Wellington House

The original structure was started in 1790 by George Washington for his nephew, but then completed in 1795 by his Secretary, Tobias Lear, who gave it the name Walnut Tree Farm. The property reverted back to the Washington Family who used the name Wellington by the 1820s.


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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:

The original portion of Wellington was built before 1760 by William Clifton, on land first patented to Margaret Brent. The land was sold in 1760 to George Washington and became part of what he called the River Farm, one of the five farms which comprised the Mount Vernon Estate. The name Wellington was presumably given to the property in honor of the Duke of Wellington and so could not have been identified with the property until after the 1815 Battle of Waterloo. An 1825 advertisement in the Alexandria Gazette refers to the property as "Wellington." Under the name of Walnut Tree Farm it served as the residence of Tobias Lear, Washington's private secretary and one time tutor to his two adopted children, Nelly Custis and George Washington Parke Custis. Lear married into Mrs. Washington's family and on Washington's death he was given a rent-free life interest in the property. Upon Lear's death in 1816 the property reverted to the Washington family in whose name it remained until 1859. At that time, like much of the land in this part of Fairfax County, it was purchased by Quakers who moved into this part of Virginia from New Jersey. The present owner, Malcolm Matheson, purchased the property in 1919.

In 1925 the Washington Sunday Star's "Rambler" visited Wellington and wrote of the beauty of the place and its gardens, recalling an earlier visit in 1904 after which he had referred to it as "this broken and pathetic house." The Mathesons made major changes and improvements in the interior of the house and added a brick loggia extension.

The extensive gardens contain the walnut trees for which the place was originally named, both deciduous and evergreen magnolia trees, wisteria, and many other plantings.

In 1971, the proposed purchase of Wellington by the Soviet Union brought national attention to the property. The U.S. State Department refused permission for the sale.


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Here follows an excerpt from the "Backyard Mount Vernon" blog written by Tammy Mannarino:

Wellington, Riverview, Andalusia, Arcturus and Collingwood: The Snowden Brothers and their Homes
Posted on January 9, 2019 by Tammy Mannarino:

Once upon a time, there were three brothers: Isaac, William and Stacey Snowden. They lived on a farm in New Jersey with their Mother, Rhoda Hazelton Snowden, brother John, and two sisters, Abigail and Mary Jane. The Snowdens were Quakers and likely heard about opportunities in the Mount Vernon area through the Mullica Hill Friends Meeting where they were members. In the late 1840’s, Quaker families from New Jersey, New York and Philadelphia migrated to Virginia to purchase inexpensive farm and timber lands and to work with the free black community that existed in the area around Mount Vernon. They wanted to show that slavery was not necessary for financial success. In 1859, two years before the Civil War started, the brothers left home. While it is unclear whether Isaac, William and Stacey were previously acquainted with others that moved into the Mount Vernon area, they certainly worked in concert once they were neighbors.

As they left the Quaker enclave in Harrison Township, they couldn’t have imagined the lasting impact they would have on their new home. They purchased large tracts of land that had previously been part of George Washington’s River Farm and helped forge a community that would, for a time, carry their name (Snowden, VA). Their homes would be central to the development of roads, schools, churches, postal delivery, social and business organizations, recreation, and rail and steamboat travel between Washington DC and Mount Vernon. While there are no known Snowden descendants still living in the area, evidence of their residence in our community from 1859-1949, is easily seen. Communities, roads and properties still bear their names or the names of their homes.

The Snowdens lived in at least five homes along the Potomac. Isaac and his wife Anna lived at Wellington, now the home of the American Horticultural Society. They later moved to an adjacent home, Riverview. William and his wife Elizabeth lived at Arcturus which became the guest house for a larger home, Andalusia. Stacey and his wife Sarah lived at Collingwood, which current residents of the community probably remember for its library, museum and sledding hill, open to the public until 2016. While Riverview, Andalusia and Arcturus were demolished in the later part of the twentieth century to make room for more modern homes, Wellington and Collingwood still stand. These two homes were built before the Snowdens arrived and have rich histories before and after brothers’ ownership. While both homes are listed on the Fairfax County Inventory of Historic Sites, that distinction does not limit or restrict what a homeowner can do with their property. The current owners of Collingwood have applied for a permit to regrade the property which would involve demolition of the mansion.


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Here follows an excerpt from the "Backyard Mount Vernon" blog:

The Snowden School on Fort Hunt Road: a School Built by a Community and a Community Built by a School
Posted on February 22, 2019 by Tammy Mannarino

On the morning of Tuesday, February 18, 1941, The Snowden School, located at the intersection of Fort Hunt Road and Chadwick Avenue was burning. High winds whipped the flames as firefighters from Franconia and Alexandria fought in vain to save the building. The loss of the two-room school house was mourned by adults and children as it represented approximately 70 years of community cooperation.

The origin story of the Snowden School is similar to many others in Fairfax County. In 1870, the Virginia General Assembly passed the Public Free Schools Act as part of the Underwood Constitution setting up publicly funded schools with mandatory attendance. Richard L. Nevitt was charged with dividing Fairfax County into the six townships each operating as a separate school district. He also served as one of the 3 initial Trustees of the Mount Vernon District School Board with E.E. Mason and F.F. Triplett. Unfortunately, very few records of the Mount Vernon District School Board remain.

The Snowden School began at Wellington on River Farm (now home of the American Horticultural Society). In the early 1870s, the home was owned by Valentine Baker, a Quaker from New York. From 1872-1878 the school was operated out of the Baker home and served children from neighboring farms. Attendance records from the time period listed the following family names: Thompson, Baker, Frost, Ballinger, Boughton, Graw, Hunter, Snowden and Eckhart. Valentine’s daughter, Josephine was in her early 20s and was the school’s first teacher. We don’t know the exact date of construction for the Snowden School building, but it appears on the Hopkins map published in 1879.

The Snowden School is marked with concentric squares to the left of the label “Sch.Ho” along Fort Hunt Road (known then as the Neck Road) which moves from the bottom left to top right of this map excerpt. Snowden Lane (later Collingwood Road) is depicted as two dashed lines to the left and below the school. “B.S.S.” at the intersection of the two roads indicated Stacy Snowden’s Blacksmith Shop. Wellington Road is above and to the right of the schoolhouse. Both Wellington and Riverview served as temporary schools.

Kate Snowden, Stacy Snowden’s daughter-in-law, recounted that the one-room school house was “…erected by Theron Thompson, Sr. of Hollin Hall, Valentine Baker of Wellington, William Hunter of Cedar Hill and Stacy Snowden of Collingwood, on a piece of land donated by Snowden. The benches were crude and the only desks were boards around the sides of the room. Children worked facing the wall.” Stacy and Sarah Snowden’s gift to the community was formalized with a deed dated 1900.

After the tenure of Miss Baker, Alice Dove served as a teacher, likely in the 1890s. She was the daughter of Caroline Devers and James Tyler who had a farm in Franconia. (While the Devers and Tyler families found themselves on opposite sides during the Civil War they are buried in a joint cemetery that has been preserved in an office park at the intersection of Metropark drive and Beulah Rd.)

Funding and fluctuating population were continuing threats to the consistency of schooling in the county. Through the 1880s funding for public schools was a contentious issue tied to the repayment of Virginia’s post-Civil War debt. School taxes of 7 ½% on each hundred dollars of property were collected in each district. At a point, attendance could not be maintained at Snowden School. Daniel D. Thompson, who lived with his Father-in-Law Isaac Snowden at Riverview, took matters into his own hands. He “secured desks from the County and school was held in his home with Miss Alice Dove as teacher.”

Nellie Lee Nevitt also taught at Snowden. She was a descendant of the McCarty/Chichester family of Mount Air and Newington. Her family was very committed to education. Her Great Uncle, Richard L. Nevitt and her father Robert Guest Nevitt both served long terms on the Fairfax County School Board and many relatives were teachers. Nellie, herself, taught more than fifty years in the county. The Nevitts also had a long history with Pohick Church and are represented well in their cemetery.

Around the turn of the century, the original one-room building was destroyed by fire. It was rebuilt in the same location in 1903. It was described as having “a pot-bellied stove, oiled wood floors, a well and a ‘necessary’ outside.” News of the Snowden School appeared regularly in local newspapers reporting upkeep of the property (removal of fencing, digging of wells) as well as lists of Teachers working at the school. A second room was added to the building around 1918. In 1922, Fairfax County consolidated its assets and eliminated the District School Boards.

The changeover in control of the local schools may have resulted in some confusion as Mildred Lozano “Aggie” Finks, who began teaching at the Snowden School in the late 1920s, worked for two years without pay. Reportedly, the county school board was unaware that the school existed. In 1929, Aggie saw an opportunity to teach Sunday School classes out of the Snowden School. She and several other teachers were holding non-denominational Sunday School classes at Sherwood Hall on the Accotink Road (now Sherwood Hall Lane). In order to reduce the distance that children had to walk, she chose to begin again at Snowden, this time in the Episcopal faith. She worked with students from the Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria to lead the classes. Aggie Finks’ idea resulted in the founding of the first church on Fort Hunt Road, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church.

What began as Sunday School classes soon grew to include worship services, baptisms and confirmations, all held at the Snowden School until 1933 when a brick chapel was completed on what is now the current site of St. Luke’s Church. Holding church services in a school was not without its difficulties. Bishop Marmion recounted “Since it was difficult for some of the women to slide out of the desks in which they sat…we stood only once during the service, and that was to recite the Apostle’s Creed.”

In 1933, work was completed on the third Groveton Elementary school building, this one at Route 1 and Memorial street. Students of the Snowden School were transferred to this larger brick school that boasted six classrooms and an auditorium. The Fairfax County School Board took steps to sell the Snowden School property. For whatever reason, the Snowden School continued operating, announcing new Teachers every year through 1936.

Both St. Luke’s and the Wellington Villa Association continued to use and repair the Snowden School for a variety of purposes. Vestry and Youth Group Meetings, Red Cross work, and even a surprise party for a young enlisted man headed to Camp Meade were held at the school within months of its demise by fire. The History of St. Luke’s Church reports that “the young people expressed great sorrow at the loss of their “Ark.” Kate Snowden memorialized the school in an editorial piece for the Alexandria Gazette entitled “The Passing of a Landmark.”


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Here follows an excerpt from the "Backyard Mount Vernon" blog:

Heirs of River Farm
Posted on April 13, 2021 by Tammy Mannarino
Published in the Mount Vernon Gazette March 31, 2021

On October 15, 1785, George Washington’s favorite nephew married Martha Washington’s favorite niece. George Augustine Washington was the son of George Washington’s youngest Brother Charles, the founder of Charlestown, West Virginia. He was a Major in the Virginia Line during the American Revolution, serving first as a member of George Washington’s personal guard and later as an aide to General Lafayette.

Frances “Fanny” Bassett was the daughter of Martha’s sister Anna Maria Dandridge, who passed away in 1777 when Fanny was only 10 years old. Martha had an almost maternal relationship toward Fanny, who came to live permanently at Mount Vernon in the mid-1780’s. It appears that Martha wrote more letters to Fanny than to anyone else. On the couple’s wedding day, George Washington wrote,

“After the candles were lighted George Auge. Washington and Frances Bassett were married by Mr. Grayson [of Pohick Church].”

The young couple continued to live at Mount Vernon with George Augustine (often referred to as “the Major”) working as the farm manager. Around the couple’s one-year anniversary, Washington wrote George Augustine a letter revealing his intent, upon his death, to give them 2000-3000 acres of his River Farm property. He provided assurances that he expected to die without issue. Therefore, the couple could feel comfortable building on the land whenever it suited them—an offer they later acted upon. In the meantime, Washington’s need for their presence would only increase as he took leadership of the new nation. Washington appointed the Major as power of attorney when he left for New York in the Spring of 1789 to serve as the first President. Fanny served as hostess in Martha’s stead, entertaining many visitors to Mount Vernon. During this period, they had three children: George Fayette, Charles Augustine and Anna Maria.

Mindful that “having so many children about the house” might be disagreeable to his uncle, George Augustine began construction on his new house situated on River Farm. Sadly, his health was failing and as 1792 reached its end, it was clear he would not survive much longer. The Major attempted to improve his situation through rest and travel. He tasked Anthony Whiting, now the farm manager at Mount Vernon, with supervising construction of the home. Whiting and George Washington discussed in their frequent correspondence how best to proceed regarding the house given the Major’s grave illness. Washington woefully advised,

“I think you had better not (until further orders) procure any more scantling; especially such as must be cut to waste.”

Sadly, Washington’s fears were realized, and George Augustine passed away on February 5, 1793 in Philadelphia. Fanny Washington requested a pause in the building of their home for the time being.

Within months, tragedy would strike another member of the Washington household. In July, yellow fever took Mary “Polly” Lear. She left behind her son Benjamin and her husband, Tobias Lear, who had been employed for 6 years as Washington’s secretary and tutor to Martha’s children. As the President served his second term, Fanny and Tobias, who had always been fond of each other’s families, grew closer. They wed in August 1795. As a wedding present, George and Martha Washington gave them a life interest in 360 acres on River Farm. The Lears and their respective children lived in the house that had been started by George Augustine. They called their home Walnut Tree Farm.

Sadly, the marriage lasted only 7 months. Fanny died of tuberculosis on March 25, 1796. A bereft Lear wrote to Washington with the bad news, “The Partner of my life is no more!” Tobias rejoined the household at Mount Vernon and was famously present at George Washington’s deathbed in December 1799. As promised, George Washington remembered George Augustine and Fanny’s family in his will. He bequeathed his River Farm estate to their sons (Tobias Lear’s step-sons), George Fayette Washington and Charles Augustine Washington.

Washington explained in his will,

“In consideration of the consanguinity between them and my wife, being as nearly related to her as to myself, as on account of the affection I had for, and the obligation I was under to, their father when living, who from his youth had attached himself to my person, and followed my fortunes through the viscissitudes of the late Revolution - afterwards devoting his time to the Superintendence of my private concerns for many years, whilst my public employments rendered it impracticable for me to do it myself.”

George Fayette Washington outlived his siblings. He married and had 3 children. George Fayette and his wife lived for some time on the Walnut Tree Farm property, eventually passing it to their son, Charles Augustine. As early as 1815, George Fayette was using a new name for the property, one that has lasted more than a century: Wellington.


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Here follows an excerpt from the "Backyard Mount Vernon" blog:

Visit to Wellington (River Farm) on the Way to War
Posted on April 17, 2022 by Tammy Mannarino

On April 17, 1862, William H. Snowden boarded the steamboat John A. Warner for a trip down the Potomac River. He was traveling for business….with the Union Army. While he was raised in the Quaker tradition, at the first sign of war, he returned to his hometown in New Jersey and enlisted in Company A, 3rd Regiment of the New Jersey volunteers. Snowden and his company spent the fall and winter at Fort Worth (near Quaker Lane) drilling and waiting for their “marching orders” from General George B. McClellan. They were to be part of the Army of the Potomac’s Peninsula Campaign—a mobilization of more than 100,000 soldiers headed toward Fort Monroe in hopes of surprising the Rebels in Richmond.

Snowden was no stranger to Virginia, as he and his brothers had relocated to Fairfax County in 1859. They purchased the home we know as Wellington or River Farm from George Washington’s heirs. William’s brothers, Stacey and Isaac, remained at Wellington to keep the farm operating. Meanwhile, war preparations at the docks in Alexandria were not at all familiar to Snowden. He remarked, “–this unceasing rattling of drays and huge army wagons and swift railway trains–the creaking of derricks and noisy bustle of stevedores, and the steady tide of life from early dawn to set of sun is in strange contrast, with that comparative quiet and loneliness which so lately reigned here at the beginning of the rebellion.”

The workers Snowden saw preparing supplies for the exodus may have included African-American men as Union-occupied Alexandria had a growing reputation as a safe haven for self-emancipated people who would continue to flood into the city over the next couple of years.

The John A. Warner was built in 1857 as an excursion boat for passengers on the Delaware River. Like other steamers pressed into service as troop transports, it seemed too elegant for the job. The military bands that played upon departure and decorative streamers that adorned some of the vessels contributed to that feeling. When they were underway, William Snowden leaned into his description, “We have been floating slowly down the stream, and I look back on the city four miles in the distance. We are about to lie to until morning to await some unfinished arrangements of our expedition. The ponderous anchor plunges through the water and we are held fast and firm by its good chain in the hurrying tide.”

Like some other steamers that departed before them, the Warner paused overnight at the mouth of Broad Creek. It would have been a good place to wait for whatever was needed from Alexandria for their journey. Snowden noted, “Broad Bay is a wide estuary of the Potomac on the Maryland side fronting ‘Wellington,’ making the river at this point nearly 3 miles in width.” It also gave him a chance to wax poetic about the family home.

“Just opposite on the Virginia shore, and but a short distance from our anchorage, is ‘Wellington,’ our Virginia home. From its commanding elevation it seems to greet me, and I am glad to view its dearly cherished localities once more. The sloping lawn is green down to the water’s edge, and the great walnuts and oaks, with their buds fast swelling into foliage, stand like sentinels in its green expanse; and the ‘great porch,’ where in summer and autumn in happier days agone, I have passed so many genial hours in reading, or in converse with good, kind friends, or in watching alone the floating clouds and the sails on the river, looks just as inviting and pleasant as ever to my longing sight.”

We don’t have to work hard to imagine what he saw. Wellington still sits on its commanding elevation 160 springs later. At least one of his arboreal “sentinels” is still there–a Black Walnut that perhaps was not quite as large and lonely at that time. The house and porch were updated in an early twentieth-century transformation of the property into a country estate, but I feel confident that Snowden could easily recognize his old home.

These sights stood out “prominently and temptingly” to Snowden and before long, two officers were with him in a yawl boat swinging away from the Warner. “It is already dark and the lights are lighted in the ‘old mansion.’ A knock at the door is quickly answered and we are kindly welcomed. Our coming is a pleasant surprise. The good folks tell us they were sure we would not go on the expedition before paying a visit. It is not long before we are summoned to a grateful repast served up in a very different style from that of the usual soldier’s mess.”

They chat late into the night and then head back to their vessel. Snowden reflects on what lies ahead and whether this will be his last visit. “I am hopeful and look with no misgivings into the future. As in all my life before, all is bright and rose-colored in that sky that spans for me the days that are to come after these troublous times in which blood may flow and many graves be made in far off and strange places and many homes be made sorrowful and desolate.”

The next morning Snowden records, “From a refreshing sleep I rise at the drum call, and look first toward the home on the hill. The sun is up and shining brightly over the placid stream, and it gives a beauty to the ‘old mansion’ and its surroundings, it almost transfigures them to my yearning eye. How much I should regret if I had not gone ashore last evening, and once more said ‘good bye’ to the folks I am leaving….But we are weighing anchor, and as we steam away, the inmates of ‘Wellington’ wave to us a parting.”

The future was not quite as rose-colored as the romantic Snowden had foreseen. He did eventually make it back to his family and his home at Wellington after some hardship as a Confederate prisoner. Perhaps as a reward, the “days after those ‘troublous times’” stretched for decades. He saw the the establishment of the Mount Vernon District in Fairfax County, the creation of public schools and the arrival of the electric railway along the Potomac to Mount Vernon. Snowden continued to write expressively, most notably a guide for that same railway, lauding the history and scenery around his home and the post office he founded, which he named Andalusia and Arcturus, respectively. His neighbors and those that came after them called him “Captain” as a sign of respect, many not realizing that it was a rank he had earned in his service to the Union Army. When William Snowden’s end came in 1908 at the age of 84, he was laid to rest at Arlington Cemetery.