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Sherwood Farm House

GPS Coordinates: 38.7483880, -77.0679018
Closest Address: 7702 Midday Lane, Alexandria, VA 22306

Sherwood Farm 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:

The house of Sherwood Farm was built in 1859 on Mason family land purchased from the owner of Hollin Hall. John Ballinger, the original owner, was one of the group of Quakers who settled in the Woodlawn-Mount Vernon area during the twenty-year period before the Civil War. The house has been in the same family for the past five generations.

The structure has some elements of the Italian Villa style: a rectilinear block with low pitched, bracketed roof with very simple window treatment. The old verandah, typical of this style, was not enclosed until 1960, when it was turned into a den. The present owner state that very little alteration has taken place since the house was built. Work has been limited mainly to the installation of modern plumbing and heating facilities and to shoring up the structure by replacing the original hand-hewn beams in the basement with steel beams. In 1942, when Mr. and Mrs. Wilkinson moved in, they installed the only fireplace, replacing a coal-burning stove which had been offset in a living room alcove.

In 1903, the then owners donated a half acre of land for the use of the King's Daughters, a charitable organization, and its headquarters, Sherwood Hall, was built. When the building was no longer needed it was razed (c. 1940) and the ownership of the land reverted to the owners of the farm.

During its years as an active farm until 1940, milk was shipped from Sherwood as well as from other farms in the area to Thompson's Dairy, which went out of business in 1971 after 90 years. Much of the original farm land has now been developed into suburban communities bearing such names as Kirkside, Hollinbrook, and Hollin Hall Village.

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Award-winning local historian and tour guide in Franconia and the greater Alexandria area of Virginia.

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ADDRESS

Nathaniel Lee

c/o Franconia Museum

6121 Franconia Road

Alexandria, VA 22310

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