Potter-Gailliot Family Home
GPS Coordinates: 38.7417875, -77.1623217
Closest Address: 7915 Heneska Loop, Alexandria, VA 22315

These GPS Coordinates mark the exact location where the family home stood. No visible remains exist. The home was torn down (circa 2011) to build the shopping center that stands here.
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Here is information about the family written on a nearby roadside historical marker:
Schools at Potters Hill:
Based on picture captions left by early local historians like Edith Sprouse we believe there were at least three different school houses at the intersection of Telegraph and Beulah Roads. We have pictures and some dates for the second and third Potter’s Hill schools. The original school probably dated back to at least 1870 when public education became mandatory under state law.
(photo caption, top left)The second Potter’s Hill School, a typical one room school house used until the 1916 school year. Most of the students in the picture have been identified and included children from the Baggett, Allen, Landstreet, Petitt, Jacobs, Brown, Smith, Schurtz, Dorsey, and Talbert families. The teacher was Lelia Milstead and the dog in front of the students was named “Shea.”
(photo caption, center left) Front Entrance of the third and last Potter’s Hill School. Local residents from the Potter's Hill area and the village of Accotink dug a basement on the corner across from the one room school and convinced the county to build a modern schoolhouse on the site. The school burned down in 1932.
Marjorie Baggett Tharpe who still lives near Potter's Hill provides the following description of the school. “Inside was a wide hall. The left, front room was the auditorium, and the right front room was the 3rd and 4th grades taught by Mrs. Schurtz/Schartz. The left back room was the 5th, 6th, and 7th grades taught by Miss Nellie Nevitt. The right, back room was the 1st and 2nd grades, taught by Miss Wrenn Biller. There was a large basement where the bathrooms were located.”
Potter’s Hill An Entrepreneurial Site:
The land at Potter’s Hill was used by the Potter, Riston and Gailliot Families over time to support multiple families, provide educational opportunities (schools), and employment opportunities. The land was first used as an agricultural farm, then a chicken farm, a sand and gravel business, a landfill, and more recently recreational pursuits (golf) and commercial/office use. The Gailliot family has been very creative in re-inventing business uses for the land since their arrival around 1920.
The Potter Family:
James Potter and his wife Susanna were born in Fairfax County, Virginia, during the 1780s. The 1850 census shows, they owned a large tract of land along what would become Telegraph Road, not far from its intersection with present day Beulah Street. The land included a large hill that became known as Potter's Hill. James and Susanna lived there with three of their sons: Joseph, George and his wife Francis, and Charles and his wife Elizabeth.
Millan/Potter Cemetery:
The cemetery is located on Telegraph Road about one half mile east of Beulah Street. Louise Viar Potter, Robert Potter, Gladys Potter Hogan and Clara Dove Potter are pictured on the right standing behind Henry Potter's gravestone in 1983. (photo center bottom)
The Gailliot Family Arrives At Potter’s Hill:
Henry and Franceska Gailliot and their sons, Joseph, Charles, and Clem arrived at Potter's Hill around 1920. They began raising chickens and selling eggs to Chestnut Farms Dairy in Washington, D.C. Eventually the family had eight thousand chickens laying four thousand eggs a day. During the Depression the Gailliots switched from selling eggs to raising broiling chickens to sell for food. The chicken operation continued until the early 1950s when a fire killed seven thousand chickens, followed by the flock being decimated by a virus a year later.
(photo caption, top right) Aerial shot of the Gailliot property at Potter's Hill when it was still a chicken farm. This picture shows the two Gailliot houses, the concrete grain elevator, and the sharp turn at the end of Beulah Road where it met Telegraph Road.
(photo caption, bottom right) The Gailliot’s original house and later business office. It contained a log building within the structure, most likely one of the Potter’s early houses.
The Gravel Business:
The Gailliot’s land was laced with gravel deposits so brothers Clem and Albert became partners in the operation. Their company eventually became Hilltop Sand and Gravel and provided Irwin Concrete with gravel, some of which was used in the construction of the first Woodrow Wilson Bridge.
More about this marker:
Also on the marker are two un-captioned photos in the lower left showing schoolchildren and showing a side view of the third school. In the center top is an un-captioned un-annotated reproduction of a section of an old map showing the general area. The center photograph on the right is an arial photo of the gravel works.
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Here follows an excerpt about Potter's Hill from Donald Hakenson's "This Forgotten Land" tour guide:
THE UNION PATROL TO POHICK CHURCH
On November 11, 1861, Brigadier General Samuel Heintzelman received a report that four hundred rebel cavalry and two regiments of infantry were encamped near Pohick Church. On November 12, 1861, at three in the morning, Brigadier General Israel Richardson's Brigade, with Company G of the Lincoln Cavalry (First New York), and Captain Thompson's and Captain Randolph's batteries of artillery, advanced upon Pohick Church by the Telegraph Road, followed an hour later by Brigadier General Charles D. Jameson's Brigade, and Company E, Lincoln's Cavalry. When Brigadier General Richardson's Brigade reached Potter's Hill, his orders were to divide his Brigade at Potters house, just beyond Piney Run, and follow the Telegraph road. The other two regiments with a battery and a company of cavalry, were to march to Accotink and reach Pohick Church by the Alexandria turnpike (Route 1).
By the time both Union brigades arrived at Pohick Church the rebel cavalry had already received word that the Blue Coats were coming and had left the area.
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The Potter family home was used as a Union headquarters during the Civil War, where a local farmer was arrested and brought to this house in January of 1862. Here follows an excerpt from Donald Hakenson's "This Forgotten Land" tour guide:
JOHN AND JAMES HAISLIP'S ARREST FOR DISLOYALTY TO THE UNION.
On January 14, 1862, John and James Haislip were arrested for disloyalty to the Union by order of Brigadier General Heintzelman. John Haislip issued a statement that day in the Provost-Marshall's Office at Fort Lyon:
"I live on Mason's Neck, -- am neutral or should be ousted by southern troops -- southern pickets make signals by lights -- Capt. Hennigen's men do not act as scouts -- Texas Rangers do -- I never gave any information to southern troops -- never was inside their lines. Never aided rebels... nor would I have let them take my team -- my boy carried two citizens across to rebel pickets in early June, don't think he carried others, think they paid him five or six dollars... don't remember carrying anyone towards Elzeys in November... my memory is very poor."
The next day, John Haislip issued another statement in the Provost-Marshall's Office:
"Age fifty, born near Alexandria within sixteen miles of where he lives. Is a farmer and transports wood by boat. Arrested the night before last. Has wife and nine children, five sons, four daughters. Has six hundred fifty acres, valued at eight dollars per acre. Has two slaves, a woman and child, also two old colored women no account -- they belong to Major Stoddert, Charles County, Maryland -- Stoddert was the Administrator of Vansant. He pays to keep me on -- he gave me the one to pay for keeping the other. I have remained at home all the while since this trouble began -- situated between the two lines -- was only inside the Confederate pickets once when going to Occoquan in the latter part of July... the other side have had oats from me once or twice -- three hundred bushels last spring and one hundred fifty bushels this fall... never slept a soldier at my house... my oldest son is with me seventeen years old... Union troops or scouts have never been in my neighborhood until since Christmas... I was arrested Monday last about one a.m. -- was taken to Potter's house (on Potter's hill), headquarters of some Colonel... in the afternoon was taken to Alexandria. Never knew a Thomas Adrian. News came to me from Richmond by old man Joseph Plaskett, who had been a prisoner and released that I was reported on. I heard some rumor that soldiers were killed in the vicinity of Henry Bayliss -- I am three or four miles below there to the south. I know a Captain Hannigan... is raising a company through our section. Lives five miles from Occoquan. The Texans are the ones who are carrying off the free Negroes... I heard they took them to Dumfries."
His statement didn't change the opinions of the Union officers in charge and they were both committed to the Old Capitol Prison. They remained confined in the Old Capitol Prison until February 22, 1862, when they signed their paroles, releasing them from prison, but restricting them from leaving the District.