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Community Corner

Home with a History

Modern life in a 1782 Burke home

It was love at first sight when Ellen Lyons laid eyes on Mulberry Hill, the 1782 house at 9417 Windsor Way in Burke. Lyons and her husband, Robert Harrison, both old home enthusiasts, saw an ad for an open house while visiting the historic Virginia Planter’s House in 1996.

“We went on a whim,” laughed Lyons, an attorney and self-described “recovering” archaeologist. “We weren’t looking to buy a house, but the minute I walked in, I fell in love.”

The two-story, dormered wood house on nearly an acre of land, originally sat on 300 acres used for planting tobacco. The house still has its 220-year-old paneled walls, wide-plank wood floors, and “wavy glass” windows intact. The dining room, featuring wood beams and an authentic, candle-burning chandelier, also has a full-wall china closet hidden behind mahogany-stained paneling.

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“It’s the only closet in the original part of the house,” Lyons noted. “Houses used to be taxed based partly on their number of closets.”

Thomas Windsor, a prominent Fairfax County Revolutionary War activist, built the house. Both the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Fairfax County History Commission have recognized the home’s historical significance. Four generations of Windsors are buried on Lyons’ property; former owners removed the old gravestones from the yard in the 1960s, with the Windsor family's knowledge. Fairfax County history records mention the stones, which are stored in the home's cellar.

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“Every once in a while, some member of the Windsor family stops by to visit the old homestead,” Lyons said.

Various owners have made additions to the house over the years. A porch and family room, showcasing wood reclaimed from a barn originally on the property, was added post-World War II. A former attached garage was made into a master bedroom and a den/play room (Lyons has three children) with the original red brick wall and floor.

Lyons favorite feature—and what attracted her originally—is the home’s seven fireplaces, six of them still wood-burning. “These old fireplaces were built to provide heat for the house, not just be decorative,” Lyons said. A few years ago, when the furnace died and left the family without central heating, they heated the house with just the fireplaces for half the winter. “These fireplaces were brilliant, they kept us warm,” Lyons said. “It made us appreciate how lives depended on the craftsmanship of the masons building those fireplaces.”

The home has a two-car detached garage with a second floor that Lyons once considered finishing as a great-room retreat.  Those plans were put on hold after her husband gave Lyons a birthday surprise inspired by the old English homes the couple used to rent for vacations. “I came home one day and found workers in my side yard,” Lyons recalled. “They were putting in a summerhouse!”

The delicately detailed, 10' by 10’ Amdega summerhouse, imported from England, has three walls of windows and a deck along one side. It is both Lyons’ office and her haven, she noted.

Lyons said her historic home, incongruously located in the suburban subdivision of Windsor Knolls, “is a great house for a family that loves the aesthetics of homes in Georgetown or Old Town, but also wants the suburban amenities of good schools, a big yard, and a cul-de sac for the kids.”

 “This is the world’s most fabulous house,” she added. “I love, love, love it. I never want to leave.”

Unfortunately, that’s one wish Lyons won’t get. Her husband landed his dream job in the Netherlands with the International Baccalaureate program, and their home is now on the market for $699,500 through McEnearney Associates. 

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