Salona, Fairfax County, Virginia Part 7

Both of the DuVals are descendants of French Huguenots who immigrated to New Amsterdam in the late eighteenth century. Both were born in New York City. One of Mrs. DuVal's grandfathers was Jesse Metcalf, a United States senator from Rhode Island, and her father was Frederic H. Bontecow, a New York state senator. As other residents of Salona had been before them, the DuVals were well educated, above the average level of Fairfax County residents. Mrs. DuVal is a graduate of Va.s.sar, DuVal of Yale University Law School. And like some of their predecessors, their income, cultural interests and extent of community involvement are also well above the average for the time in which they live.[120]

The DuVal family arrived in Fairfax County during a period when the population growth was expanding rapidly, both from in-migration and natural increase. With them the couple brought their three children, Susan Lynde (Lyn), Clive, III, and David. Daniel, their fourth, was born in 1953. Their experience was a reflection of the times--in the 1950 U. S. Census, Fairfax County's population was 98,557; in 1960, it had increased to 248,897.[121]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _The DuVal family, about 1957. Left to right Daniel, Susan Lynde, Clive II, Susan, David and Clive III. The English setters, Christmas, Dusty and Belle, are also "members of the family."_]

Also reflecting the Was.h.i.+ngton metropolitan area's typical experience in the 1950s, DuVal came from elsewhere to accept employment with the federal government, in his case, as a.s.sistant General Counsel (International Affairs) for the Department of Defense. He was, typically, a World War II veteran, a former officer in the United States Navy. From 1955 to 1959, he was general counsel for the United States Information Agency. Since then, he has been in the private practice of law. As did the majority of married women with children in the decades 1950-1970, in Fairfax County, Mrs. DuVal stayed at home with the children rather than taking a regular outside job, except for her many volunteer projects in which she was regularly involved in the McLean community.[122]

Salona became a place of hospitality, where social, political, arts and educational events were held. The Woman's Club of McLean, the McLean House Tour, the McLean Ballet Company, Children's Hospital, the Fairfax YWCA, the McLean Boys Club, the Northern Virginia Democratic Women's Club, Yale University students and the Historical Society of Fairfax County, were among the many beneficiaries of the DuVals' generosity in making Salona available for special events.[123]

In 1965, DuVal ran for and was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates, in which he served for three consecutive terms.[124] He ran unsuccessfully for the United States Senate seat against Harry F.

Byrd, Jr., in the democratic primary in 1970, but was subsequently elected to the Virginia State Senate in 1971 and 1975.[125]

Because of his deep interest in conservation and environmental protection, DuVal received both the Virginia state award and the National Wildlife Federation award in 1970 for being the outstanding conservation legislator in the United States.[126] Consistent with this demonstrated interest, the DuVals decided to take a major step in conservation themselves. They entered into a perpetual eas.e.m.e.nt agreement in 1971 with the Board of Supervisors, Fairfax County, Virginia, for the historic preservation of Salona, its surrounding outbuildings and eight acres of land. In the same legal instrument, a temporary eas.e.m.e.nt for the remaining 44.3 acres was arranged for a period of at least ten years.[127] A later amendment, in 1974, provided for termination of the temporary eas.e.m.e.nt only after January 1, 1990.[128]

In 1975, a patriotic organization, the Society of the United States Daughters of 1812, obtained the DuVals' permission to place an historic plaque at Salona to commemorate James Madison's visit there in 1814. The bronze plaque was mounted in a foundation stone from what are thought to have been old slave quarters. They once stood in the side yard below the house. The plaque reads as follows:

1784-1815

SALONA

"A place of great hospitality"

Shelter for President Madison

August, 1914

When British burned Was.h.i.+ngton

Plaque placed by Virginia State Society

National Society of United States

Daughters of 1812

1975

Chapter V Notes

Salona and the DuVals

[119] Fairfax County, Virginia, Deed Book 635, p. 471; interviews with Susan and Clive DuVal by the author.

[120] See Chapters II and IV; interviews with Clive and Susan DuVal by the author.

[121] Nan Netherton, Donald Sweig, Janice Artemel, Patricia Hickin and Patrick Reed, _Fairfax County, Virginia: A History_ (Fairfax, Va.: Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, 1978), p. 546.

[122] Netherton, et al., _Fairfax County_, p. 659; interview with Clive and Susan DuVal, January 11, 1979, by Nan Netherton; DuVal family sc.r.a.pbooks, Volumes I-VII, 1944-1978, Salona.

[123] McLean _Providence Journal_, April 29, 1960; _Was.h.i.+ngton Post_, April 23, 1961; Fairfax County _Sun-Echo_, January 15, 1965; _Was.h.i.+ngton Star_, March 18, 1965; Fairfax County _Free Press Newspapers_, September 29, 1966; _Globe_, May 14, 1970; Semi-Annual meeting program, November 14, 1976; DuVal family sc.r.a.pbooks, 1961 and 1963, Salona.

[124] Virginia General a.s.sembly, _Register of the General a.s.sembly from 1619-1976_ (Richmond, Va.: Virginia General a.s.sembly, 1978).

[125] Commonwealth of Virginia, _Manual of the Senate and House of Delegates_ (Richmond, Va.: Department of Purchasing and Supply, 1978).

[126] Program, National Wildlife Federation award ceremony, March 7, 1970, DuVal family sc.r.a.pbook, Salona.

[127] Fairfax County, Virginia, Deed Book 3418, p. 686.

[128] Fairfax County, Virginia, Deed Book 4159, p. 436.

VI

SALONA: THE HOUSE AND OUTBUILDINGS

The date of construction and the name of the builder of the house known as Salona are unknown.

There have been many changes to the mansion house, the outbuildings and grounds through the years. The central house now has only one wing instead of the earlier two. The large barn has been torn down; only the substantial foundation bears witness to its size. A pile of rubble marks the site of "the old stone house," thought by the Smoot family to have been the oldest structure on the property. The driveway entrance is off Buchanan Street instead of the Falls Road, although evidence of the older driveway still exists. The rear entrance road has been blocked by subdivision construction, although its route remains visible across the south side of the property.

Perhaps the most decided changes are in the use of the land itself.

As McLean grew, the Salona farm shrank in area and its formerly fertile acres were transformed into shopping centers, subdivisions, streets and roads.

Architectural historians say that they cannot pin-point the exact construction date of Salona, but believe it to have been between 1790 and 1810, a full twenty-year span. This belief is based in part on examination of the types of nails used in the attic of the main house, as well as the similarity of the "cross and Bible" door at the north entrance to some of the doors at Sully, whose construction began in 1793.[129] Many local sources claim that the house was built in 1801 by William Maffitt,[130] but this supposition has not been doc.u.mented. The Smoot children were always told by their elders that the house was started in 1790 and finished in 1801, and that Maffitt was the builder. There was a residential structure on the land when the 466 acres were advertised for sale in 1811.[131]

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Originally, the house was probably a rectangular two-story, five-bay structure with flanking wings, which may have been frame. On the north front, the brickwork is Flemish bond; on the other three sides and the wing it is common bond. There are two interior end chimneys.

An elaborate bracketed cornice supports the gabled roof. This cornice and the bracketed entrance porch with paired, squared columns show definite Victorian influence and were probably originally added after the Civil War. The DuVals altered the design slightly when they renovated the house in 1952.

The most unusual feature of Salona is its wide T-shaped hall which runs the full width of the north front of the central house, with the main stairway rising at its west end directly across one of the front windows. The long hall originally led to the wings on either end, but these were apparently destroyed during the Civil War and only the east wing was rebuilt in 1866. There is a fireplace in every room, although most of the Federal-style mantels have been recently installed in Salona and have come from old houses in North Carolina and New England. There are chair rails on the walls of the living room, dining room, and the first floor hallway. Extensive remodeling was done by the present owners.[132] The T-shaped hall ends on the solid wall behind the stairway on the west side, and on the east leads directly into the post-Civil War wing which contains a small sitting room, bathroom, and the kitchen. The smaller hall, the stem of the T, runs perpendicular to the main hall with opposing entrance doors at each end. The s.p.a.cious living and dining rooms flank the smaller hall, with entrances from the main hall.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

It is a Smoot family legend that Constantino Brumidi, the Italian immigrant who painted many of the murals in the U. S. Capitol in Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C., was given shelter by the Smoots, probably after the Civil War, when he was dest.i.tute. As a token of his grat.i.tude, he decorated the ceilings of the living room and dining room with flowers and fruits. No trace of these paintings now exists. However, when the DuVals purchased Salona in 1952, there were clearly remains of paintings on the walls and ceilings. But the plaster was in such poor condition that it had to be completely replaced.

On the second floor, an upper hall, slightly smaller than the one below, runs across the north front. It may once have been an open "T"

before modernization and the addition of two bathrooms by the DuVals.

To the right from the head of the stairs is the master bedroom with a brick hearth and brick and wood mantel. The next bedroom, almost as large, also contains a brick and wood mantel. In the east wing, the hall leads directly into a den from which a stairway goes up to an attic bedroom and bath, both added by the DuVals. The den also serves as a pa.s.sageway to a secondary hallway from which open two smaller bedrooms separated by another stairway leading to the first floor close to the kitchen. The unfinished portion of the attic is used for storage. There is a partial bas.e.m.e.nt, primarily under the east wing.

No copy of the original floor plan has been found. Records of the Virginia Mutual a.s.surance Society in Richmond show that no fire insurance was ever purchased from them on Salona, hence no floor plan drawings are on file there.[133]

Because Maffitt died intestate, his estate was inventoried and appraised. As a result, we know that the original house contained a dining room furnished with a "set of three dining tables" and 24 Windsor chairs, which tends to support the tradition that the original dining room was in the west wing, possibly occupying the entire first floor of it.[134]