THIS PRINT IS 12 INCHES TALL AND 18 INCHES WIDE.
"Franconia: Then and Now" is a pen and ink drawing by Nathaniel Lee, who grew up in Franconia. This hand-drawn map of the greater Franconia area blends both modern and historic landmarks to better orient folks around the centuries of history hidden just under the surface of today's residential community. The Franconia magisterial district pictured here is bordered on the west by Interstate 95, on the north by Interstate 495, and on the south by Telegraph Road.
Insipired by the works of the Waterford, Virginia mapmaker Eugene M. Scheel, this artwork features nine architecturally prominent churches and houses of the area's past along with their poignant stories. The goal of the artist is to help folks better appreciate the history that they are driving past every day, if only they would slow down to look and appreciate the roots of a community that extends back to colonial days. It can still be found if one looks in the right places.
The nine featured sites in this drawing include:
BUSH HILL HOUSE -- Bush Hill was built by Josiah Watson of Alexandria in the year 1795. Following the First Battle of Manassas in 1861, Union Colonel Oliver O. Howard established his headquaters here, while his men of the Third Brigade of the Third Division encamped in fields nearby. After the Second World War, Bush Hill was used as a detention center for Adolf Hitler's advisor, Ernst "Putzi" Hanfstaengl. The home burned in 1977.
HUNTLEY MANOR -- Thomson F. Mason built this federal style home circa 1825 as a summer woodland retreat from the city of Alexandria. Mason was a lawyer of prominence, a four-term mayor of Alexandria and the grandson of George Mason of Gunston Hall. The recently restored home is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Over 1,400 acres, including much of the original estate, is now a protected wetland.
SHARON CHAPEL -- Behind the church a marble obelisk stands to Samuel and Thomas Pulman of Mount Erin, ages nine and thirteen, who were both killed on August 6, 1864 when a cannonball exploded while they were playing in their yard. The children would be the first burials in the church cemetery.
STONEYBROOKE HOUSE -- This was the home of Commodore Walter Brooke, commander of the Virginia state naval forces in the Revolutionary War after he resigned in the year 1781. Brooke named his 400-acre farm and house "Retirement". It kept the name until the 1940's when new owners enlarged the house and encased it in stone. The house is now owned by the Fairfax County Park Authority and sees use as a local community center. The home is reported to be haunted.
MOUNT AIR HOUSE -- 522 acres of land was acquired by Dennis McCarty in 1727, and this house was built shortly thereafter. McCarty was a sheriff of this couty, a state assemblyman and a vestryman for nearby Truro Parish. Units of the Fifth Michigan encamped along several miles of the Telegraph Road early in the American Civil War. When Richard Chichester died here his slaves said the devil ran out from under his bed in the form of a red rabbit. The house burned down in the year 1993.
HAYFIELD FARM -- Hayfield was the home of Lund Washington, cousin of George Washington and manager of the Mount Vernon estate during the Revolutionary War. A memoriable feature of the farm was its sixteen-sided barn, a copy of the one now restored at Mount Vernon. The original house burned in 1916, but the outbuildings remained until the Hayfield Farm subdivision was built. The barn remained a local fixture until it burned down in 1967.
LAUREL GROVE BAPTIST CHURCH -- In the year 1884, African-American families began "meeting for open-air worship services near a grove of laurel" in the Franconia community. Descendants of the Jasper and Carroll families have attended here for generations. Though the church building burned in 2004, the adjacent one-room schoolhouse has been restored as a community museum.
ROSE HILL HOUSE -- This was the eighteenth-century home of Daniel French, Jr., the builder of Pohick Church until his death in 1771. The house was the site of a raid by Confederate Major John S. Mosby on September 28, 1863. On that occasion, French Dulaney, one of Mosby's raiders, captured his own father, Colonel Daniel F. Dulaney, who remained loyal to the Union. The original home burned down in the year 1895.
OLIVET EPISCOPAL CHURCH -- Originally known as Mount Olivet, the church was built in the year 1853 near present-day Bush Hill. In 1892, the church building was moved to its present location at the intersection of Franconia Road and Beulah Street. The steeple bell comes from a steam locomotive donated by a parishoner when train engines switched to diesel power.
THIS ITEM CAN ALSO BE PURCHASED IN-PERSON FROM THE FRANCONIA MUSEUM AT 6121 FRANCONIA ROAD.