Jennifer Addington remembers Burke when it was a small farm town. Her home, White Oaks, is reminiscent of that time: built in 1912 on what is now Old Burke Lake Road, the house (named by her parents in the 1950s) used to be the Burke Elementary School. Recently, Addington sat down and answered some questions about the history of the house and her own life.
How did your parents come to White Oaks? My dad was in the military and he was stationed at the Pentagon. They were living in Arlington and renting a house, and they wanted to buy. They came all the way out here — and in 1950 it was all the way out here, country roads, the Beltway wasn’t even dreamed of — and they thought they were going miles and miles and miles and miles. They fell in love with it and bought for $25,000. We had two acres then. They named it White Oaks … it was a schoolhouse until 1939 when it closed, and in 1998 we had a reunion here of a whole bunch of former students, former teacher and a former principal. One woman stood in this room [the living room] and said, "I taught third grade in this room for six years." It was amazing, it still gives me goosebumps just thinking about it.
Family: I have an older brother who lives in Georgia, who doesn’t have any desire to live here. I was just getting married when my father died and inherited the house. I had a townhouse off of Guinea Road and my husband had a house in Red Fox. We had this and were going to sell all three and said, "That’s really stupid." So we put a lot of money into this. Unfortunately, he only lived for four more years, he died. But I remarried a year or so ago and we’re here. I have one son and a daughter-in-law and they come fairly frequently. Granddogs, no grandkids. I keep hoping. And this is the first time since 1972 that you wouldn’t have been surrounded by at least two or three cats, but now my cats are gone, so I’m looking for more cats.
Education: I started out in Beloit College out in Wisconsin, and majored in French because we’d spoken French all my life, ever since we lived in France when I was a child. I was there for two years — the schedule was kind of odd, I went two years straight without a summer vacation and then had eight months off, went and played in Europe with my brother. I graduated from Old Dominion with a degree in history.
Professional life: I got married right out of college, had a child and stayed home for a while. Most of my professional career has been as parish administrators of Episcopal churches, which I love. I work at Emmanuel on the Hill now in Alexandria, but we’re members of Good Shepherd on Braddock Road. I’m a member of the theater group there, and in the old parish hall we had a fairly small stage that we kept having to build out on every time we had a show, with ramps and additions and steps here and there. Now we have a monstrous huge stage which is great. We just did our first production there of "Guys and Dolls" which was great.
Activities/interests/hobbies: Around here I do a lot of gardening. The two houses you passed before you pulled in here, the two new houses, used to be our extended property. In settling estate stuff I sold off that, so we don’t have quite as much land. But we have an acre, and that takes a lot of work. I have a fish pond outside, I love being outside gardening. I read a lot and cross-stitch a lot. My husband and I are ushers at Wolf Trap.
Old stories about White Oaks: I remember people talking about that, apparently, the backyard was kind of flat and there used to be a basketball court out there. There’s a brick wall that separates us from Jackson Street, and that’s been there forever and ever. It was built during the time it was a school. One of these letters said: "I remember when the principals, Mrs. Effie Moon, whipped one of the big boys for smacking me. She led him out to the woodshed. I watched from the sixth-grade window. She used a long switch and really let him have it." Edward Milner … this person talks about a man named Willie Harlow. He was a janitor, he probably did most of the building on this house; he could do anything. He also taught school. He used to tell the story of — I don’t think it was this school he taught in — after he had taught them for a year, the next fall they went to the next school up. They went in their bare feet and it was dusty and whatnot, and they got there and were tested. The teacher said, "You all don’t belong here." He taught them so well they were all up a grade. Some people were scared of him, he was a hermit. He lived in a shack up Jackson Street, where all those new houses are now. He used to come mow our lawn and do whatever work we needed doing around the house. Dad was having trouble one time with the water heater or something, and [Harlow] spent most of the day on his back on the floor of the basement. He came up and we said, "How much do we owe you?" and he said, "Well, I didn’t fix it; you don’t owe me anything." I remember him as a little child, being fascinated by him.
What is your favorite feature of the house? Well [the living room] has always been my favorite room in the house. It’s always been. When my parents were here it was a warm room. It was differently laid out, they had a great big grand piano over in that corner. But this is probably my favorite room. Having now put in the fish pond, I just love to sit out there. The upstairs is interesting, its overflow guest rooms and lots of storage … there’s so much history here. After my mother died in ’92, I suggested to my father every now and then, "You really should think about moving into one of those military retirement homes." He was here by himself, it was a big house, but he said: "I’m not leaving here ‘till I’m carried out in a body bag." I used to laugh at him but you know, now I understand where he was coming from.
Are there any local "hidden treasures" you think more people should know about? I think this whole little community is a hidden treasure. Unless you’re driving down this road on purpose, you don’t know it’s here. One house just up the street from us on the left-hand side just sold. They have a barn in the back and I remember when I was in high school we used to build our homecoming floats back there.
Community concerns: Mowing the grass down the middle of the highways, a little more care for that. When the kids park up the street going to the high school, they tend to leave a lot of trash out of their cars and that disappoints me. But by and large, I think it’s well-maintained and it’s doing well.
How would you most like to spend one day: Probably sitting out on the patio, listening to the pond, reading a good book.
What is the book you read or the last movie you watched? The last movie I watched was "The Little Prince," which is a very old movie. It’s just lovely, I had friends over to watch it. I’m listening to a series on tape right now on the great philosophies of the world. I’m way back in the beginning of philosophy right now; it’s one of the things I thought I should have majored in and never did.
Personal goals: I think I’ll probably work six more years at least before I retire. Some more traveling. Spending time, hopefully by then, with grandchildren. Continuing to fix up the house, doing more volunteer work. If I weren’t working pretty much full-time, I would love to go be a docent at the National Cathedral. That would be really great, it would incorporate both my history and my spiritual interests and I think that would be one of the most fun things I could do.