Woodlawn Mansion (Fairfax Va.)

Woodlawn, the first site operated by the National Trust, was part of George Washington’s Mount Vernon. In 1799, he gave the site to his nephew, Lawrence Lewis, and Lewis’ new bride, Eleanor “Nelly” Parke Custis, Martha’s granddaughter, in hopes of keeping Nelly close to Mount Vernon. The newly-married couple built the Georgian/Federal house designed by William Thornton, architect of the U.S. Capitol.

In 1846, the entire plantation was sold to Quaker timber merchants, who purposefully operated the farm plantation with free labor, making a statement in Virginia on the eve of the Civil War.

At the turn of the twentieth century, two separate owners, Paul Kester and Elizabeth Sharpe, lovingly restored the property using the best Colonial Revival architects and builders. Senator Oscar Underwood from Alabama, an uncompromising advocate for civil rights, lived at the mansion from 1925 until his death in 1929.

Woodlawn is a historic house located in Fairfax County, Virginia. Originally a part of Mount Vernon, George Washington's historic plantation estate, it was subdivided in the 19th century by abolitionists to demonstrate the viability of a free labor system. The address is now 9000 Richmond Highway, Alexandria, Virginia, but due to expansion of Fort Belvoir and reconstruction of historic Route 1, access is via Woodlawn Road slightly south of Jeff Todd Way/State Route 235. The house is a designated National Historic Landmark, primarily for its association with the Washington family, but also for the role it played in the historic preservation movement. It is now a museum property owned and managed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. George Washington planned the house to overlook Dogue Creek as well as be visible from (and viewing) Mount Vernon. In 1799, he gave the plantation (2,000 acres (810 ha) of land as well as gristmill and distillery) as a wedding present to Eleanor ("Nelly" or "Nellie") Parke Custis (Martha Washington's granddaughter who was raised on the Mount Vernon estate), and his nephew Major Lawrence Lewis. The President asked architect Dr. William Thornton, who had designed the U.S. Capitol, to design them a house.[4]

Construction began in 1800 and was finished in 1805.

In late 1846, Eleanor Custis Lewis sold the property to a group of Burlington County, New Jersey Quakers from outside Philadelphia led by Chalkley Gillingham (1807–1881) and Jacob Troth.[5] They harvested wood and began subdividing it into smaller farms to demonstrate that a free labor system could work at least as well as slave labor. Jacob Troth deeded the mansion to his son Paul Hillman Troth on March 25, 1850.[6] The Quakers founded a cemetery and built a meetinghouse nearby in 1851 (for the Fairfax Section of the Alexandria Friends Meeting).

In 1853, the Quakers sold Woodlawn house and some land to Baptist John Mason, who likewise refused to use slave labor. By 1859, he and his wife operated a Sunday School on the property. After the American Civil War, his sons Ebenezer E. Mason and Otis T. Mason would found a Baptist church and burial ground across from the Quaker meetinghouse. Eben Mason and Quaker John Hawxhurst were Fairfax County's two Unionist delegates to the Wheeling Convention of 1861 which established the state of West Virginia. Hawxhurst would become one of Fairfax County's delegates to the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1868.

Woodlawn's mansion house has fallen into disrepair several times, but all of its owners, recognizing its historic significance, have worked to preserve its character.[7] Portions of the property were sold for development or merged into Fort Belvoir over the years. Progressive former U.S. Senator Oscar Underwood, one of the last Southern politicians to fight the Ku Klux Klan before World War II, retired to Woodlawn, where he died in 1929. Only about 160 acres surrounded the mansion house by 1970, and about 126 acres exist today. Since 1965, as discussed below, the Woodlawn Estate property is now also the site of the Pope-Leighey House, a Frank Lloyd Wright designed house.