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15483 Second Street

The Livery Stable served the transportation needs of Waterford from at least 1851 to the mid-twentieth century, when it was converted first to an antique shop and, in the 1990s, a residence. The 1851 deed mentions the property in conjunction with a hotel/store in the center of the village [The Pink House] suggesting it may have served customers of that enterprise.

In the early 1890s it was the site of T. C. Baker’s “new and nobby livery stable,” featuring “fine carriages, neat buggies, spacious wagons [and] graceful carts,” not to mention “excellent horses.” But those horses could be a problem: the town ordinances prohibited the keeper of livery stables from accumulating more than one cart load of manure at one time from June through November.

At the turn of the century a multi-structure fire near the Livery Stable made a hero of Albert Shawen, who “stayed on top of one of the barns until the hair on his head was burned completely off and his face and arms scorched.”

The livery stable’s most harrowing event occurred on July 23, 1900, when a number of people gathered in the shop to wait out an evening thunderstorm. A visiting Spanish-American War veteran, Warren O’Hara, exchanged words with local farm boy Ernest Mullen, about young Nettie Rinker. The argument escalated, resulting in Mullen’s killing O’Hara with a club. A local posse tracked down the shaken killer almost immediately. He was convicted of murder but served a short sentence.

In the early 20^th century, Ed Beans owned the livery operation; he rented buggies, carriages and horses to everyone from traveling salesmen to villagers needing transportation to a church picnic. One of his horses, “Old John,” was a fine navigator. He was known to deliver his passengers to a favorite bar in Maryland, then when the imbibers were no longer able to “drive,” deliver them safely home, often sound asleep.

The Livery Stable is open through the courtesy of Peter Thomas.

40180 Main Street

The ground floor of this home was built “as a ware-house” by Quaker John W. Williams (1771-1840) proprietor of a general store across the street, now the Waterford Post Office.
Williams, one of the first four commissioners of a fledgling Waterford in 1801, was much involved in the early life of the village that was finally incorporated in 1836. Active also in the affairs of Fairfax Monthly Meeting, he and his son William (1816-1892) along with other members of his family, would play a large role in the development of Waterford through the 19th century.
The upper floors, built later, were added possibly after December 1832, when tailor Phineas J. Steer, then in a smaller shop nearby, advertised in the Genius of Liberty, a Leesburg newspaper:

“Journeymen Tailors Wanted.
The subscriber wants, immediately, two first-rate Journeymen Tailors,
to whom he will give constant work, and good prices.
An apprentice also, of good morals, and between the ages of 12 and 15 years, will be taken.
PHINEAS J. STEER.
Waterford, 12th mo. [December] 1st, 1832.”

Two years later he advertised his growing business in the same paper:

Phineas J. Steer,
Informs his friends and the public, that,
having taken the stand formerly occupied as a ware-room, between Dunham’s Store and Klein’s Tavern,
he is prepared to wait upon them, both at the stores and at his shop;
where he will thankfully receive their
TAILORING:
Fine or coarse, imported or home-made—
pledging himself that none shall surpass him,
either in cheapness or excellence of workmanship.
Persons about to get clothes, would do well first to give him a call.
Waterford 1st 3d mo. [March] 1834

A succession of owners followed, some residing there, others renting out the space. An 1853 village map names William Nettle, a fine Pennsylvania carpenter residing on Second Street, as an owner, and another map of 1875 showed Nettle’s widow Sarah still owning it. Mr. John Rollison, owner of the Hardware Store on Second Street, later purchased it. Long-time residents remember Mr. Rollison walking to the town pump for his water as long as he lived there. Richard and Elaine Head bought it after Mr. Rollison died in 1986, hoping to update it but changed their plans and sold it a few years later. Richard Storch modernized the house, adding plumbing, among other amenities.

The Iron Store House is open through the courtesy of Susanne Page.

15620 Second Street

Quakers Jacob Mendenhall (1788-1822) and his wife, the former Beulah Thomas, were “received on certificate from Baltimore Monthly Meeting” in 1813. The couple immediately settled into their new village, buying two quarter-acre lots from the estate of Mahlon Janney in 1814 for $97.25 and constructing the house shortly thereafter.  It was built of locally made brick and has two front doors, a feature more commonly seen in Pennsylvania.

As a new member of Fairfax Meeting in 1815, Jacob served on a meeting committee to establish a school for Quaker education and became headmaster that year. One of his students, Noah Swayne, later achieved prominence when appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court by Abraham Lincoln in 1862.

Mendenhall and Isaac Walker owned and operated a store in Waterford from 1816 to1819. Mendenhall was a stockholder and cashier of the first bank in Loudoun County—also in Waterford—where he was responsible for day-to-day operations. Jacob served as clerk of Fairfax Meeting.

Jacob’s only child, Hannah, who inherited the house after her father died in 1822,   operated a school in the large first-floor room in the 1830s. She married Lewis D. Worley, postmaster of Waterford, in 1838. One of their daughters, Susan Worley, taught at Frying Pan Road School in Fairfax County and boarded at nearby Sully Plantation.

In 1867 the Worleys sold the house to Rachel Steer, who made it her home for 20 years. Rachel (1814 –1912) is buried in the Quaker Cemetery.

In 1896 the house was conveyed to the Methodist Church and was used as a parsonage for almost 50 years. The brick kitchen wing burned in 1915 and was replaced with a larger frame addition.

The most recent addition (to the rear of the house) was completed in 2009.

The Jacob Mendenhall House is protected through a preservation easement to the Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission.

The Jacob Mendenhall House is open through the courtesy of Bob and Judy Jackson.

40162 Main Street

Open on Friday: 1:30pm to 5pm

The structures that now comprise 40162 Main Street were originally two separate commercial buildings built at different times – Palmer House (the stone house also known as the Charles Divine House – built ca. 1797) and Talbott’s Tavern (the extension of Talbott House was built c. 1811).  Palmer House and Talbott’s Tavern were combined in the 1950s.

The stone house on the left-hand side of the block as you face the buildings is referred to as Palmer House.  Palmer House was one of the early structures built on Main Street in Waterford and was thought to have been built in 1797 by Quaker John Williams.  This structure pre-dated Talbott’s Tavern (next door) which was constructed in the early 1800’s.  In 1808, Joseph Talbott, the owner of the “soon-to-be-constructed” Talbott House at 40170 Main Street, leased the first floor of Palmer House for his saddle making shop.  In its early years, Palmer House was known as the Charles Divine House, named after one of its earliest owners.  Palmer House, as it has more recently come to be known, wasn’t owned by Alfonzo Palmer, a local farm worker, until 1906.

Talbott’s Tavern (the extension to Talbott House), the stone and brick structure on the right-hand side of Palmer House was an addition to the original Talbott House at 40170 Main Street.  This addition to Talbott House became known as Talbott’s Tavern and was thought to have been constructed in approximately 1811.  This expansion to Talbott House enable Talbott to host more guests and hold meetings in the large room on the 2^nd floor.  At the time, open doorways between the structures allowed guests to flow freely between the two buildings.

Both Palmer House and Talbott’s Tavern were originally just one-story, however they eventually became two-story structures with retail located on the first level and more refined guest spaces upstairs.  Later, the third and fourth floors were added to each side.  A large porch spanned the front of the buildings and patrons would enter the 2^nd story via the front porch stairs.  The downstairs rooms were very rudimentary and likely had dirt, brick, stone, or wood floors.

Talbott’s Tavern is open through the courtesy of Kay Chewning.

40132 Bond Street

Joseph Janney (c. 1740-about 1793), a Quaker merchant and near relative of Amos Janney, Waterford’s founder, built a log structure here between 1781 and 1784. When Janney moved to Strawberry Vale, his farm a few miles north of the village in 1785, this house was purchased by Thomas Moore, Jr. Thomas’s brother Asa, a tanner, bought the property in April 1799 for 400 pounds. Asa and Thomas Moore Jr.’s sister Elizabeth married Joseph Bond. The Bond family, who married members of the Moore and Phillips families, then made this their home, with periodic additions and alterations, until 1886.

Joseph Janney, although he died relatively young, made his mark as a strong eighteenth-century real estate presence in the village, along with founder Amos Janney, and his son Mahlon. Joseph purchased 12 acres from Francis Hague’s estate in 1781and began selling lots on both sides of Main Street, nearly to the center of town; these boundaries remain essentially unchanged today. He built a second house on one of his lots, now the Joseph Janney house at 40154 Main Street, after selling this house. His will, probated in October 1793, left numerous town and country properties to his widow and several children.

This particular house, on one of the oldest settled streets in the village, was insured by its subsequent owner Thomas Phillips or his heirs in 1803, 1805, 1816, 1827, 1845 and 1859. Copies of these insurance policies are available at the Waterford Foundation Archive and Local History Collection. As of 1803 the Mutual Assurance Company of Virginia described it as a “two-story frame house, 17 x 24, with a one-story brick wing 17 x 23”; it was insured for $1,100.

Relatives by marriage James Moore (brother of Asa, Thomas and Elizabeth, above) and Thomas Phillips ran the tanyard in front of the house in Bond Street Meadow. Eventually “Back Street” was renamed “Bond Street” in the family’s honor. Asa Moore Bond was the final owner of the tanyard, which lasted into the 1870s.

About 1900, Ernest Linwood James bought this house and eight acres. His family sold the property upon the death of his daughter Eleanor in 1986. The Waterford Foundation, fearing the land would be developed, purchased it, selling two home sites and two of the historic homes (Janney Phillips and Asa Moore) to finance the purchase of the remaining land, barn, ice house and meadow.

The Janney-Phillips House is open through the courtesy of Abbie and Bowman Cutter.