USA > Virginia > Fairfax County > Fairfax County > Colchester Colonial Port on the Potomac > Part 12
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- New RR Bridge
1 32
50' Hor. Clearance Through lakse Work 65- 7' Vert Clearance M. L.W. Channel Span
OCCOQUAN CREEK, VA OLD & NEW R.R. BRIDGES MARCH 16-1915 Scale 1" =100'
22
Figure 25. Courtesy of the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad Company.
Mar 18, 1915
MAGNETIC
1
Chapter VIII THE PRESENT ENVIRONMENT
The Townscape
The town of Colchester is approximately 20 miles southwest of Washington, D.C., on the Occoquan River, which widens just below the town into Belmont and Occoquan Bay before merging with the Potomac. It is four miles above the mouth of the Occoquan and two miles downstream from the fall-line separating the piedmont from the coastal plain. The Occoquan forms the boundary between Fairfax and Prince William counties. It has a drainage area of nearly 600 square miles. The river descends in a relatively steep gradient of 500' within 50 miles.
Colchester is situated on the northeast shore of the Occoquan, on a gentle slope. The upper end of the town is about 70-feet above the river. Recent cutting down of the hillside to provide fill for the marina area has formed a steep bank about 10' high at the inland edge of the beach, but the slope was more gradual before the marina was developed.2
On the north side of Colchester Road the land has been cleared. There are, in addition to the two early houses, four dwellings built in the 1950's. On the south side, at the eastern edge of the original townsite, are two other recent houses. Midway between these and the shore is the late nineteenth century Beach house. At the marina there are two buildings. To the south of Colchester Road, within the original town, the area has grown up in brush except for the barren fill close to the shoreline. Beyond the brush are woods between the town and the subdivision of Harbor View along Massey Creek.
Some grading has been done between the Metzger house and the next house on the east. Two swimming pools have been installed on this side of the road, but with these exceptions the natural configuration of the terrain remains undisturbed below the level of the plow zone.
Twentieth Century Changes
The Washington & Southern, successor of the Alexandria & Fredericksburg Rail- way, decided by 1913 that the Occoquan bridge should be relocated slightly down- stream and the roadbed realigned. Eight acres were purchased from John Weston's widow in a strip 1,520 feet long, abutting their right-of-way from the shoreline. Two acres between the Weston land and Ox Road were acquired from Hannah Potter Clarke. 3 A plat showed the new bridge at 1,060 feet in length, two feet shorter than the existing span. War Department approval was necessary to ascertain that navigation would not be
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Figure 26. Portion of 1948 topographic map. United States Geological Survey.
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SWANSEA. .. Creek
PRINCE WILLIAM
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FREDERICKSBURG
adversely affected, and after a survey was made in August by the Corps of Engineers, permission was granted for construction in April 1914.
The new bridge, which is still in use, was built at a total cost of $315,294.06. The only railroad bridge which crosses the Potomac River into Virginia above the Washington area is the one at Harpers Ferry, so the major share of north-south rail traffic on the East Coast of the United States travels over the Occoquan Bridge on the roadbed of the present Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac Railroad Company.
The old railroad bridge was reconditioned for highway travel, at a cost to the railroad of nearly $5,000.4 After a certain amount of dispute between Prince William and Fairfax counties over jurisdictional arrangements had taken place, use of the structure was resumed as a highway facility. The railroad discontinued use of the old bridge on June 28, 1915.5 An inspection report made of the footings that spring after the towboat Toby struck the riprap gives a detailed sketch of the piers of both bridges.
A small marina established between 1930 and 1935 at Colchester by John Hicks is still in operation. Hicks was a relative of the wife of John S. Beach, who had settled in Colchester in the early 1880's. The heirs of John Beach own 11 acres along the shoreline south of Colchester Road, which includes approximately half of the original townsites. This land has not been developed and includes several potential archeological sites.
John Stonewall Beach married in 1881, when he was 22 years of age6 and was living in the town by 1883. He bought three parcels totaling 62 acres, formerly Potter's, Weston's and Hughes'.7 The driveway into the Beach house follows the alignment of the cross street (Wine Street) shown on the early town plat . 8
Aside from the marina there were few changes in the neighborhood for several years. In 1947, a restaurant was opened on the north side of the highway (U.S. 1) and named the Colchester Inn, reviving the long tradition of hospitality begun in colonial times. It was established in a converted dwelling and had "dance hall privileges and tobacco selling privileges. "9 This is the present Lazy Susan Inn, located on the land formerly owned by the Wagener family, and overlooking the grave of Peter Wagener in the meadow below.
In 1952, a subdivision was developed along the south side of Colchester Road by Hugh Williams, who owned the land which was formerly Potter's." 0
This was known as Colchester. A dozen houses were built along the road but no large scale development ensued. The unsold back lots and a 122 acre tract on the south and east were sold three years later to McCue Properties, Inc. 1 A high-density townhouse and apartment complex was proposed on this tract in 1965; the required rezoning was denied by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors as a premature venture in this undeveloped area. 12
Another proposal had been considered by Fairfax County for the Colchester area. A committee was chosen by the Board in 1964 to investigate the feasibility of establishing a major seaport on Belmont Bay. It was considered to be a logical spot because of the proximity of rail and highway transportation. After a year's study, the plan which was proposed, involving dredging of the Potomac channel and filling in the bay for use as a major heavy industrial center, did not meet with the approval of the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers and the scheme was dropped. 13
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Still another proposal was considered in 1967. At that time the Solite Corporation requested a change in zoning to set up a portable cement batching plant in the vicinity of the railroad tracks. 14 This was opposed as being detrimental to the residential and recreational pattern of the area. Since that time the developmental trend has been oriented mostly toward residential and recreational use. Harbor View, on the north side of Massey Creek, was begun in the early 1960's.
Park Development
In the spring of 1965, plans were announced for a satellite city on an 1,821 acre tract on Mason Neck, to be known as King's Landing. A two year controversy ensued between developers and conservation groups, spearheaded by the Conservation Committee for Mason Neck, before this proposal was defeated. Local efforts, under the leadership of Elizabeth Hartwell, to preserve a wilderness area and bald eagle nesting ground led to the formation of a major park network on Mason Neck and along the -Occoquan. 15 In June 1967, the Nature Conservancy purchased 1,711 acres on the Neck to hold until local, regional, state and federal funds become available for acquisition. By 1970, some 3,000 acres had been reserved in this fashion. 16
As a result, 5,000 acres of parkland have been set aside on Mason Neck. These include a 950 acre Federal Wildlife Refuge at the Great Marsh, a 1,000 acre Pohick Bay Regional Park and 1, 100 acre Potomac Shoreline Regional Park. The State of Virginia has 556 acres at Gunston Hall and plans a 2, 000 acre State Park in the Kane Creek area . 17
In addition to the parkland here, the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority owns 4, 693 acres on Bull Run and the Occoquan River in another regional park and plans to enlarge these holdings. Because of the increasing area of green space in the vicinity, Colchester's future seems to be less vulnerable to the prospect of industrial encroachment than it has been in recent years.
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Chapter VIII Notes
1
H. R. 101, 73rd Cong., 1st Sess., (1933), pp. 7,33. "The Potomac River and its Tributaries Including Occoquan Creek."
2 Interview with Mary Beach, granddaughter of John S. Beach, September
1971.
3 Fairfax County Deed Book P-7, p. 514.
4 Letter File 1906-1915, Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac Railroad Company, Broad Street Station, Richmond, Virginia. Letters of April 30, 1914; December 31, 1915; January 5, 1916. The Railroad archives include manuscript deeds for properties along their right-of-way.
5
Letter from W. W. Young, Special Representative, RF&P RR., to author, February 4, 1971.
6 Fairfax County Register of Marriages, February 18, 1881.
7 Fairfax County Deed Book 1-5, p. 22, Harrison to Beach, three acres; G-5, p. 435, Potter to Beach, one acre; 0-5, p. 232, Smith to Beach, 22 acres. These were bought in 1883, 1888 and 1892.
8 Fairfax County Chancery File #112, Beach v. Hyde. This suit was filed in 1911 after Hyde, who had acquired the Potter farm and town land, ploughed through the street and denied Beach access to Colchester Road. Amanda Weston testified that she had used this as a street for the past 35 years, and that it had been and was still a public street in the old town of Colchester.
9 Fairfax County Deed Book 786, p. 453.
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10 Fairfax County Deed Book 1025, p. 204. Potter's 148 acre Colchester Farm had been sold to John T. Downey in 1890 (Deed Book J-5, p. 362) and by him to A. T. Hyde in 1900 (Deed Book E-6, p. 228.) Hyde's widow left this acreage to her nephew Hugh Williams in 1936 (Will Book 16, p. 367).
11 Fairfax County Deed Book 1371, p. 328.
12
Fairfax Sun-Echo, January 21, 1965.
13 Alexandria Gazette, July 1, 1964; Evening Star, November 30, 1964; Washington Post, June 17, 1965.
14 Interview with Robert Duncan, April 1971.
15 Fairfax Sun-Echo, June 15, 1961; Evening Star, June 6, 1966, December 21, 1966, July 30, 1967, June 14, 1970 ("Sunday" Magazine); Washington Post, November 11, 1965, April 21, 1966, December 20, 1966, April 9, 1967, July 2, 1967, October 26, 1967, April 4, 1969.
16 Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, Weekly Agenda, March 30, 1971.
17
Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority, Proposed Five Year Capital Improvement Program 1972-1976.
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Figure 27. Fairfax Arms, c. 1923, south front. Addie Mae Beach Cox Collection.
Figure 28. Fairfax Arms, c. 1934, southeast corner. Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress.
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Chapter IX ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTIONS
The Duncan House
This one and a half story white frame structure traditionally known as "Fairfax Arms," is built upon a high stone foundation, with exterior flanking stone chimneys. The upper sections of the two chimneys are freestanding and have been repaired with modern brick laid in American bond. The house has a gable roof with hipped dormers.
The building stands almost a full story above street level. A concrete porch replaces the high stoop shown in a 1934 photograph. This change was made by R. R. Gillingham. A small vestibule at the rear door of the house is also a twentieth century addition. Except for these additions, the only changes which have been made to the exterior of the dwelling are those of normal maintenance - replacement of broken windowpanes, worn shingles and fresh coats of paint.
The twin front entrances are original. This feature, usual in structures built as taverns, is found also at Mount Gilead in Centreville. Other Northern Virginia houses such as Dunbarton, near Dranesville, and the Ayre house on U. S. Route 50 at Chantilly, formerly had two front doors. A photograph of Rippon Lodge, in Prince William County, made prior to restoration in 1924,1 reveals the same entrance pattern.
The first floor room layout has been described by T. Triplett Russell, A. I.A., as "an almost classic example of buildings built originally to serve as an inn, with separate doors leading to the ladies' parlor and the men's saloon-bar." (The lots upon which the Duncan house stands were advertised in 1767 as having a dwelling "suitable for an ordinary.")2 Russell, a partner in the architectural firm of Russell-Melton Associates in Miami, Florida, has made an extensive study of Northern Virginia houses. In March 1971, he examined the Duncan residence.
The house is entered through the eastern of the two doors into the former ladies' parlor, now a dining room. From this small but well-proportioned room, measuring 13 feet, 5 inches by 13 feet 8 inches, a door on the west wall leads into the living room once used as a saloon-bar. Access to the upper story by an enclosed stairway is provided by a door on the north wall and another in the west wall of the rear room (the present kitchen). In this way female travelers could reach the stairs without having to pass through the gentlemen's section.
The present dining room has a fireplace in the northeast corner with a two foot, 11 inch opening and a simple wooden mantel six feet in length. Above the mantel the off-white plastered wall curves gently from the east exterior side of the house toward the rear interior wall. Built into this rear (north) wall on the side opposite the fireplace is a cupboard with butterfly shelves and a glass-paned door. "The door frame is
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extremely light and may be original. The glass is old, although not quite the color one might expect of eighteenth century panes, " according to Mr. Russell. This door was found in an outbuilding and put back in place by the present owners.
The hearth has been replaced by modern tiles. The fireplace which backs up to this one has no mantel and only a simple brick arch across the top. The latter is in the rear room, now used as a kitchen. This room measures 16 feet, 7 inches by 10 feet, 9 inches. There is an exterior door on the north wall and another on the west side of the room. The south wall contains the door into the dining room and ceiling-high cupboards. There is no molding in this room. New kitchen appliances were installed in 1971.
The men's saloon, on the west side of the house, is now used as a living room. Like the ladies' parlor, it has a corner fireplace with a simple carpenter classic mantel in the northwest corner of the room. Both fireplaces are on the exterior walls. The woodwork and mantels in both rooms appear to be original, and the chair rail and crown mold are intriguingly askew. In the living room the crown molding does not continue across the chimney breast, which may indicate that the upper part of the chimney had a different shape when first built. It is also possible, according to Mr. Russell, that this section of the molding has been removed or that the molding was added at some time after the house was built.
The outstanding feature of this room is the built-in cupboard on the rear (north) wall, reaching from floor to ceiling. It has five butterfly shelves. The top shelf is original, the others less delicately fashioned. The chair rail is continuous across the front of the cupboard at the level of the second shelf. There are indications that cup- board doors may once have been in place below the level of the chair rail, and that the upper section of the cupboard had open shelves accessible from the bar in the rear. The cupboard is now backed with three wide vertical boards, old but probably not there originally. The top shelf is the only one with bevelled edge. The cupboard framing is fluted. The shelves are 18 inches wide.
On either side of the cupboard is a doorway. The one on the right leads to the stairway, while the left doorway gives access to 9 by 11 foot barroom. There is no door between these two rooms, although a notch in the left door jamb at waist-level may have accommodated a wooden bar to prevent access by the public when the rear room was unattended. If this was the case, the right door jamb has been replaced. There is no corresponding notch on this side. The bar itself has been removed and the area on the east side of this small room (beneath the stairs) was probably once used for storage. This room has no ornamentation except for a bevelled base molding.
The wall in the southwest corner of the bar curves to accommodate the chimney breast, although there is no fireplace in this room at this time. The curvature of the wall corresponds with that in the living room.
There was a break in the chair rail adjacent to the west side of the fireplace in the living room. This strip, 12 inches in length, has been replaced by the present owners. They feel that this section may have been bare, with the space used for fire- place equipment or a woodpile. On this west wall the crown molding is of eneven depth, being about two inches shorter where it terminates at the chimney breast than at the front corner of the wall.
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Figure 29. Floor plans of the Duncan house. Fairfax Arms, 1975.
Duncan House
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An east door goes into the dining room. The exterior door on the south wall is not presently used. The living room measures 15 feet by 17 feet, 6 inches. Throughout the first floor the doorways are six feet high and the ceiling height is 10 feet.
The windows in the front rooms have nine over nine panes, some of which still have the old glass. Part of the window sash has been replaced but the rest is very old. According to Mr. Russell there is a small amount of old hardware but none which seems to be of the period when the house was built. The oak flooring on the first floor was installed by A. R. Roberts, who bought the house in 1941. At that time the old flooring was covered with linoleum. 3 Since the present floor is about an inch higher than the hearths the original boards may still be in place underneath. On the first floor of the house the Duncans have removed many layers of wallpaper and left the plastered walls off-white, with the woodworld an antique gold.
The enclosed stairway, 2 feet, 7 inches wide, pivots and reverses direction half- way up to the second story. This floor now has three bedrooms and a hall bath but there were probably only two rooms originally. The bedroom across the west side of the house is 8 feet, 8 inches by 19 feet: the rest of the upper floor was very likely unpartitioned and used as a male sleeping quarters. The present owners were told that there had once been a fireplace in the center of the east exterior wall, which is now bisected by the partition between bwo bedrooms.
Original wide floor boards remain on the second story. There are four dormer windows: the ones on the north of the house have 19 inch deep windowseats but those on the south side are much more shallow (six inches deep). On the rear windows the panes are four over four and the sash may be original. The windows on the east and west walls have two over two panes.
The west bedroom shows indications of a former fireplace centered on the exterior wall. Flooring over the hearth area, 5 feet, 8 inches in length, is not the same as the rest of the boards. In 1971, the west wall was opened up and a small opening (about 18 inches by 24 inches) discovered about 30 inches above floor level. Mrs. Duncan stated that it was similar in appearance to a bedroom fireplace in Gadsby's Tavern in Alexandria, Virginia.
The east bedrooms have dimensions of 10 feet, 6 inches by 16 feet, 6 inches and 10 feet by 16 feet, 4 inches. Freestanding closets have been placed in the three bed- rooms to avoid structural alterations.
The massive stone chimneys on the east and west ends of the house are said to have five flues, although in Mr. Russell's opinion the upper portions appear to be too slender for this to be the case. He feels that when the tops of the chimneys were re- built that narrow flues may have been included to accommodate stoves in the upper rooms. One observer who saw the house (then untenanted) before 1927 remembers that only the lower portions of the chimneys were intact. 4
In the stone basement, entered at ground level on the west, a portion of an arched brick fireplace remains. The modern furnace utilizes the flue of the adjacent basement fireplace, and the east wall shows traces of another previous fireplace. Before the house was adapted for modern living the basement was used as a kitchen (until 1927) and had a dirt floor. 5
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The framing of the first floor, as seen from the basement, is, in architect Russell's view, "a truly remarkable bit of colonial engineering in timber construction." There were originally no interior vertical supports other than the stone perimeter walls. 6 About midway of the length of the house is an immense timber spanning front to rear. Two almost equally large crossbeams are mortised into the side of this beam. They are not supported by the exterior walls but are in turn mortised into immense relieving beams. The traverse beams are offset from each other to give greater support and are pegged as well as notched against shifting. The mortise is locked into place by wooden pegs with roughly carved heads. Floor joists are mortised into these timbers so that the bottoms of all framing members are ab about the same level. "It is difficult to say why the original owner went to such lengths to preserve the clear span of the basement area," Mr. Russell commented, "but the result is extremely interesting."
The house has been owned by Mr. and Mrs. Robert Duncan, of Alexandria, since 1955 and used as their country residence. Both are deeply interested in Virginia history. Mr. Duncan has served as past president of the state society of the Sons of the American Revolution, his wife as President-General of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. In addition, Mrs. Duncan has written a genealogy of the Moncure family and is a member of the Advisory Board of the Virginia Bicentennial Commission. They redecorated their house in 1971, installing a new kitchen and building an enclosed swimming pool to the east of the house behind the miniature boxwood garden. The other dwelling on their land was remodeled in May 1972, for use as a guest house.
Aside from the basic modernization done by R. R. Gillingham after his purchase in 1927 (bathroom, plumbing and heating), "The building has fortunately been little altered externally or internally and presents much the same appearance as it did in colonial days. "7
The chain of title to the Duncan house, like that of most of the property in Colchester, is complex. A court decree in 1962 established the title of the present owners of the tier of lots on the north side of Colchester Road.8 Twentieth century ownership is clearly traced back from the Duncan's purchase in 1955. They bought the property from A. H. Roberts, who had owned the house since 1941. The previous owner, R. Roberts Gillingham, bought it in 1927 from A. T. Hyde.
Hyde was a surveyor who lived in Oil City, Pennsylvania. He had purchased land in Colchester in 1900. During his ownership Hyde appears to have used the house as a residence for his tenant farmer.9 For his own use he built a new house before 1920, utilizing gravestones from the town cemetery as steps on his front porch. " Situated near the northwest corner of Colchester Road and Furnace Road, this dwelling burned in 1939
His purchases in 1900 included three acres at this intersection bought from Weston11 and another three acres from G. T. Hughes. 12 In addition to this Hyde bought the 148 acre Colchester Farm13 which had formerly belonged to the Potters.
The descriptions of the two three-acre tracts are not precise. Both were bounded by Colchester Road. The Weston parcel, according to the deed, was also bounded by Ox Road and land belonging to Hughes. This would appear to place the Hughes parcel west of the corner tract, therefore the Duncan house seems to be within the Hughes property. Both parcels are presently owned by Mr. Duncan. A check with his title attorneys, Davis & Ruffner, elicited the information that the only possible way to
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Figure 30. View of the Metzger house, c. 1923, south front. Addie Mae Beach Cox Collection.
Figure 31. View of Metzger house, 1970, west side. Netherton photo.
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determine which parcel included the present house would be the discovery of a building- location survey. These were rarely made in rural areas before 1960, according to Mr. Michael Horan of Davis & Ruffner, and then only in cases where a dispute had arisen. No such survey has been located.
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