Other Spaces

Check out the Top Floor

Dining Room

Dining Room Photo Credit: Chris Warner click image to enlarge

The dining room is where breakfast is served. We can also host dinner parties, reunions, afternoon tea and other events in this room.

This portion of the house was added in the 1740's. Originally, it was divided by wood-paneled partitions into two small rooms. The Franklin stove (now closed for furnace flue) was used for heating in one room and the large fireplace for cooking in the other. It is still frequently used!

The enclosed hanging stairway is typical of those found in early Quaker houses. They are steep and uncomfortable but conserve heat and prevent drafts. Rough plaster over the stone can still be seen in the corners near the big fireplace--probably a mixture of horsehair and lime.

One may wonder at the lack of wide floorboards in this and the brick portions of the house. The generation living here in the early 1900's loved to dance and persuaded their parents to cover the rough pine (which can still be seen from the basement). The maple floors are from trees harvested at the farm.

Log House Sitting Room

Log House Sitting Room Photo Credit: Scott Maison click image to enlarge

The Log House is the oldest part of the house, built in the early 1730s. In 1969, the logs were taken down, numbered, treated with preservatives and some replaced. A few were either too far gone for re-use or were too heavy to lift back into place, so that new logs were used as replacements where required (there is an obvious one over mantel). About 3/4 of the original logs were used in the restoration.

The original beams on the ceiling of the first floor were turned and re-used, with an enclosed steel beam to support them. The original floors were far too warped to be usable, so the present floor, which came from an old church in the Shenandoah Valley, was added. The closet and rear doors are part of the original structure; the front door is a reproduction, using old wood. The windows, which had been of nine panes, were enlarged to 12 to give more light in the room. The fireplace, with its large lintel beam, is the original.

This room was used as the kitchen for the rest of the house until the Civil War; although the large fireplace in the stone wing was also used for cooking. It was also a separate structure until the restoration when bathrooms were added upstairs and down and joined to the stone wing.

Parlor

The Parlor Photo Credit: Scott Maison click image to enlarge

This section was built in the 1790's and reflects an architectural style, both inside and out, which is typical of many of the Georgetown houses which were built about the same period. Carved mantel and woodwork,the chair rail, and the window-treatment all reflect Federal influence.

This room has its own narrow enclosed stair which originally provided the only access to the two bedrooms above. It was almost 100 years before the stone and brick portions of the house were connected by a common hall on the second floor.

There is some evidence that what is now the front of the house was originally the rear. The foundations indicate that the house originally faced downhill, toward the spring house (dated 1804). But when the porch was added on the north, it became the front entrance.

Portraits over the piano are of William Holmes Brown and Martha Jane Pancoast Brown who lived here during the Civil War. They were married in 1841 and celebrated their 50th anniversary here in 1891. The wedding certificate is in the possession of the family. The artist was Lucien Powell a native of the Loudoun-Fauquier community who later became quite famous as a landscape artist. Some of his works hang in galleries in Washington and elsewhere.

Front Porch

Front Porch Photo Credit: Scott Maison click image to enlarge

The front porch is available for all guests who wish to relax is one of the old rockers. This porch (which may have orginially been the back porch) is a favorite place to watch dramatic summer thunderstorms as well as the legions of fireflies at night. It is north-facing, ensuring it is always a shady respite from a hot summer day.