The Board of Supervisors approved expanding the Langley Fork Historic Overlay District to include The Mackall House, originally built as a church in 1858, on Tuesday, Nov. 1. Photo by Ken Moore.
McLean — Dranesville Planning Commissioner John Ulfelder gave details of the importance of McLean’s Mackall-Hall house.
“Doug Mackall was born in the bedroom on the second floor on top of the stairs. I don’t know if Henry Mackall was born there or not, I don’t think he was in the house,” said Ulfelder. “Two prominent folks who have a lot to do with the preservation of history of McLean and have been involved in the overall Fairfax County community as well.”
The Board of Supervisors in April authorized planning staff to research the Mackall-Hall house and Turkey HIll Road for a possible expansion of the Langley Fork Historic Overlay District.
On Tuesday, Nov. 1, The Board of Supervisors approved expanding the Langley Fork Historic Overlay District to include The Mackall House, originally built as a church in 1858. The Planning Commission recommended approval of the application and rezoning earlier on Oct. 26.
“It is clear to me that the Mackall-Hall property belongs in the Langley Fork Historic Overlay District. At this point, we don’t know why it wasn’t included when the Historic Overlay District was created in 1980,” said Ulfelder.
The Board held its own public hearing and approved the proposed expansion on on Nov. 1, 2016.
THE LANGLEY FORK Historic Overlay District was created in 1980 by the Board of Supervisors to protect historic structures clustered around the intersection of Old Chain Bridge Road and Georgetown Pike.
The historic overlay district encompasses 83.8 acres and a cluster of six historic structures included Langley Ordinary, Langley Tolly House, Gunnell’s Chapel, the Langley Friends Meeting House, the Mackall House and the Kennedy’s Hickory Hill.
Historic Overlay Districts are special zoning districts under the county’s zoning Ordinance, and consist of “property or group of contiguous related properties determined to be of architectural, historic or archaeological significance” to county residents.
The proposed change is the second proposed boundary change of the 13 overlay districts in the county; The Centreville Overlay District was expanded in 2007.
According to Planning Commission staff reports, The Mackall House was originally built as a church in 1858. The Mackall family converted the church into a residence in the late 19th century and occupied the house until the 1940s. The building is now used as a day school, according to staff reports.
The properties were originally part of a 540-acre tract of land named Langley by Thomas Lee for the ancestral estate in England. It was sold to B. Mackall in 1838, according to commission documents. “A Union Army Civil War camp was situated on part of the property and the house served as a tenant house for a sheep farmer postmaster during the late 19th century.”
After two owners occupied the house from 1949-1961, Dorsey and Cynthia Richardson purchased the two parcels of property and maintain it today. The home and its history have been preserved “primarily due to a devoted home owner who has maintained and cared lovingly for the property since she and her husband bought it in 1960,” said Ulfelder.
With the help of her daughter Melanie Richardson, Cynthia Richardson has documented the history of the house and its various owners, said Ulfelder.
The Fairfax County History Commission voted in July to expand the historic district to include the Mackall-Hall House and vacant parcel at 1013 and 1011 Turkey Run Road.
The Fairfax County Architectural Review Board also voted this summer to recommend the expansion.
Neighbors Ann Alexander and Edward Alexander own property across the street.
“We’re very much interested in the area,” said Edward Alexander.
“Like many of you, we believe in history,” said Ann Alexander. “How does this affect all of us who own property in that area?”
“You’re outside the boundaries,” said Ulfelder. “You’re not affected.”
Langley Fork Historic Overlay District
“Beginning in the early 19th century, the village of Langley grew around the juncture of the Georgetown-Leesburg Turnpike and Chain Bridge Road. Both roads date from the colonial era. The Georgetown-Leesburg Turnpike was an important east-west road linking farmers with the merchants of Georgetown. Fairfax County had few towns and clusters of houses and other buildings developed around crossroads, near mills, or at other convenient locations. These settlements dotted the rural 19th- and 20th-century landscape. Langley Fork is the most intact and recognizable of these rural crossroads villages remaining in Fairfax County. Six buildings, in addition to the roads themselves, remain from the previous century. Two, the mid-19th-Century ordinary and toll house, illustrate the area's importance as a stopping point for travelers. The ordinary served as both headquarters and hospital for troops in the Civil War. The Mackall House was built in 1858 as Trinity Methodist Church, but was later converted into a house and is now a school. Two other churches survive, the Langley Friends Meeting House, built in 1893 as the second church of the Trinity Methodist congregation, and Gunnell's Chapel, built after 1865 as the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church. The sixth structure, Hickory Hill, was constructed shortly after the Civil War, probably by the same man who built the ordinary. In the 1930's the house was extensively remodeled.”
http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dpz/historic/overlaydistricts/langley.htm