Saturday

40205 Main Street

In 1801 Isaac Hough, a Quaker, bought lots 14 and 15 of Mahlon Janney’s early subdivision of the Big Hill. Hough sold them to local joiner Thomas Lacey in 1813. Between 1818 and 1820 tax records indicate a structure had been built—as two joined-but-separate houses—probably being used as rentals. Lacey’s heirs sold the property to John Hough in 1837. The property thus returned to the Hough family—albeit a Methodist branch—and would remain in the family until 1908. 

In 1855 half of the house sold for $500, but eleven years later it brought only $125—eloquent testimony to at least one effect of the Civil War.

An extraordinary view from the back of the house across the village to the fields beyond, all of which is within the National Historic Landmark, clearly shows the relationship of village house to rural landscape, one of the primary reasons for Waterford’s being named a National Historic Landmark in 1970.

The Hough House is open through the courtesy of present owners Fiona and Mark Sullivan.

40210 Main Street

This house, of Federal design, occupies two of the 17 lots on the Big Hill that were sold in 1803 by Mahlon Janney, son of Waterford’s founder, to Thomas Hirst. Hirst sold the lots a year later to Quaker James Russell. By 1810 Russell advertised: “I will sell or rent, separately or together, two brick houses and lots situated on Federal Hill in Waterford .  . . .”

Russell sold the downhill portion to Mary Fox (b. c. 1793) and the uphill portion to Aaron Schooley (1795-1836), in 1815. A “birthright” Quaker, Aaron married “out of unity” that same year, was removed from the Meeting, and later joined the Methodist Church. In 1818, Fox bought Schooley’s portion. After her death, the house passed through various owners until 1869. 

One of Aaron’s sons, Charles William (1818-1891), and Charles’s son George (1842-1905) would eventually own one or both portions of the home from 1869 until 1905 until their respective deaths.  Elizabeth Kepler, known affectionately to the family as “Little
Grandma” married George on April 22, 1869, a month after he had purchased his portion of the home. After George’s death, the widow sold the house in 1906 and returned to Ohio, which she had left at age 18, and lived until 1951, dying, with all her considerable wits about her, at age 104.  

The members of the large Schooley family—both Quaker and Methodist branches—were active in the 19th century village.  Charles served on the town council in 1842; he and his son George voted against secession in 1861. George was mayor when the town re-incorporated after Reconstruction in 1875. Both men were blacksmiths and wheelwrights. 

Widow Frances A. Whitmore Mullen (1834-1910) became the next owner in 1906, living with her daughter Nannie and husband Jacob Elbert Divine. Her grandson, John Elbert Divine (1911-1996), was born here. He generously shared his knowledge of five generations of Waterford history and became nationally recognized as a Civil War expert of Loudoun County and beyond. In his later years, Mr. Divine collaborated on several books for the Waterford Foundation.

In 1945 in a state of some deterioration, Schooley House was purchased for $1900. The home was then restored by its owners, Mr. and Mrs. George Bentley, who, in 1972, gave an open space easement to the Virginia Department of Historic Resources.

This house is open through the generosity of current owners Paul and Jo Rastas.

40135 Main Street

This two-story brick house was built sometime between 1816 and 1827.  Notice the Dog-tooth cornice and the jack arches over the openings, features this house shares with Wisteria Cottage next door.  

At the time of the Civil War, the owner of the house, Robert Hollingsworth, a Quaker schoolteacher from Winchester, was an outspoken defender of the Union, which he supported “now and forever.” 

In September 1863 Confederate General Jeb Stuart ordered the seizure of two prominent Waterford Quakers as hostages to secure the release of two secessionists from Federal prison.  The men to be captured were insurance company president William Williams and Asa Bond, the owner of the tanyard across the street.  Williams, who lived on Second Street, was taken as he and his wife Mary were entertaining guests in their parlor.  

By the time the Rebels reached this end of town, Bond had been warned.  As Bond slipped out the back, his daughter Mrs. Rachel Means and a niece Miss Laura Bond challenged the soldiers at the door and, from all reports, put up a good fight.  Miss Bond fired a revolver at the Rebels.  This diversion allowed Bond to escape, but Robert Hollingsworth, the owner of this house, was seized instead.  

The two hostages were sent to Richmond’s Castle Thunder Prison.  Efforts to secure their release continued into December, when Mrs. Mary Williams set off for Washington with a letter to President Lincoln and a petition signed by 85 Union supporters from Loudoun County.  President Lincoln heard their pleas at the White House and jotted a note to the commissioner for prisoner exchange.  

Even after Mary Williams’ trip, the process of securing the prisoners’ release did not go smoothly, but finally the prisoners were released and arrived in Waterford on Christmas Eve 1863.

The Griffith-Gover House is open through the courtesy of Jonathan Daniel and Lee Spangler.

40139 Main Street

This property backing up to the Phillips Farm comprises three of the fifteen lots in Waterford’s 1792 subdivision. Quaker merchant Richard Griffith was leasing the property by 1796, and by 1799 it included a two-story log house and a store. In 1819 his son Israel sold a portion of the property to fellow Quaker Jesse Gover, who operated a store and “hat manufactory” among other enterprises. Gover bought the rest of the property in 1836.

His son Samuel, in turn, served the village for many years as storekeeper and postmaster. Sam’s Union sympathies made his store a target of Confederate raids during the Civil War. By then the current property included the house and two substantial weatherboard buildings along the street to the left, that were later owned by William French.

Early in the 20th century the James family acquired the land and buildings. Edgar Clayton James operated a store here. When he died in 1918, his widow, the former Annie Elizabeth “Lizzie” Hough, ran a boardinghouse to make ends meet—the Oldtown Inn. Clarence Hopkins, who married one of the James’s daughters, Carrie, was an engineer for Edison Labs. He erected a dance pavilion and large masonry megaphone for the benefit of Inn guests. At about the same time, the decrepit store buildings along the street were removed and the adjacent millrace was enlarged for canoeing.

In October 1922, the Washington Herald enthusiastically wrote:

“Waterford, Va., is now one of the busiest radio towns in the country, according to reports received here. Radio users there have constructed a loud speaking horn of concrete and granite with a diameter of six feet. The horn weighs eight tons. Folks in that vicinity now hear a variety of entertainment from Pittsburgh and other cities. When the horn was first demonstrated, one resident there, it is claimed, heard music one mile and a half away from Waterford and came down to discover what was ‘goin’ on down thar.’”

Norman Weatherholtz, a stonemason and carpenter, bought the place in 1944 and added his own touches over the years until his death in 1998. He is responsible for much of the stonework in the village, including work on this home.

Cornelia Keller of nearby Hamilton purchased the house the following year. It had fallen into considerable disrepair and presented significant challenges to Ms. Keller and her rescue team. Now, thanks to a conservation easement through the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, the house, gardens, stone wall and eclectic structures are protected in perpetuity.

Jonathan Daniel and Lee Spangler bought the house in 2014 and couldn’t be more thrilled with being its current stewards.

The Griffith-Gover House is open through the courtesy of Jonathan Daniel and Lee Spangler.