  AN ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION 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 thick. Room Arrangement Originally the house was "H" shaped. The center portion is three stories at the front (south), two at the rear, and only one room deep. The wings on either side are two stories at the front, one at the rear and two rooms deep. Construction of the house on the slope of the hill accounts for the difference in height. Major entrances are on the first floor, although a ground floor is located beneath it. The wings project about half their width front and rear from the center section. This arrangement provides a large center room at the first floor level, with two rooms on each side. On the second floor level there is only one large center room, while on the ground floor level there is a large center room with two flanking rooms on each side. Here were the kitchen, various storage rooms, and possibly quarters for the household staff. Every room on the first floor and almost every room on the ground floor had an exterior entrance. There is no obvious physical evidence to indicate the means of access to the second story room. Evidence of a dumbwaiter from the ground floor kitchen area to the floor above still exists in the rear ground floor room of the west wing. A wing has been added to the rear portion of the west side of the house. This is partly brick and partly frame and is of relatively recent construction. The rear of the H-shaped building has been filled in to create a hall space, bath and an enclosed stair to the second floor room. At the second floor level it provides an extra room and a bath. This work is probably nineteenth century, but the exact date is unknown. In front, at the first floor level is a porch addition. This is built around earlier steps which are of quarried stone supported by a brick wall on each side. The present porch roof covers and obscures the brick arch and top of the fanlight over the entrance. There was probably no covered porch on the house originally.
Windows and Doors Windows in the facade are unique in that they are set into recessed brick frames. While the frames in the root cellar are arched, those in the residence are square panels, with the window set into the center of the frame. According to architectural historian E. Blaine Cliver, the exterior window construction is quite simple with a double beaded frame set into the brick two to three inches from the front surface. The simplicity of the window framing, which is Federal in style, would place the house somewhat after the late Colonial period, in the early nineteenth century. Windows on the ground and first floor are six-over-six, double-hung sash, except adjacent to the entrance on the first floor porch where they are four-over-four. Windows on the second floor consist of a single, nine-pane sash, which opens to the side on hinges. The pane size is eight and a half inches by ten inches and a large portion of the glass is early. The exterior shutters consist of a single panel of fixed louvers and much shutter hardware survives. This includes several types of shutter stops, which are generally wrought rather than stamped. A fine boot scraper also exists at the rear first floor entrance. The door entrance in the south front has framing sidelights and an elliptical fanlight with wood tracery. In general, the oval fanlight came into use in the 1790's and went out of common use around 1825; although according to Mr. Cliver it probably was not common in this area until after 1800. The stiles of the entrance are basically the pilaster type although the reeding within the pilaster is rounded rather than flat. An opposing door at the north or rear of the center room was also originally exterior. The keystone over the fanlight has a beaded center portion which is similar to those found in the work of nineteenth century architect Asher Benjamin. Interior Features The center first floor room has a fine mantel which is also similar in proportion to the Federal styles of Benjamin. The mantel is somewhat busy, and a little heavy, yet it has delicate detail and reeding on the sides. The mantels in the side rooms are much simpler, as might be expected in ancillary rooms. Basically, however, their proportions are the same, dateable to the early nineteenth century but with much less style involved. All four of the side mantels are of the same basic design, but each has been given an individual detail or refinement. The second floor room has a simple mantel and moldings. It has the ovolo curve in the molding around the architraves which was common in the eighteenth century and persisted into the nineteenth. Much of the flooring in the house is early, consisting of wide random width pine boards. The saw marks in the subflooring above the ground floor center room are vertical, but apparently from a mechanical saw. Beams under this portion of the house are hand-sawn on one side and broad-axed on the other.
On the ground floor only the kitchen fireplace in the west side is open. There is evidence of a possible oven in the west chimney in the center room. In the east wing the front fireplace has been closed, though a balancing structural arch in the adjacent room is still open. The floor on the ground level was brick but floors in all rooms except the rear room in the east wing have been covered with concrete. Much early hardware remains at Huntley, some of which fits stylistically into the period of construction. Most of it cannot be positively dated. The front door latch, for example, is an old Carpenter-type lock, generally common in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but having no visible manufacturers mark, it cannot be positively dated. Door and window architraves in the center first floor room, and in rooms in the east wing have corner blocks, while those in the west wing do not. Detail of the architraves throughout is early, and those with corner blocks are probably contemporary with the rest of the house. In the center room, first floor, the mantel, door and window architraves, and panelling beneath windows, all have the same molding details, indicating that all woodwork is of the same age. Exterior Features On the two wings the wooden cornice is fairly deep, approximately eight inches, providing a slight projection. This may be indicative of a somewhat later date—moving toward the cornices of the Greek Revival period. They are probably of a later date, but if so, certainly within thirty to forty years after the house was constructed, or no later than the mid-nineteenth century. The saw-tooth cornice line does not run behind the present wooden cornice, indicating, along with the fact that brick bonding continues into the gable end, that the roof configuration on the wings is probably original. The only probable differences between the original roof and that now in place is that the gable ends over the center section were clipped, giving the appearance of a hip roof when seen from the front. This roof continued, shed style, over the wings. There probably were no covered porches and the front porch at the first floor level may have been open above and below. The Tenant House The tenant house is a brick two-story structure with a ridge roof, a slightly off-center interior chimney and a three bay front. The building is approximately thirty-two feet long and twenty-two feet wide. A seven foot projection on the right end, added in this century, houses bath and kitchen facilities. It is approximately two hundred seventy feet west of the mansion house. The brick is laid in common bond, with five courses of stretchers to one of headers. The average brick size is eight and one-half inches by four inches by two and one-eighth inches. The cornice line is composed of three rows of bricks stepped outward. The first and third courses are stretchers and the middle course is composed of headers laid to form a dentil course. This structure burned in 1947; now only the exterior walls are original. All windows, doors and interiors date from remodelling after the fire. As part of the Huntley complex, it is still a visually important building.
The Storage House and Necessary The building referred to by the present owners as the slave quarters does not seem to have been suitable for the housing of human beings, and may actually not have been used for that purpose. It is a one-story brick structure with a ridge roof over three rooms. Neither of the end rooms has a finished floor or ceiling nor do they appear ever to have had finished walls; the windows are wall openings protected by iron bars; each room has four brick diamond-shaped ventilators and neither seems to have been heated—in addition to being open, there are no chimneys or flues. It is likely that both rooms were used for storage spaces and, from the evidence in existing doors and windows, secure ones. The overall measurements of the building are approximately thirty-four feet eight inches by ten feet ten inches, each end room measuring approximately eleven feet eleven inches by ten feet ten inches. The necessary, a privy or outdoor toilet, occupies the central recessed portion between the two end storage rooms. It measures approximately ten feet ten inches by five feet five inches, and includes separate men's and women's sections. Brick in the structure has an average size of nine inches by four and one-quarter inches by two and one-quarter inches. The bond is common, varying from three courses of stretchers to one of headers at the foundations, to five to one at the gable end. Queen closers are used at the corners of the structure. The cornice line is three bricks deep, stepped outward. The bottom and top course are stretchers, while the middle course is set at an angle in a saw-tooth pattern, The structure is symmetrical. Brick ventilators, two in each gable end and two to the rear of each end section, are worked into the brick wall. They are in the shape of a flattened diamond, with sixteen headers eliminated to form the pattern. To the rear of the structure the roof has been replaced, though the front part of the ridge is old. This may be accounted for by the fact that the rear wall is bowed back two or three inches out of plumb. This may be immediately seen in the joint of the wall dividing the storage room on the left from the necessary. This shift could have necessitated the replacement of the roof to the rear. Hand wrought, rose head nails were used in the construction of the doors to the necessary; they may have been used for their clenching properties. The latches are hand wrought, or at least one of the early fabrications. The left door consists of three vertical boards, from left to right; nine, ten and eleven inches in width. The center board is beaded on each side, while the outer boards are undecorated. Hand wrought rose head nails are also used in the construction of the barred windows in the front of the storage rooms. Here they are used structurally, tho the effect is decorative. The bars are iron, and the original frame and bars remain in the left storage unit window. The storage rooms have dirt floors and unfinished ceilings. Bars at the windows, strong doors and the open ventilators would indicate storage areas needing light, ventilation and security. Such an area might be required for any number of farm produced commodities. Both necessaries, in the center portion, are completely finished, with plaster walls, well shaped seats, windows with sash and glass, and brick floors, now covered with concrete. The necessary for men to the right has one seat, while that for women, to the left, has three. Two of these are at ordinary height, while the third is
Part of the lath in the ceiling of the necessary is split; there has been some replacement with sawn lath. Lath nails in a piece of split lath removed from the ceiling probably postdate 1830, while nails used in the seats are cut and probably postdate 1840. The significance of dating these nails is minimal as the interiors could have been finished at any time after the construction of the building. The ceiling and columns of the recessed entrance to the necessaries were recently replaced by the present owners, the Amlongs. They replaced the round columns with square posts. The brick floor laid in a herringbone pattern, if not original, is certainly early. In the absence of documentary material it is difficult to date this structure. It would probably be safe to say that it was built as early as the house, c. 1820, and possibly before. The Icehouse The icehouse, located sixty-six feet northwest of the mansion, is one of the most striking structures at Huntley, and one that differs from most other Virginia icehouses known to the author. It exhibits quality of design and workmanship seldom seen in a utilitarian structure. Most icehouses are square, a simple form which would offer easier construction than the round structure at Huntley. Not only is this structure round, but the roof is hemispherical, forming a complete circular dome. Construction of the dome is all headers. Some of the bricks are fired to a dark color but there is no discernible pattern in the brick work. All of the structure is below ground. At the top of the dome is a square opening of quarried stone which is at ground level. The stone here shows the wear of ropes which were used to lower and raise ice. Most other ice houses are at least partially above ground, with some type of superstructure, or reveted into a bank or side of a hill. The dome is strong enough to support the Amlong automobile, which is parked above it in a recently constructed carport. Access to the icehouse may be had directly from the adjacent root cellar. One stone step exists, in the root cellar wall. There may have been a ladder or wooden steps at one time. The walls between the root cellar and icehouse are separate, indicating that the two structures were constructed at different dates. The Root Cellar This building, located fifty feet northwest of the mansion and adjacent to the icehouse, consists of a one story brick structure above ground, approximately
Evidence of ventilators can be seen on both front and rear. These were barred openings approximately six inches deep with vents to the surface, which were finished with brick and faced with quarried stone at ground level. The bars are now gone, but they were horizontal, instead of vertical as are those in the storage rooms adjacent to the necessary and of approximately the same size. There is no shelving or other built-in furniture to indicate the use of the cellar. Since the room above and the roof are replacements, there is little indication of actual use, and the name "root cellar" has been used only for convenience. The cellar walls are brick, laid in common bond, with three courses of stretchers to one of headers. This bond is uniform for the structure, above and below ground. The average size of bricks is eight and three-eighths by four by two and one-half inches. The plain cornice is uniform, probably indicating that the roof was originally hipped. With the exception of the brick walls, which stand substantially as constructed, the structure has been entirely rebuilt. Windows in these walls are set into brick arches which are decorative rather than structural. The recessed windows of the building like those in the mansion house are of particular interest. Dairy and Springs A dairy or springhouse is located at the base of the hill, some one hundred fifty-six feet southeast of the mansion house, near the point where the south driveway to Huntley meets Harrison Lane. This spring, and the one immediately across the road, form the source of the south branch of Little Hunting Creek, from which derived the early name of Huntley, "Hunting Creek Farm." The springhouse is brick, now overgrown and filled almost completely so that there is no flow of water and original use is difficult to ascertain. The structure may have had a door and shelves in the brick wall. The roof is arched, one brick course deep, and the structure is reveted into the hillside. There is another spring on the hill to the northwest above the mansion house. This, too, is encased with bricks, all below ground, and could have furnished water to the house through gravity flow. Since both this cistern type spring and the springhouse below the mansion house are probably contemporary, the lower one may have served exclusively as a dairy. At least two other springs or shallow wells also exist on the property, providing the headwaters for Barnyard Creek, and for part of Dogue Creek. Early Structures No Longer Standing Though barns existed until the 1950's, none of these, as evidenced by photographs, would seem to date from the period of construction of the house. Some one hundred seventy-one feet west of the tenant house, and in a straight line with the main house, are the remains of a large brick foundation. This foundation supported a sizeable structure in the Huntley complex, which may have been a barn. The ruins are rectangular, and approximately thirty-three by sixty feet.
None of the storage rooms in the outbuildings show any evidence of ever having been used as a smoke house, though the structure over the root cellar may have been used for that purpose. It has been completely remodeled inside, including a floor and roof, and any evidence of smoke house use has been eradicated. Though one would expect to find, in a complete southern plantation complex, barns, slave quarters, and a smoke house, none of these now exist at Huntley, as is the case with most surviving eighteenth and nineteenth century mansions. Chapter 3 Notes
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