Waterford Fair

78th American Crafts & Historic Homes Tour

2022 Homes

Monroe Hough House (#7 on map)

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This house stands on lots 20 and 26 of a 64-lot of land owned by Quaker Mahlon Janney and auctioned after his death in 1812. In 1851, Carpenter Samuel C. Hough (1811-1887) a

Methodist, purchased the two lots, still-undeveloped. Shortly before he died in 1887, one of his and Mary Smallwood Hough’s nine children, Andrew Monroe Hough (1852-1915) bought the pair for $95 and combined them into one lot.

By the end of 1888 “Roe” Hough’s purchase featured a new frame house and the property was valued at $750. He married Edith Virginia, daughter of Waterford blacksmith Silas Corbin. Roe worked as a dry goods clerk in Waterford for much of his life, including at the Corner Store. Edith, at one point, worked in a millinery store on Main Street. The couple had no children but Roe was civic-minded.

In February 1888 a county newspaper reported that Mr. Hough lent a neighborly hand to two little children “who were brought to town on the morning of the 3rd, in a dreadful condition, having their feet, and the stomach of one, badly frozen. ”Roe” raised money to get some necessary clothing. Kind people of the town furnished them suitable garments and Dr. G. E. Connell administered medical aid.”

That same year, Hough served as registrar for an election in the village. Roe died in 1915; Edith in 1946, two years after selling the house to Eleanor Love James, of a long-time Waterford family.  The house subsequently passed through several owners until 2002 when the Hertel family purchased it from Elaine Reynolds, who with her husband Neil had enlarged it in 1982.

The house includes overhanging eaves, shingle siding, and two-over-two windows, all popular at the time of its construction.

Asbury-Johnson House (#4 on map)

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This house is the first of three Victorians built on contiguous vacant lots along the southwest side of Second Street in the late 19th century. During the Civil War, in October 1862, a Union division commander described the location as a beautiful site “in front of a most excellent family of Quakers on the opposite side of the street . . . They offered a nice room, but I prefer my tent,” (where he could keep an eye on his men bivouacked on the adjoining Phillips Farm).

Armida Athey Love (1841-1926), widow of a Union army surgeon, bought the land in 1886 and by the following year had added a new frame dwelling. The house was built by carpenter Asbury R. Johnson (1842-1905), whom she married in March 1887. The local press reported the following month that “Mrs. Kate Rickard, nee Compher, has purchased the handsome new residence lately built by Mrs. Love . . . as her [Kate’s] future home.” Kate, herself a widow, remarried John S. Paxson in 1889, and the property remained in the Paxson and Rickard families until 1956.

A protective easement on the house is held by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources (DHR). Many homes in Waterford have this protection. It prevents inappropriate changes to the original structure. And in fact there have been few alterations made—plumbing and wiring aside. It is less exuberantly embellished than its labor neighbors to the south. In 2010 an earlier deck was rehabilitated and a porch added that is sympathetic to the original architecture.

Ephraim Schooley (#3 on map)

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Saturday: Interior. Sunday: Exterior only.

The oldest part of this house is the south end, which John Morrow, a weaver, built between 1821 and 1825, shortly before his death. Quaker Ephraim Schooley (1786-1867) acquired the property in the 1830s.

Renowned saddler Asa Brown (1794-1872) lived here in the 1850s and 60s. The Civil War split his large family down the middle. “Plucky” Asa, a veteran of the War of 1812, was a loyal Unionist, as was his son Turner and two daughters. Sons Charlie and “Ab” were “rabid secesh” as was wife Aurena and a third daughter. Turner and Charlie had to be kept from killing each other, but all managed to survive the war, though Charlie took a Yankee bullet at the First Battle of Bull Run.

William F. Myers built the northern end of the house in 1850, and both halves (two separate dwellings) were sold to H.C. Bennett in 1876. From 1919 to 1959 the property belonged to the H.B. Parker family, another feisty bunch. Harvey, a blacksmith, came home from WWI, feuded with his brother Fred, who had run the smithy in his absence, and the two never spoke again. Mr. and Mrs. John G. Lewis purchased the property in 1959 and restored and finally united the two residences as one called the Parker-Bennett House.

Mr. and Mrs. William Chewning added a west wing in the 1970s, granting an easement to the Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission.

Mr. and Mrs. John J. Donovan built a second western addition in 1989.They also purchased three and one-half acres of pasture at the rear of the property in 1991 and granted a protective easement to the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

The Ephraim Schooley property is open through the courtesy of its current owners, the Manch family.

Old Waod/Off the Rails (#8 on map)

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Old Waod/Off the Rails

This is one of several village buildings that look older than they actually are. A “1769” inscription, installed in jest by the original owner George Bentley, fooled visitors who marveled at the house’s “fine condition” for such an “old house.” Actually Bentley constructed it two centuries later than 1769, using discarded railroad ties from the defunct Washington and Old Dominion Railroad, hence the playful name. According to a newspaper account at the time, Bentley called it “Old Waod,” pronounced “Old Wood.” The current owners, in keeping with the whimsy of the “Old Waod” name, have dubbed it “Off the Rails.”

Mr. and Mrs. Bentley came to Waterford in the 1940s and raised a family, soon becoming active and loyal members of the non-profit Waterford Foundation. They were tireless workers each year at the annual Waterford Homes Tour and Craft Exhibit, and both served on the Board of Directors. Ruth Bentley wrote a weekly column about Waterford for the Loudoun Times-Mirror through the 1960s. Both worked on other houses they purchased in the village, all the while commuting to Washington, D.C. to work. These houses included their residence, the Hough House at 40205 Main Street, the Lloyd Curtis house on the Big Hill, and the Weaver’s Cottage on Water Street.

This log cabin originally served as storage space for the Bentley’s home on the hill above, but was converted into a home beginning in 1992, and the lower lot was made a separate parcel in 1997. The land on which it is built had belonged to the extensive Hough family who dominated village history—off and on—from this lot from 1801 until the 1940s.

Like many local properties, this lot features extensive stonework which is credited to the late village stonemason Norman Weatherholtz. There are two very large stone retaining walls behind the house, one of which helped to define a flat area for the log building, and the other of which divides the lower lot from the Hough House in back. In the mid-20th century, the Weatherholtz family lived at 40139 Main Street in the “Griffith-Gover House,” and more of Norman’s work can be seen along Main Street in that front garden wall.

The present owners of Old Waod/”Off the Rails” have recently refreshed the interior of the house, and also worked with Allen Kitselman, the original architect for the 1992 house conversion, as well as Rhoads Restoration and the Loudoun County Historic Review Committee to add a third floor with a bathroom and master bedroom. They have also tamed an especially steep and challenging backyard area with additional stonework and new garden areas.

Old Woad/Off the Rails is open through the courtesy of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Davis.

Walker-Phillips (#2 on map)

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Exterior Only

This house has had few owners during its nearly 200-year history.  It was apparently built shortly before 1820 when David and Elizabeth Janney, members of the Society of Friends (Quakers), sold it to fellow Quaker farmer and merchant Isaac Walker (1781-1851) for $350. After his death, Walker’s widow, the former Susan Talbott, lived here until her own passing in 1872. Two years later her executors sold it to Elizabeth Janney Sidwell Phillips (1827-1913).  Elizabeth, the widow of Thomas Phillips (1813-1865), helped run the family farm, today’s “Phillips Farm,” with her four sons.  The Phillips farm adjoins the property at the rear and has been protected in perpetuity by the Waterford Foundation.

Elizabeth Phillips left the house to her son Arthur when she died in 1913. He sold it to Peter H. Carr (1843-1922), a veteran of the Confederate Cavalry and the first non-Quaker owner. In 1941 Carr’s commissioners sold the house to local dairy farmer Ernest M. Edwards. Sarah Holway bought it from Ernest’s descendants in 2014.

The Walker-Phillips property is open courtesy of Sarah Holway and Matt Rasnake.

Catoctin Presbyterian Church (#9 on map)

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12:00-4:00 only

15565 High Street

Waterford’s Presbyterians have a long history in the Waterford area. In 1760, Amos Thompson, a graduate of The College of New Jersey [now Princeton University], was sent by the New Brunswick Presbytery as a missionary to Virginia. Thompson organized two churches: Gum Spring, near Arcola, and Waterford’s Catoctin Presbyterian Church, which was organized in 1764-1765. The Rev. Thompson later left his ministry to serve as a chaplain in the Continental Army.

The first Presbyterian church in Waterford was built on land sold for four shillings by member John Cavins on April 7, 1769, to the trustees of the church for a school, house of worship, or a burying ground. It stood south of Waterford at what is known locally as the Fox graveyard at the intersection of routes 703, Hurley Lane, and 665, Clarke’s Gap Road. That log church stood into the 1820s although the Presbyterians stopped using it in 1814 when the congregation moved into Waterford on the present site. All traces of that early structure have disappeared, but 11gravestones remain.  The last burials were in 1881.

Lots 2 and 3, upon which the present church stands, were conveyed to the Catoctin Presbyterian Organization in 1814, by Mahlon Janney’s executors, as part of his “New Addition” auction, for $104.50. A church of brick with a gallery on three sides was erected and served intermittently as a place of worship until destroyed by fire in 1878. Under the leadership of Dr. L. B. Turnbull the present church was built on the same site in 1882. Close observation will reveal that the façade and front bay of the church is constructed with modern, machine-made brick of a uniform red color, while the remainder of the sides of the church is constructed of hand-made brick of varying colors. It is likely that these were the bricks salvaged from the previous church.

The church’s interior has a wooden ceiling with false beams reflecting the Gothic style of the building. Wooden pendants which hang from these beams resemble the “acorn” motif that top the ladder backs of Waterford chairs. On the wall behind the pulpit is a round stained glass window. The sides of the church have lancet arched stained glass windows with clear glass transom windows below. These windows were most likely installed in the twentieth century.

In 1950 the congregation added a church school building to fill the education and recreational needs of the community; the congregation continues to share the use of this building. Reverend David Douthett has been the pastor since 2004.  History, tradition, a farming legacy and close-knit fellowship are vital parts of the church today.

The Catoctin Presbyterian Church is open courtesy of the grace of God and 250 years’ worth of faithful members.

Braden House (#6 on map)

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Braden House

Loudoun entrepreneur, miller and banker Robert Braden (1765-1827) appears to have purchased the lot on which this house stands about 1820; the house was built soon afterward of brick fired in the meadows behind the houses across the street.

Later in the nineteenth century, the house was bought by Decatur H. “Dick” Vandevanter, mayor of Waterford from 1891-1892. Vandevanter, a son-in-law of Lewis Neal Hough, inherited his chair manufactory and undertaking establishment next door. Dick was a forward-thinking man.  He owned one of the first automobiles in Waterford and caught the notice of Leesburg’s Washingtonian-Mirror in August 1903 when he had “fixtures placed in his residence for heating the same with hot water.” 

The house today reflects a variety of architectural styles from the 19th and 20th centuries. The Federal-style house with brick-on-stone foundation, Flemish bond and closers on the front façade and five-course common bond on all other sides, is common to the area.  The Victorian style wrap-around porch and the south bay window were added by local builder “Eb” Divine in 1913. A portion of the side porch was later enclosed and used as a medical office by Dr. Robert Caldwell, one of Waterford’s country doctors.  The beaded woodwork in the kitchen, random width flooring upstairs and narrow winding staircases are typical of many Waterford homes.

Typical, too, are the stories of its various residents, including Rebecca K. Williams, who acquired the house around 1842. On a Sunday in September 1863, in wartime Waterford, Quaker Williams noted  in her diary, “…soldiers in all directions riding and walking, but none have been in this morn for food; to meeting [at Fairfax Meetinghouse], when we came home found the cellar had been broken open, butter & pies taken. Quite a disappointment & provocation.…”

The Braden House is open through the courtesy of Peggy and David Bednarik.

 

Trouble Enough Indeed (#5 on map)

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10:00-1:00 only

Trouble Enough Indeed was brought to Waterford and reconstructed from 1970 to 1980 by William and Carol Hunley.

Visitors to the Waterford Fair in the early 1970s enjoyed watching Trouble Enough Indeed take shape from the components of two log homes ca. 1850 and 1886 from Lewisdale in Montgomery County, Maryland, and an 1876 frame house from Mathews County, Virginia.  Located about three miles apart at Lewisdale, the log houses were tobacco farm houses.  The name comes from the registration of the front wing of the house in the Montgomery County deed book.

The house has been featured in Parade Magazine, in the Washington Post and on NPTV.  It has been a frequent subject for painters and passing photographers.

The log houses were dismantled and every log, stick, stone and brick moved to Waterford, cleaned and returned to its original place in the house.  Even the nails were reused.  The log construction is German “V” notch and logs were stacked one on the other with no fastenings except in the top ring of logs on which the roof rests.  In addition to the log houses and the frame house, artifacts from many well-known buildings are built into the fabric.

The dining room fireplace contains the brick from the log house, and on one side there is a brick from the old church at Jamestown.  One the other side, there is a brick from Bruton Parish Church in Williamsburg.  The handmade bricks each show the print of the brick maker’s thumb from being turned when drying, and several contain cat and deer tracks made while the bricks were still soft.  The long-leaf pine heart flooring and the dining room ceiling beams were salvaged from the Carlyle Apartments that were built in 1819.  Many of the doors, windows and replacement timbers were salvaged from the house built in 1876 by William S. Hunley, shipwright, farmer and oysterman, at Retz in the Kingston Parish Glebe in Mathews County, Virginia.  Several of the doors were made in the family shipyard and are fastened with boat nails.

Trouble Enough Indeed is open through the courtesy of  the current owner Margo Noel.