GENERAL SETTING. Green Spring Farm is located in Mason Magisterial
District, approximately one-eighth mile north of Little River Turnpike
and one-eighth mile east of Braddock Road. Via the Little River
Turnpike, the farm is approximately six miles west of Alexandria and
approximately two miles east of Annandale.
The terrain in the vicinity of the farm is mainly flat, with some very
gentle rolling areas. It is well watered, being crossed by Turkey Cock
Run. During 1946-50, three ponds were dug in back of the house. They
are spring-fed, and their runoff drains into Turkey Cock Run. With the
original forest cover cleared off at least 200 years ago, the present
clusters of pine and oak, and the incidence of hemlock, cherry,
crabapple, and other flowering species, represent a reforestation
several generations removed from the original, and, in other
instances, the landscaping done by the Straights in the late 1940's.
HOUSE SITE. The mansion house faces south and is connected with the
Little River Turnpike by a black-top (asphalt-surfaced) road which
passes on the west side of the house and runs north to Braddock Road.
Inside the post and rail fence, alongside this road, the driveway up
to the house is lined with trees, and the yard in front of the house
is open and flat. Between the lawn and the road, a line of cedars in
the fence row serves as a screen.
The back (north side) of the house faces a semicircular open grass
lawn, bordered with hedges which provide both a screen for the lawn
and a background for several stone carvings and cement castings which
decorate a lawn approximately 1,500 square feet in size. At the
northeast corner of this open space is located the log cabin; beyond
the log cabin, approximately 110 feet in a northeasterly direction, is
the barn, which is converted into living quarters.[85]
Northwest of the main house, facing on Green Spring Road, is the
spring house. Originally built over a series of natural springs in
order to have water for cooling dairy products, this stone house was
converted into a small dwelling house by the Straights in 1942.
GENERAL ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN AND HISTORY. In its present condition,
the mansion house at Green Spring Farm cannot be considered to
represent any particular period of American architecture. The original
core of the building illustrates a design which was typical of the
colonial era in Tidewater Virginia. This portion of the house is of
brick construction, two stories plus attic and cellar, with the rooms
in each end of the house separated by a center hallway. Large chimneys
at each end of the house made possible heating by fireplaces in each
room.
It seems probable that this structure formed the core of the mansion
house when it was occupied by the Moss family (1770's to 1835). To
this core, various outbuildings and dependencies were added; a
separate cookhouse or kitchen annex to the main house was one of these
related structures, as were the family's sanitary facilities. Clothes
washing, churning, candlemaking, and various other household tasks
were also performed in separate buildings. No direct evidence of the
appearance of the main house or the various related outbuildings has
been discovered; some inferences about these matters may be drawn from
the inventory of personal property sold from the farm at auction in
1835 and a drawing of the house on an 1840 survey (figure 2).
Photographs of the south side of the house show the building as it
appeared in 1885 (figure 5). At this time, a one-story porch had been
built across the entire length of the front. The entry into the house
across this porch was open, but on each side of the front door the
porch was enclosed, making small rooms approximately 9 by 12 feet in
size. From each room a door opened out onto the porch. The porch was
roofed with sheet metal, and carved wooden brackets were in the
corners of the center section (figure 5). A sidewalk led from the
entrance in the center of the ivy-covered front porch straight across
the spacious, shaded lawn.
Photographs in 1936 show the front porch removed but with clear signs
of its recent presence showing in the whitewash on the front wall of
the house (figure 7). At this time, the roof of the main house was
sheet metal in place of the earlier use of shingles. However, shingles
still constituted the roofing of the dependency on the east end of the
house.
The 1885 photographs show a one-story brick addition on the east end
of the house. This was a kitchen, built sometime after the main
portion of the house but still probably in the first half of the
nineteenth century. The notice of sale of the farm following Thomas
Moss's death in 1835 speaks of "a Brick Dwelling, containing eight
rooms, Brick Kitchen, Meat House, Servants' House, ..." and other farm
and outbuildings.[86] Of all the buildings mentioned in this notice,
the kitchen appears to be the most logical and appropriate use for
this addition. Later occupants of the house (1880-1917) used this wing
for a kitchen and describe it as not only the center for preparation
of food but for numerous other household activities, such as
candlemaking.[87]
The arrangement of rooms during the nineteenth century is not known
with certainty. The 1839 reference to eight rooms suggests that as
originally built the house had four rooms on each floor, with perhaps
no effort to use the attic as living space, at least until the time of
Fountain Beattie who added dormers to the attic and used this top
floor to help accommodate his large family. This inference is
strengthened by the fact that prior to the 1940's the central core of
the house was laid out in this manner.
[Illustration: Figure 10. GREEN SPRING FARM MANSION HOUSE, Floor Plans,
1969]
The major renovation of the house in the early 1940's was planned and
carried out by Walter Macomber and resulted in the addition of a wing
on the west end of the central block (in which a new kitchen was
installed), conversion of the old kitchen wing on the east end of the
central core into a living room with a small sunporch attached,
rearrangement of the stairways and central hallway, and certain other
interior changes. This involved removal of substantial amounts of the
original materials in the house and replacement by material considered
to be suitable in terms of age and texture. These changes are
reflected in the exterior appearance and interior room arrangement of
the house at the present time.
Further structural changes were made in 1960. At this time it was
discovered that the second floor was sagging because of the removal of
bearing walls in 1942 when the first floor was converted from four
rooms into two.[88] This situation was corrected by pouring concrete
footings in the basement and setting in them a series of steel
columns. These columns ran up through the wall on the west side of the
central hallway and were topped by a steel beam running the width of
the house. The joists for the second floor were anchored in this new
beam.[89]
At the same time this structural reinforcement was being added,
several closets, cabinets, and bookcases were built into the rooms on
the second floor and attic, making use of space under the eaves.
The remodeling done in 1960 was designed and supervised by Keyes,
Lethbridge & Condon, Washington architects.
At the present time, the exterior fabric appears to be sound and well
maintained. On the interior, a certain amount of deterioration is
evidenced in the looseness of the joints in the flooring and stairs
and in the uneven settling of door frames in the original portion of
the house. The grounds adjacent to the house are in good condition and
appear to be well maintained.