Historic Homes on Tour
Waterford Homes Tour & Crafts Exhibit
October 1, 2 & 3, 2010
10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Families
in Waterford, Virginia, live modern lives in old houses. Many Waterford
residents live with hand-dug wells, low ceilings, and no air-conditioning
or cable TV. Each day during the Homes Tour, some villagers open
their homes to visitors. Docents welcome you and speak about the
history, architecture and furnishings of these dwellings. Village
houses date from the late eighteenth century through the federal
and Victorian periods and into the twentieth century.
Homes and buildings
that originally were businesses have been restored and renovated
for twenty-first century living. Docents will introduce you to the
cast of colorful characters who once inhabited these fascinating
houses. They were Quakers and staunch abolitionists, slave-owners,
merchants, artisans, freed slaves, warriors, and idealists. Three
centuries of life in a unique American village will tell the back-story
to your visit to the Waterford Fair.
Tours are included in the ticket
price.
The homes scheduled to be on this year's Waterford Homes Tour will
be listed on this page in August.
Houses on Tour in 2009
Friday
James Moore House
Hough Brothers House
Braden House
Hague Hough House
Francis Pierpoint House |
Saturday
Jacob Mendenhall House
Shawen House
Marshall Claggett House
Trouble Enough Indeed
The Sugar Shack |
Sunday
Jacob Mendenhall House
The Dormers
Asa Moore House
Marshall Claggett House
The Sugar Shack
|
House Descriptions and Photos:
Friday |
James Moore House
James Moore (c.1757-1826), Asa's
brother, built the brick portion of this dwelling between
1808 and 1815. By the time Daniel Webster Minor (c.1836-c.1905),
a free black who helped out the Loudoun Rangers during the
Civil War, purchased it at auction in 1873, the house was
in a very deteriorated condition. "Web" fixed it
up and his family owned the house until 1948. A recent frame
addition to the west complements the early brick dwelling. |
Hough Brothers House
Isaac Hough—a Quaker until
they disowned him in 1794 for "frequenting places of
diversion"—purchased this vacant lot from Mahlon
Janney in 1801. He sold it to Thomas Lacey in 1813. Lacey,
a local builder, probably constructed the dwelling you see
today as two joined but separate houses, using them as rentals.
Lacey's heirs sold the property to John Hough in 1837. Two
years later John sold the northwest half of the dwelling
to his brother Samuel, keeping the southeast half. Samuel
sold his half of the house in 1855 to yet another brother,
George (1820-1861), a veteran of the Mexican War. George's
widow Mary sold it back to John Hough in 1866. No wonder
this is the Hough House! It exhibits an atypical four-bay
facade, reflecting its original two-family use.
|
Braden House
Robert Braden (1765-1827) probably
built this house between 1816 and 1820. It clearly fits into
the local vernacular: brick on a stone foundation, Flemish
bond and closers on the front façade, five-course
common bond on all other sides. Elbert Divine reportedly
added the bay window on the south side and the front porch
in 1913. |
Hague Hough House
Francis Hague built a small one-room stone dwelling around
1744, which is now the easternmost portion of the Hague-Hough
House and probably the oldest house in the village. In 1788,
William Hough (1744-1815)-son of "Old John"-purchased
the house and land from Hague's son Thomas. Shortly thereafter,
Hough erected the impressive two-and-a-half-story brick section
to the west. A later brick addition links the two dwellings.
The architectural elements and substantial size of Hough's
brick dwelling attest to the high social status and wealth
of this Quaker family, as does the full-Georgian plan interior.
The present owners purchased the house after it had been
vacant for nearly thirty years; they faithfully and painstakingly
restored the home to its original state. |
Francis Pierpoint House
Samuel Pierpoint and his family lived here while operating
a dry goods store in an adjacent building (remnants are
visible to the right) from 1809 until Pierpoint's death
in 1812. His wife remarried and her new husband continued
the store. In 1844 Ann Taylor Ratcliffe, a widow, purchased
the property at auction; it remained in her family until
1909. During the 1840s many local children attended a school
here run by Ann's daughters, Mary and Sarah. The appearance
of two front doors may seem unusual, but it was common
in the Pennsylvania German community, where many Waterford
families had their roots. Also know as the Francis Pierpoint
House. Also know as the The Ratcliffe House.
|
Saturday |
Jacob Mendenhall House
Jacob Mendenhall (1788-1822), an
enterprising Quaker merchant, banker and schoolteacher, constructed
this dwelling between 1814 and 1820. His daughter Hannah
inherited the house in 1822 and also operated a school here.
Methodist Church trustees used the house as a parsonage from
1886 to 1941. The two front doors reflect a Pennsylvania
German building trend. Quaker families often constructed
dwellings with three rooms on the principal floor; one door
opened into a large room extending the depth of the house,
while the other door opened into a smaller room about half
of the house's depth. |
Shawen House
Although it appears on an 1853 map
of the village, the earliest known transaction involving
this building is an 1879 sale from William Nettle's heirs
to Milton Schooley (1833-1908), a Quaker miller who owned
The Dormers next door. This may be another house constructed
by Nettle. In later years it was the home of the Shawen family,
relatives of the Schooleys.
|
Marshall Claggett House
This small house was constructed
circa 1760 at Corby Hall, the Hough homestead about two miles
north of Waterford. About 1870, Marshall Claggett, an African
American, bought the house, dismantled the logs, and moved
it to Waterford. The cement block addition at the rear was
built in the mid-20th century. This dwelling exemplifies
typical log house construction: one-story, one room, V notches
linking the logs, a stone foundation and chimney. In 17th
and 18th century Virginia, more people lived in log houses
than in any other type of structure. Many had no windows-glass
was prohibitively expensive, and the government taxed each
pane in a house. |
Trouble Enough Indeed
Believe it or not, this dwelling
did not appear in Waterford until the early 1970s. Its owners
moved two 19th century log houses from Lewisdale, Maryland,
to this site and reassembled them into the home seen here.
|
The Sugar Shack
This V-notched log home replaces two buildings that burned
in 1965, when a resident lit a fire in his attic in a misguided
attempt to keep his bee hives from freezing. The
logs came from a building near Dulles Airport.
The house has since been covered
with wood siding. |
Sunday |
Jacob Mendenhall House
Jacob Mendenhall (1788-1822), an
enterprising Quaker merchant, banker and schoolteacher, constructed
this dwelling between 1814 and 1820. His daughter Hannah
inherited the house in 1822 and also operated a school here.
Methodist Church trustees used the house as a parsonage from
1886 to 1941. The two front doors reflect a Pennsylvania
German building trend. Quaker families often constructed
dwellings with three rooms on the principal floor; one door
opened into a large room extending the depth of the house,
while the other door opened into a smaller room about half
of the house's depth. |
The Dormers
Mahlon Janney's nephew and heir,
Mahlon II (b.1773), is credited with constructing this house
sometime after 1803. John Schooley and his son Milton lived
here and operated the mill until the latter's death in 1908.
The wings to either side of the house, a rear addition, the
roof dormers, and the Colonial Revival door surround are
not original to the house. The off-center door placement
is rare in a 19th-century five-bay dwelling.
View the Dormers before
its restoration. |
Asa Moore House
The brick portion of this house was
built before 1803, when Asa Moore insured it for $660. Moore
rented out this house, then sold it to Thomas Lacey, a joiner,
in 1810. The house had a series of owners and deteriorated
over time. A fire damaged the downhill side of the house
and that brick wall was replaced with a frame one, now covered
with stucco. The frame addition on the uphill side, clad
in German siding, was added around the turn of the century.
Notice the precision of the mortar joints bonding the bricks;
few houses in the village, if any, can the match the caliber
of this mortar. Although small, this dwelling is of very
high quality construction. |
Marshall Claggett House
This small house was constructed
circa 1760 at Corby Hall, the Hough homestead about two miles
north of Waterford. About 1870, Marshall Claggett, an African
American, bought the house, dismantled the logs, and moved
it to Waterford. The cement block addition at the rear was
built in the mid-20th century. This dwelling exemplifies
typical log house construction: one-story, one room, V notches
linking the logs, a stone foundation and chimney. In 17th
and 18th century Virginia, more people lived in log houses
than in any other type of structure. Many had no windows-glass
was prohibitively expensive, and the government taxed each
pane in a house.
|
The Sugar Shack
This V-notched log home replaces two buildings that burned
in 1965, when a resident lit a fire in his attic in a misguided
attempt to keep his bee hives from freezing. The
logs came from a building near Dulles Airport.
The house has since been covered
with wood siding. |
|