  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 Cameron and Pitt Streets. The house is a three-story brick structure, probably built during the first quarter of the nineteenth century. It is still standing. (Alexandria Gazette, March 13, 1823 and November 1, 1833.) Colross, Alexandria, 1100 block of Oronoco Street, block between Oronoco, Pendleton, North Henry and North Fayette. This was an existing house built in the last quarter of the eighteenth century, acquired by Thomson F. Mason in 1833. Mason was buried in a tomb behind the mansion after his death in 1838. The main house was moved to Princeton, New Jersey, in 1929 and rebuilt there. Today the block in Alexandria includes a warehouse, car wash, automobile repair facility and a transformer station. The present location of the remains of Thomson F. Mason, removed from Colross, is not known to the writer. (Mary G. Powell, The History of Alexandria, Va., Richmond, Wm. Byrd Press, 1928, p. 261; New York Herald Tribune, July 7, 1929, "Colross Built 1785, to come to Jersey site."; Mrs. Betty Carter Smoot, Days in an Old Town, Alexandria, privately printed, 1934, pp. 121-32; Henry H. Saylor, Alexandria Virginia, The White Pine Series, New York, Russell F. Whitehead, 1926, (photographs and drawings); plus additional material available in the Alexandria Public Library.) The Hallowell School, 609 Oronoco Street, Alexandria. A two-and-a-half-story brick structure, built circa 1800, it is the companion house to the Lee Home, next door at 607 Oronoco. At 609, Benjamin Hallowell operated a school among whose students was Robert E. Lee. T.F. Mason acquired the house after the Hallowell School moved elsewhere, at public auction on February 9, 1835, though he may have lived there earlier as a tenant. By the time of purchase he was already a resident at Colross, but a sale advertisement for 609 Oronoco Street in 1839 calls it " ... the late residence of the Honorable T. F. Mason ...". The house is still standing. (Deering Davis, Stephen P. Dorsey and Ralph Cole Hall, Alexandria Houses, Cornwall, N.Y. Architectural Book Publishing Co., Inc., 1946, pp. 88-89, 126; Benjamin Hallowell, Autobiography, Philadelphia, Friends Book Association, 1884, pp. 95-120. Alexandria Gazette, August 30, 1839,; Alexandria Deed Book V-2, p. 355(1835).) Huntley, 6918 Harrison Lane, Groveton, Fairfax County. Still standing. Though Huntley was built during Mason's ownership of the property, no record has been found that he actually lived there. 115 South St. Asaph Street, Alexandria, is a two-and-one-half-story brick structure over an English basement built about 1800, and still standing. A sign on the structure says "Home of Thomas Mason, circa 1775." It was purchased by This list includes only part of the real estate owned by Thomson Francis Mason. He lived in the Cameron Street house during the 1820's. He may have lived in either the Oronoco Street or St. Asaph Street houses before he purchased them. At any rate, he purchased Colross, Hallowell School and the St. Asaph Street houses in the decade before his death. He died in 1838 and was buried at Colross. There are long periods of time unaccounted for and probably many real estate transactions which have not yet been documented. Other Mason Houses Analostan, home of General John Mason. Located on the Potomac River in the District of Columbia on Theodore Roosevelt Island, known in the past as Barbadoes, Mason's Island, or Analostan. Built in the 1790's, its design is attributed to George Hadfield. General Mason sold the house about 1833 and moved to Clermont. Parts of the Analostan house stood until the 1930's when they were demolished by the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Association. (Sunday Star, Feb. 6, 1921, Rambler "... History of Analostan Island;" Star, June 4, 1958, Rambler, "Revisits Analostan Island;" Virginia Record, July 1956, p. 9, Mollie Somerville, "George Mason's Island;" Rowland, George Mason, New York, Russell & Russell, 1892 and 1946, Vol I, p. 117; Harry F. Cunningham, Joseph A. Younger, and J. Wilmer Smith, Measured Drawings of Georgian Architecture in the District of Columbia, 1750-1820, New York, Architectural Book Company 1914, Sheets 58-61.) Clermont, which was purchased by General John Mason and to which he and his family moved in 1833. Site near Fairfax County-Alexandria line, off Clermont Drive, near point where the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac tracks cross Cameron Run. It was demolished in the 19th Century. ("Diary of Miss Mason," beginning Sept. 20th 1833, property of Mrs. Augustus Thorndike, partial copy in Gunston Hall archives (Analostan file); Christine Gibson unpublished report, Fairfax County Public Library, Virginiana Collection.) Gunston Hall, home of George Mason IV, in Fairfax County. The house is a one-and-one-half-story brick structure, with interiors by William Buckland joiner and architect. In the garden is one of America's best surviving stands of English Boxwood. The house still stands on Route 242, 4 miles southeast of Route 1, and south of Fort Belvoir. It is owned by the Commonwealth of Virginia and administered as an historic house museum by a Board of Regents of the National Society of Colonial Dames. (Thomas Tileston Waterman, The Mansions of Virginia, Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 1946.) Hollin Hall, built for and occupied by General Thomson Mason, son of George Mason IV of Gunston Hall, and father of T.F. Mason. It was a two-story frame structure, which burned early in the nineteenth century. Part of the complex may still exist, or be incorporated into the present structure known as Little Hollin Hall at 1901 Sherwood Hall Lane, in Fairfax County south of Alexandria. (Rowland, George Mason, New York, Russell & Russell, 1892 and 1946, Volume II, pps. 307, 351, and numerous others; Hollin Hills Bulletin, May 1969, June-July, 1969.) Lexington, in Fairfax County, built for George Mason V, son of George of Gunston Hall and uncle of T.F. Mason. The house stood on Mason Neck, near Gunston Hall. The structure burned in the nineteenth century. (Rowland, George Mason, New York, Russell & Russell, 1892 and 1946, Volume I, p. 112; Edith Moore Sprouse, Lexington, unpublished report, June 1967, Virginiana Files, Fairfax County Public Library.) Okeley, home of Richard Chichester Mason, brother of T.F. Mason. The structure was destroyed during the Civil War. It was located in Fairfax County on S. Kings Highway, just south of Huntley. (Rowland, George Mason, New York, Russell & Russell, 1892 and 1946, Volume II, p. 473; Alexandria Gazette, March 30, 1841). Spring Bank, owned by George Mason, son of William Mason and first cousin of T.F. Mason. There may have been an earlier structure on the site, but the house in which this George Mason lived is a two-story brick structure, built about 1850, which is still standing. It is located at Penn Daw in Fairfax County in the Spring Bank Trailer Park, at the intersection of Kings Highway and the Jefferson Davis Highway (Route 1). (Rowland, George Mason, New York, Russell & Russell, 1892 and 1946, Volume II, pps. 366, 369, and others.) Woodbridge, home of Thomas, son of George of Gunston Hall, and uncle of T.F. Mason. It stood in Prince William County almost directly across Occoquan River from Colchester and was demolished prior to 1892. (Rowland, George Mason, New York, Russell & Russell, 1892 and 1946, Volume I, p. 112.) |
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