Huntley Part 6

As part of the Huntley complex, it is still a visually important building.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 16. Necessary and tenant house from the icehouse, 1969. Photo by Wm. Edmund Barrett.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 17. Necessary, rear or west elevation. 1969. Photo by Wm. Edmund Barrett.]

The Storage House and Necessary

The building referred to by the present owners as the slave quarters does not seem to have been suitable for the housing of human beings, and may actually not have been used for that purpose. It is a one-story brick structure with a ridge roof over three rooms. Neither of the end rooms has a finished floor or ceiling nor do they appear ever to have had finished walls; the windows are wall openings protected by iron bars; each room has four brick diamond-shaped ventilators and neither seems to have been heated--in addition to being open, there are no chimneys or flues. It is likely that both rooms were used for storage s.p.a.ces and, from the evidence in existing doors and windows, secure ones. The overall measurements of the building are approximately thirty-four feet eight inches by ten feet ten inches, each end room measuring approximately eleven feet eleven inches by ten feet ten inches.

The necessary, a privy or outdoor toilet, occupies the central recessed portion between the two end storage rooms. It measures approximately ten feet ten inches by five feet five inches, and includes separate men's and women's sections.

Brick in the structure has an average size of nine inches by four and one-quarter inches by two and one-quarter inches. The bond is common, varying from three courses of stretchers to one of headers at the foundations, to five to one at the gable end. Queen closers are used at the corners of the structure. The cornice line is three bricks deep, stepped outward. The bottom and top course are stretchers, while the middle course is set at an angle in a saw-tooth pattern,[55] the same cornice as is used on the house.

The structure is symmetrical. Brick ventilators, two in each gable end and two to the rear of each end section, are worked into the brick wall.

They are in the shape of a flattened diamond, with sixteen headers eliminated to form the pattern.[56]

To the rear of the structure the roof has been replaced, though the front part of the ridge is old. This may be accounted for by the fact that the rear wall is bowed back two or three inches out of plumb. This may be immediately seen in the joint of the wall dividing the storage room on the left from the necessary. This s.h.i.+ft could have necessitated the replacement of the roof to the rear.

Hand wrought, rose head nails were used in the construction of the doors to the necessary; they may have been used for their clenching properties. The latches are hand wrought, or at least one of the early fabrications. The left door consists of three vertical boards, from left to right; nine, ten and eleven inches in width. The center board is beaded on each side, while the outer boards are undecorated.

Hand wrought rose head nails are also used in the construction of the barred windows in the front of the storage rooms. Here they are used structurally, tho the effect is decorative. The bars are iron, and the original frame and bars remain in the left storage unit window.

The storage rooms have dirt floors and unfinished ceilings. Bars at the windows, strong doors and the open ventilators would indicate storage areas needing light, ventilation and security. Such an area might be required for any number of farm produced commodities.

Both necessaries, in the center portion, are completely finished, with plaster walls, well shaped seats, windows with sash and gla.s.s, and brick floors, now covered with concrete. The necessary for men to the right has one seat, while that for women, to the left, has three. Two of these are at ordinary height, while the third is at a child's height. The necessary was cleaned from the rear. A tray, inserted beneath a log sill at the foundation line, could be removed, cleaned and reinserted daily.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 18. Necessary, door detail. 1969. Photo by Wm.

Edmund Barrett.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 19. Detail, interior, women's necessary, 1969.

Photo by Wm. Edmund Barrett.]

Part of the lath in the ceiling of the necessary is split; there has been some replacement with sawn lath. Lath nails in a piece of split lath removed from the ceiling probably postdate 1830, while nails used in the seats are cut and probably postdate 1840. The significance of dating these nails is minimal as the interiors could have been finished at any time after the construction of the building.

The ceiling and columns of the recessed entrance to the necessaries were recently replaced by the present owners, the Amlongs. They replaced the round columns with square posts. The brick floor laid in a herringbone pattern, if not original, is certainly early.

In the absence of doc.u.mentary material it is difficult to date this structure. It would probably be safe to say that it was built as early as the house, c. 1820, and possibly before.

The Icehouse

The icehouse, located sixty-six feet northwest of the mansion, is one of the most striking structures at Huntley, and one that differs from most other Virginia icehouses known to the author. It exhibits quality of design and workmans.h.i.+p seldom seen in a utilitarian structure. Most icehouses are square, a simple form which would offer easier construction than the round structure at Huntley. Not only is this structure round, but the roof is hemispherical, forming a complete circular dome. Construction of the dome is all headers. Some of the bricks are fired to a dark color but there is no discernible pattern in the brick work.

All of the structure is below ground. At the top of the dome is a square opening of quarried stone which is at ground level. The stone here shows the wear of ropes which were used to lower and raise ice. Most other ice houses are at least partially above ground, with some type of superstructure, or reveted into a bank or side of a hill.[57] They require some depth, and insulation, so that they are usually finished in brick or stone. Sawdust was an ingredient commonly used for storing ice, used in alternating layers of block ice and sawdust. Sawdust was certainly used in the icehouse at Huntley, and has covered the floor to such an extent that it is not possible to determine the original depth of the structure. Walking on the present "floor" gives one somewhat the same feeling as walking on a peat bog. The distance is at least twelve feet from the present floor level to the entrance at the top of the dome, and approximately fifteen and one-half feet in diameter.

The dome is strong enough to support the Amlong automobile, which is parked above it in a recently constructed carport. Access to the icehouse may be had directly from the adjacent root cellar. One stone step exists, in the root cellar wall. There may have been a ladder or wooden steps at one time. The walls between the root cellar and icehouse are separate, indicating that the two structures were constructed at different dates.

The Root Cellar

This building, located fifty feet northwest of the mansion and adjacent to the icehouse, consists of a one story brick structure above ground, approximately fifteen feet two inches square, with a full cellar below ground level. Access to the cellar is through steep steps of rough cut stone, located on the right side of the structure. Access to the icehouse is directly opposite.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 20. Detail, dome and ground level opening, icehouse. 1969. Photo by Wm. Edmund Barrett.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 21. Detail, icehouse door to root cellar. 1969.

Photo by Wm. Edmund Barrett.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 22. Detail, root cellar entrance to icehouse.

1969. Photo by Wm. Edmund Barrett.]

Evidence of ventilators can be seen on both front and rear. These were barred openings approximately six inches deep with vents to the surface, which were finished with brick and faced with quarried stone at ground level. The bars are now gone, but they were horizontal, instead of vertical as are those in the storage rooms adjacent to the necessary and of approximately the same size. There is no shelving or other built-in furniture to indicate the use of the cellar. Since the room above and the roof are replacements, there is little indication of actual use, and the name "root cellar" has been used only for convenience.

The cellar walls are brick, laid in common bond, with three courses of stretchers to one of headers. This bond is uniform for the structure, above and below ground. The average size of bricks is eight and three-eighths by four by two and one-half inches. The plain cornice is uniform, probably indicating that the roof was originally hipped.

With the exception of the brick walls, which stand substantially as constructed, the structure has been entirely rebuilt. Windows in these walls are set into brick arches which are decorative rather than structural. The recessed windows of the building like those in the mansion house are of particular interest.

Dairy and Springs

A dairy or springhouse is located at the base of the hill, some one hundred fifty-six feet southeast of the mansion house, near the point where the south driveway to Huntley meets Harrison Lane. This spring, and the one immediately across the road, form the source of the south branch of Little Hunting Creek, from which derived the early name of Huntley, "Hunting Creek Farm." The springhouse is brick, now overgrown and filled almost completely so that there is no flow of water and original use is difficult to ascertain. The structure may have had a door and shelves in the brick wall. The roof is arched, one brick course deep, and the structure is reveted into the hillside.

There is another spring on the hill to the northwest above the mansion house. This, too, is encased with bricks, all below ground, and could have furnished water to the house through gravity flow. Since both this cistern type spring and the springhouse below the mansion house are probably contemporary, the lower one may have served exclusively as a dairy.

At least two other springs or shallow wells also exist on the property, providing the headwaters for Barnyard Creek, and for part of Dogue Creek.

Early Structures No Longer Standing

Though barns existed until the 1950's, none of these, as evidenced by photographs, would seem to date from the period of construction of the house. Some one hundred seventy-one feet west of the tenant house, and in a straight line with the main house, are the remains of a large brick foundation. This foundation supported a sizeable structure in the Huntley complex, which may have been a barn. The ruins are rectangular, and approximately thirty-three by sixty feet.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 23. Dairy and springhouse, viewed from the southeast. 1969. Photo by Wm. Edmund Barrett.]

None of the storage rooms in the outbuildings show any evidence of ever having been used as a smoke house, though the structure over the root cellar may have been used for that purpose. It has been completely remodeled inside, including a floor and roof, and any evidence of smoke house use has been eradicated. Though one would expect to find, in a complete southern plantation complex, barns, slave quarters, and a smoke house, none of these now exist at Huntley, as is the case with most surviving eighteenth and nineteenth century mansions.

Chapter 3 Notes

[Footnote 51: All quotes in this section unless otherwise credited are from E. Blaine Cliver who visited the site with the author on November 11, 1969, and taped his comments. Mr. Cliver is with the firm of Geoffrey W. Fairfax, AIA, Honolulu, Hawaii, where he is working as restoration architect for Iolani Palace. Calder Loth, architectural historian with the Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission visited the site with the author on May 12, 1969. Their comments were of immeasurable value in the investigation.]

[Footnote 52: All measurements are approximate, and are only used to suggest scale and distance.]

[Footnote 53: In this area examples include Arlington House, 1802-17; Tudor Place, about 1815; and Oatlands, Loudoun County, 1800-27.]

[Footnote 54: Similar moldings may be found at Sully, 1794, Fairfax County, and at Monticello, about 1770-1808.]

[Footnote 55: This was a relatively common cornice line in the Was.h.i.+ngton area. It appears on, among others, Earps Ordinary in Fairfax, last half of the eighteenth century; Millers House, Colvin Run, about 1825; servants wing of Decatur House, 1818, Was.h.i.+ngton.]

[Footnote 56: This design is used, among other places, in the outbuildings at Bremo, about 1820, Fluvanna County, and the jail, about 1848, Palmyra. In the immediate area the use is known to the author only in the barn at the Oxon Hill Childrens Museum, Prince Georges County, Maryland, early nineteenth century.]