Mulberry Hill House

Here follows an excerpt from the 1970 Fairfax County Master Inventory of Historic Sites which contained entries from the Historic American Buildings Survey Inventory:

Mulberry Hill stands on land which was granted by Lord Fairfax to Richard Simpson in 1727. The present owner has researched the property and has found a 1799 inventory accompanying the will of Thomas Windsor, the son-in-law of Simpson and a later owner of the property. The contents of the inventory indicate that he owned 100 acres of land, at least 10 slaves, and raised tobacco. A former owner, restoration architect Walter Macomber, places the date of construction of the house in the late eighteenth century, c. 1790.

The original structure was a simple 1 1/2-story house with exterior end chimneys, four dormers in front and two in back. Some time in the nineteenth century, an addition was made to the west end of the house and the roof line was extended over it. This room is now the kitchen. Extensive changes were made during the 1940's by Mr. Macomber. When a change in road direction altered the orientation of the house, it made the old front face away from the road. Macomber added an enclosed verandah to this side (now the rear of the house). He also installed a gray flagstone walk, using materials from Mount Vernon; removed basement partitions; and added a carport to the west end. In 1969, the present owner, William D. Rouse, converted the carport into a brick addition containing a family room and library.

Inside the house are shutters from a house in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, which form closet doors and paneling in both the living and dining rooms. The mantel in the living room is original but the dining room mantel is from the Middleburg area. The window panes are of old glass.

The house takes its name from the many mulberry trees on the property. There are Windsor family gravestones in the garden.


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Here follows an excerpt from local author and historian Mary B. Lipsey's "This Old House: Annandale, Springfield, Burke & Beyond" presentation:

It's called either the Windsor Home or Mulberry Hill. The home is located on Windsor Way, near King's Mill Shopping Center. The home was built in the late 1780's by Thomas Windsor who was born in Southbury in England. What attracted them to the Burke area if they weren't farmers or plantation owners? This guy was a lawyer, I don't get it. But anyway, he died in Fairfax County and was buried on the property. The grave markers have been moved.

This was also the home of what I would call the most infamous or famous owner, the architect Walter Macomb, who worked at Colonial Williamsburg and Mount Vernon. He was the architect who added the Mount Vernon style columns to Oak Hill and several other prominent area houses. I find it amusing that this is Walter Macomb's little house where he did NOT build columns.

You can see original paint, windows, and wood paneling in the house. At one time, there was a small old guard house on the property brought over from Mount Vernon because Macomb was working there and took it with him when it was going to be demolished. I interviewed a woman whose family owned the house, and all the kids loved to play in it and asked what happened to it? It's not there anymore.


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Here follows an article excerpted from the Patch newspaper:

Home with a History
Modern life in a 1782 Burke home
by Cheryl Kenny

It was love at first sight when Ellen Lyons laid eyes on Mulberry Hill, the 1782 house at 9417 Windsor Way in Burke. Lyons and her husband, Robert Harrison, both old home enthusiasts, saw an ad for an open house while visiting the historic Virginia Planter’s House in 1996.

“We went on a whim,” laughed Lyons, an attorney and self-described “recovering” archaeologist. “We weren’t looking to buy a house, but the minute I walked in, I fell in love.”

The two-story, dormered wood house on nearly an acre of land, originally sat on 300 acres used for planting tobacco. The house still has its 220-year-old paneled walls, wide-plank wood floors, and “wavy glass” windows intact. The dining room, featuring wood beams and an authentic, candle-burning chandelier, also has a full-wall china closet hidden behind mahogany-stained paneling.

“It’s the only closet in the original part of the house,” Lyons noted. “Houses used to be taxed based partly on their number of closets.”

Thomas Windsor, a prominent Fairfax County Revolutionary War activist, built the house. Both the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Fairfax County History Commission have recognized the home’s historical significance. Four generations of Windsors are buried on Lyons’ property; former owners removed the old gravestones from the yard in the 1960s, with the Windsor family's knowledge. Fairfax County history records mention the stones, which are stored in the home's cellar.

“Every once in a while, some member of the Windsor family stops by to visit the old homestead,” Lyons said.

Various owners have made additions to the house over the years. A porch and family room, showcasing wood reclaimed from a barn originally on the property, was added post-World War II. A former attached garage was made into a master bedroom and a den/play room (Lyons has three children) with the original red brick wall and floor.

Lyons favorite feature—and what attracted her originally—is the home’s seven fireplaces, six of them still wood-burning. “These old fireplaces were built to provide heat for the house, not just be decorative,” Lyons said. A few years ago, when the furnace died and left the family without central heating, they heated the house with just the fireplaces for half the winter. “These fireplaces were brilliant, they kept us warm,” Lyons said. “It made us appreciate how lives depended on the craftsmanship of the masons building those fireplaces.”

The home has a two-car detached garage with a second floor that Lyons once considered finishing as a great-room retreat. Those plans were put on hold after her husband gave Lyons a birthday surprise inspired by the old English homes the couple used to rent for vacations. “I came home one day and found workers in my side yard,” Lyons recalled. “They were putting in a summerhouse!”

The delicately detailed, 10' by 10’ Amdega summerhouse, imported from England, has three walls of windows and a deck along one side. It is both Lyons’ office and her haven, she noted.

Lyons said her historic home, incongruously located in the suburban subdivision of Windsor Knolls, “is a great house for a family that loves the aesthetics of homes in Georgetown or Old Town, but also wants the suburban amenities of good schools, a big yard, and a cul-de sac for the kids.”

“This is the world’s most fabulous house,” she added. “I love, love, love it. I never want to leave.”

Unfortunately, that’s one wish Lyons won’t get. Her husband landed his dream job in the Netherlands with the International Baccalaureate program, and their home is now on the market for $699,500 through McEnearney Associates.


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Here follows an excerpt from the Fairfax Genealogical Society website:

MULBERRY HILL CEMETERY/WINDSOR FAMILY CEMETERY
9417 Windsor Way
Burke, VA USA

The house at Mulberry Hill, 9417 Windsor Way, Burke, was built in 1790, probably by Thomas Windsor, son-in-law of Richard Simpson who had received the 200-acre parcel of land in the early 1700s, according to research conducted by Irene Rouse, former owner of the house, as reported in a 1970 Historic American Buildings Survey. The survey and an article about the house and property in the 24 May 1984 issue of the Fairfax Tribune are on file in the Virginia Room of the Fairfax City Regional Library. When Mrs. Rouse and her husband purchased Mulberry Hill in 1960, they found fragments of gravestones used as stepping stones in the garden.

Mulberry Hill Cemetery is also known as the Windsor Family Cemetery.

Brian Conley, Information Specialist in the Virginia Room, visited Mulberry Hill 6 February 1992. At that time, he found approximately 20 pieces of white marble gravestones stored in the basement of the house and also stacked near the garage. By piecing the fragments together, Mr. Conley was able to decipher these partial inscriptions.

“In Memory of Martha Ann, twin daughter of Robt. N. and S. H.
Windsor who died July 1824, aged 5 years. She in heaven rests......”

“Sacred to the memory of Richard S. Windsor who died March 30th
1850, aged 84 years & 15 days. Blessed are the......”

“Sacred to the memory......Elizabeth......wife of......Windsor”

Footstone: “E. W.”

“......ory of...Robert......& Robert N......son who died...
......ber 1823, aged......& 4 months”

“......ed this life......h 1851,......years”

“......ied this day......16th 1848......years and...months...”

“......ed......ory of......nsort of......Windsor”

Footstone: “S. H. W., 1848”


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Thomas owned a tobacco plantation seven miles west of George Washington's Mount Vernon estate. Several of his children fought in the Revolutionary War against England and he signed the Nonimportation Agreement against England in 1770. His home, built by his son Richard, still stands in Fairfax County, VA and has been used as a bed and breakfast inn. In 1995, it is a private home owned by Don and Lisa Street, 9417 Windsor Way, Burke, VA 22015. poss born in Old Sarum, England? ! Will of Thomas Windsor "Beginning at a White Oak" by Beth Mitchell, 2nd printing, 1979 !ABSTRACTS OF WILLS AND INVENTORIES, FAIRFAX CO.,VA 1742-1801 by J.Estelle Stewart King 1983 probate Dec. 1792*