land that was formerly part of the Laurel Hill estate. During 1919, the Laurel Hill house was purchased for the reformatories expansion and was used as a residence by the prison's superintendents until 1969 and abandoned in the 1970s. Today, the home is owned by Fairfax County and discussions are underway about what will become of the structure.