Huntley: A Mason Family Country HouseWrenn, Tony P.
History
Huntley: A Mason Family Country House
Wrenn, Tony P.
Huntley (Va.)
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.
[Illustration: Figure 23. Dairy and springhouse, viewed from the
southeast. 1969. Photo by Wm. Edmund Barrett.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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