History of 19th Century Vienna House Gutted By Fire In April 2022

The vintage house on 135 Park St. NE in Vienna (see Figure 1) and its lot have an interesting history, including connections to local political figures of the past and two doctors, a prominent place in the Vienna social scene of the early and mid-20th century—and an expansion project 50 years ago that would stand out even in today’s era of impressive house additions. The house was subject to a terrible in April 2022, leaving one heartsick for the occupant, who endured what must have been a terrifying experience. In recognition of this 19th century house, what follows is a summary of the property’s history, adapted from two posts I had made on the Nextdoor app soon after the fire.

Figure 1: The House In 2021 (from Google Streetview)

As of 1860, the land that the house currently sits on was part of the roughly 200-acre “Ayr Hill” tract owned by Josiah Bowman, according to the Mitchell map of Fairfax County’s 1860 property owners and the county’ property records. Bowman was from Ostego, New York, according to “This Was Vienna, Virginia,” authored by Connie and Mayo Stuntz. That suggests he was part of the influx of upstate New Yorkers who moved to Fairfax County in the 1840s and 1850s, attracted by the cheap price of land played out from tobacco farming. In early 1891, Bowman sold some 150 acres of his property to Orrin E. Hine, Bowman’s neighboring property owner (see Figure 2).

Figure 2: The Bowman & Hine Properties, 1878

Like Bowman, O.E. Hine was a native New Yorker. However, Hine came to Vienna after the Civil War, in 1866, according to the Town of Vienna website. He had been an officer in an engineer unit that spent much of the war supporting the Union’s Army of the Potomac (see Figure 3).

In the late 1860s, Hine played a key role in establishing and administering the Freedmen Bureau’s schools for African-Americans, according to the websites of the Fairfax County Public Schools and novahistory.org. The Town’s website notes that in addition to being an agent of the Freedmen’s Bureau, Hine had been a Radical Republican—the most anti-slavery faction of the party—as well as a farmer, public education advocate, and, in 1890, Vienna’s first mayor. Hine was the first of two Vienna mayors who would have an ownership stake in the property, although today’s house wasn’t built yet when Hine owned the land. O.E. Hine was also a real estate agent and by the mid-1880s was a major landowner himself, according to the Town of Vienna. In November 1891, he subdivided the former Bowman tract, according to the Fairfax Herald (see Figure 4).

Figure 4: O.E. Hine Subdivides the Former Bowman Tract

The lot that the Park Street house would sit on was part of “Block B” of this subdivision, judging from county property records and a map of Hine’s Ayr Hill subdivision. Block B appears to have run along Park Street from Church Street to Maple Avenue (see Figure 5).

Figure 5: Estimated Boundary of Block B of the Ayr Hill Subdivision, 1891

In December 1891, Hine and his wife, Alma Delano Hine, sold Lots 1 and 2 of Block B, about a half-acre, to Jane Ferguson Leith, wife of Richard Dulaney Leith, according to county property records. The price was $2000. Over time, the Leiths would also buy other lots of Block B. Today’s house sits on what had been Lot 1 of Hine’s Ayr Hill subdivision. The house was built circa 1893, according to the Stuntz book. (The online Fairfax County property tax record puts it at what is presumably a rounded-up 1900). In 1906, the Leiths added a second building to their Block B properties, courtesy of construction by F.W. Pearson and a partner. The second structure built for the Leiths was probably the barn in the undated photo on page 207 of the Stuntz book. On the same page is a picture of the house probably from the first decade or so of the 20th century, judging from the appearance of the Leith’s daughter, Kathleen. As is typical of the records of this era, there’s more to be found about “Janie” Leith’s husband, “R.D.” Leith, than there is about Jane herself. For her, the Fairfax Herald makes reference to various social events, such as motoring to Aldie (her place of birth) in 1926, attending a meeting of the Baptist Association in 1919, and visits to and from friends and family.

Loudon-County-born R.D. Leith took up residence in Vienna in 1885, according to the Stuntz book. The Stuntzes quote from another account of Vienna history that “[t]he town being without a doctor, Dr. R.D. Leith was persuaded in the late 1880s to come to Vienna from Langley and rented a house on Park Street from Anderson Freeman.” Once the house at 135 Park Street was built circa 1893, Dr. Leith ran his practice out of “a room with a separate entrance to the side porch” of the house, according to the Stuntz book. Dr. Leith was considered a fever expert, according to the Stuntzes, who further characterize him as “the typical old-fashioned country doctor of the ‘horse and buggy’ days.” As of 1891, Dr. Leith was doing well financially (and justifying the Stuntz characterization), judging from an item in the Fairfax Herald: “Dr. Leith is driving his colt to a new buggy. I am glad to see this evidence of the doctor’s prosperity.” The horse was apparently named “Topsy.” Reflecting the scope of Dr. Leith’s duties as the local doctor, Fairfax County in 1891 paid Dr. Leith $10 for providing medical services to paupers; in 1904, he received $24 from the county for “attending outside poor.” The Fairfax County government’s “Timeline of Fairfax County History” notes that on Friday, 12 April, 1901, a “[t]elephone was installed at the home of Dr. Leith, 135 Park St., Vienna, Va,” highlighting what must have been an important public health development for the Vienna area, considering Dr. Leith’s role in the community. Dr. Leith was a Town councilman multiple times. As such a prominent local citizen, a “severe spell of rheumatism” from which he recovered in 1906 received attention in the Fairfax Herald; some of his travels and social engagements, as well as Janie’s, were recorded in the Washington newspapers. For example, the same edition of the Washington Post in 1907 had separate items on both of the Leiths. Dr. Leith had delivered the lecture at a multi-lodge gathering of the Ancient Free & Accepted Masons, while Jane Leith presided over a supper booth at the Presbyterian Church bazaar. (The Stuntz book devotes about a half-dozen paragraphs to Dr. Leith, underscoring how invaluable their “This Was Vienna, Virginia” is if you are interested in local history. I believe the book is available for purchase at the Freeman Store & Museum).

After Dr. Leith died of heart disease in 1913 around age 60, his widow and daughter continued to live in the house, judging from census and property records. In 1915, Kathleen married Henry H. Shackleford, employed in the banking industry. As of 1920, the couple lived at the house with their daughter and Kathleen’s widowed mother, Jane. Whereas in 1930 the couple and their daughter lived at an apartment across from Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, they were back at the Park Street house within a few years, according to the US census and local directories. Jane Leith died in 1941 but in the preceding years she had continued to be active socially in Kathleen’s company, judging from local and regional press articles. After their mother’s death, Kathleen and her older brother, Clarence, apparently inherited the Block B lots, including the house. After Clarence’s death in 1949, his widow conveyed these properties to Kathleen, according to Fairfax County property records.

Kathleen Leith Shackleford’s activities while living at the house on 135 Park St. were also the subject of local press reporting over the years. In 1908, for instance, the Fairfax Herald reported that teenager “Miss Kathleen Leith, who had the misfortune a short time ago to dislocate her shoulder joint, is now lying quite ill with typhoid fever.” It was presumably to Kathleen’s good fortune that her father not only was a doctor but also an expert in typhoid. In 1921, Kathleen’s needlework won a first prize at the Fairfax County Fair. For the Christmas of 1940, the house was recognized as among the residences with “the most artistically decorated doorways,” garnering Kathleen an honorable mention in a contest held by the Ayr Hill Garden Club. During her adulthood, Kathleen hosted luncheons, showers, bridge parties, church events, and other social events at the house.

Kathleen Veturia Leith Shackleford was widowed with Henry’s death in 1952 and herself died in 1967. In 1964, Kathleen had conveyed all of her Block B lots, totaling 1.231 acres and including the lot with the house, to the Vienna Theatre Corporation. It is unclear to me to what extent the house was occupied over the next several years. However, the Town of Vienna news release about the 2022 fire states that the photography studio at the house dates to 1966. Regardless, as part of the 1964 transaction, Vienna Theatre Corp. drew a 10-year note for $38,500 at 5.5 percent, payable to Kathleen Shackleford. The President of Vienna Theatre Corporation was John G. Broumas, an owner of a movie theater chain that was expanding rapidly in the mid-60s, according to the Washington Post. In 1966, Vienna Theatre transferred the lots to trustee Al G. Nolan. Nolan, in turn, transferred the properties in 1967 to a partnership, the A.L.A. Company. A.L.A in 1969 conveyed the lots to a four-party set of buyers: Heritage Homes of Vienna, David M. Curtin, Springfield Investors, and James C. Martinelli and wife Shirley J. Martinelli.

–The owner and real estate agent for Heritage Homes of Vienna was Mildred “Midge” Wilson Staver, a Vienna-area resident and member of Vienna Presbyterian Church.

–David M. Curtin would go on to be the general partner for the construction of the Vienna Courts office buildings next door to 135 Park St. NE, completed in 1974 and still standing, although the lot has been the subject of redevelopment interest.

–Later in 1969, Springfield Investors sold their share in the Block B lots to the family that eventually would own 135 Park St NE outright and continue that ownership to this day [2022].

–James Martinelli was the mayor of Vienna at the time he purchased his family’s 20 percent share. 31 days after the four-party purchase from A.L.A., Mayor Martinelli sold his share to Miles Carpet Service, Inc., owned by Miles A. Miciotto. Miles Carpet Service sold this share in the Block B properties to Heritage Homes of Vienna in late 1971, which enlarged Heritage’s portion of the ownership.

Two weeks later, on 30 December 1971, the family that currently owns the house consolidated their ownership of the structure and its lot. They purchased the stakes held in the house’s lot by Heritage Homes of Vienna and David M. Curtin and his wife, Lynne. In April 1972, the house’s owners plus Heritage Homes and the Curtins resubdivided into six lots what had been two lots holding the house at 135 Park Street NE and the house to the east at 231 Church Street NE. The house on 135 Park was now on a narrow strip of land similar to the original Lot 1 of Block B of O.E. Hine’s Ayr Hill subdivision (see Figures 6 and 7).

Figure 6: Subdivision As Of 1971
Figure 7: The 1972 Resubdivision

Much more dramatically, in 1972 the family that owned 135 Park bought the house at 231 Church and had it moved “down the hill to join Dr. Leith’s home,” according to the Stuntzes (see Figures 8, 9, and 10).

Figure 8: 135 Park and 231 Church As Of 1937
Figure 9: The Houses in 1960
Figure 10: 1972–The House Move & Expansion

This accounts for the unusually long length of the 135 Park house in its current form as it stretches along Church Street from its facing on Park Street (See Figure 11).

Figure 11: 135 Park St. NE, 2021

Page 210 of the Stuntz book features pictures of the 231 Church Street house and its move. Like the house at 135 Park, 231 Church had been owned by a doctor. Dr. Lomax Tayloe had resided in the house from 1914 until his death in 1932, with an apparent interruption in 1918 for service in the US Army’s Medical Corps, according to Connie and Mayo Stuntz and military records. Dr. Tayloe’s widow, the college professor and rose expert Myrtle Townes Tayloe, had owned the family’s Church Street lots, including the lot with the 231 Church Street house, until 1968, according to the Stuntzes and Fairfax County property records.

This takes the house to the modern era. Social media posters and neighbors have made reference to doing business over the years with the photography studio run by the owners who bought in 1971. From Google Street-view images, it looks like the sign for the studio came down sometime between the fall of 2016 and the summer of 2017. I recall smiling in recent years when noticing a less-than-life-sized General-Patton-like figure posted on the front porch of the house as I drove east on Church Street. It would be wonderful if something of the current house could be retained for use. In the meantime, I wish the best for the current owner and remember the old house, what led to its construction, and who lived in it or otherwise owned it during its more than 125 years.

Bookmark the permalink.

Comments are closed.