By Tony P. Wrenn Published by the Fairfax County Division of Planning under the direction of the County Board of Supervisors in cooperation with the County History Commission Fairfax, Virginia November 1971 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 76-183058 Typography by ARVA Printers, Inc. Printing by ARVA Printers, Inc. Additional copies available for $1.50 from Administrative Services, Massey Building...

I first visited Huntley in May, 1969 in the company of Edith Sprouse, Joyce Wilkinson, and Tony Wrenn. Neither I nor anyone else on the staff of the Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission had ever seen or heard of the house, and my Fairfax guides were anxious that their "discovery" be brought to our attention. Having assumed that anything of interest in that section of Fairfax County had long been swept away for housing developments, I was in no way prepared when suddenly we rounded a corner and

This study was undertaken at the request of the Fairfax County History Commission in 1969, when Mrs. William E. Wilkinson was chairman, and in cooperation with the Fairfax County Division of Planning. Colonel and Mrs. Ransom Amlong, owners of Huntley and their son Bill answered the author's numerous questions and gave him free rein to wander through the house and site. Edith Moore Sprouse provided frequent research leads and both E. Blaine Cliver, restoration architect, and Calder Loth, architec

It is difficult to understand how a house whose history is closely connected to the well-known Mason family has existed, practically without notice or mention, for one hundred and fifty years. This fact is all the more puzzling when the structure is as architecturally important as "Huntley." Several possible explanations come to mind: * Though near a major highway, the house is isolated on its hillside site. * Because the structure has been somewhat altered, close inspection is necessary before

THE MASON FAMILY The first George Mason came to Virginia during the middle of the seventeenth century. [3] Two other Georges followed before 1725, when the fourth George Mason, "The Pen of the Revolution," was born. Movement of the Mason family had been gradually northward, from Norfolk, then to Stafford and Prince William Counties in Virginia, across the Potomac River to Charles County, Maryland, and then back to Fairfax County in Virginia where, in 1758, George Mason IV built Gunston Hall. The

HUNTLEY AND ITS OWNERS Location and Site Huntley, 6918 Harrison Lane, near Woodlawn Plantation, Fairfax County, Virginia, is currently owned by Colonel and Mrs. Ransom G. Amlong. It is located off the Jefferson Davis Highway (U.S. Route 1), in the Groveton community, on Harrison Lane, between Lockheed Boulevard and Kings Highway (Route 633). The house is on a plateau, overlooking Hybla Valley, at 150 feet above sea level. To the south, or in front of the house, the ground level drops in three te

AN ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION [51] The buildings currently comprising the Huntley complex include the mansion house, the tenant house, the storage and necessary house, the ice house, the root cellar and the spring house. The Dwelling or Mansion House Huntley, the mansion house, is of brick construction. The brick is laid in common, or American, bond, with five courses of stretchers to one of headers. Average brick size is eight and three-eights inches by four inches by two and one-quarter inches

THE ARCHITECT OF HUNTLEY The construction of Huntley was probably not supervised by an architect. There are too many imperfections for that. At the same time, it is too architectonic to have either evolved or been put together from style manuals. It is likely instead that the building derived from an architect's plan. The Architectural Plan The mansion house at Huntley has remarkable refinement for a secondary house of a Virginia planter's family. This includes not only concept, scale, and the m

It should be clear from the picture of Mason which emerges from an earlier part of this report that his tastes and his capabilities could have included a house designed by a known architect. His family ties, educational background, travels, position and social standing evidence the highest standards of his day. His acquisition of Colross, his sensitive repairs of that structure and the manner in which he seems to have furnished the house again indicate taste and awareness of current architectura

SOME MASON HOUSES IN NORTHERN VIRGINIA Mason land holdings were vast in Stafford, Prince William, Loudoun and Fairfax Counties in Virginia, and in Maryland and Kentucky. In the northern Virginia area the Masons built or occupied a number of houses many of which are mentioned here. Thomson Francis Mason Houses 501 Cameron Street , Alexandria. This is believed to be the "large and comodious" dwelling which, according to an 1823 entry in the Alexandria Gazette , Mason was renting at the corner of C

CHAIN OF TITLE 1949—June 11, Deed Book 694, page 400: AUGUST & ELEANOR S. NAGEL to RANSOM G. AND MARGUERITE K. AMLONG. 1946—September 1, Deed Book 515, p. 60: ARMISTEAD L. BOOTH, executor under the will of ALBERT R. HARRISON to AUGUST W. & ELEANOR S. NAGEL. 1911—April 5, Liber J, No. 7, p. 22: CLARA B. HARRISON, UNMARRIED, MARY C. HARRISON, UNMARRIED, ALBERT R. HARRISON, UNMARRIED, first part , MARGARET N. HARRISON GIBBS AND HER HUSBAND J. NORMAN GIBBS, second part . (Albert W. H

Books Aikman, Lonnelle, We the People . Washington: U.S. Capitol Historical Society, 1965. Caemmerer, H. Paul. Historic Washington. Washington: Columbia Historical Society, 1966. Carne, William F. Alexandria Business Book. Alexandria: M, Hill Co., 1897. Cunningham, Harry F.; Younger, Joseph A.; and Smith, Wilmer. Measured Drawings of Georgian Architecture in the District of Columbia, 1750-1820. New York: Architectural Book Co., 1914. Davis, Derring; Dorsey, Stephen P.; and Hall, Ralph Cole. Geor