Historic Birchwood for sale again. Photo by Shirley Ruhe.
The historic cottage on N. 26th Street, a rare bit of Arlington history left standing, is for sale again one year later. Arlington’s second oldest house sold for $625,000 in August 2018. After investors made some changes and flipped it, the house was put on the market in July 2019 at $825,000. Members of the Arlington Historical Society and other interested citizens are reaching out to ascertain if there are any binding preservation or other architectural covenants currently applicable to the property that could preserve this historic landmark.
The Arlington County Historical Landmark posted at the location reads:
Caleb Birch, a farmer and constable, built a log house here around 1800 on land granted to his grandfather James Robertson by Lord Fairfax in 1724. The original house burned and was rebuilt about 1836. A second log cabin was added 10 years later. The two cabins, although separate, had a common roof forming what was known as a “dog trot” house. Later President Theodore Roosevelt rode horseback in this area with his friend and White House physician Rear Admiral Pressley M. Rixey on whose estate Birchwood stood. Rixey’s valet Richard Wallace lived at Birchwood and Roosevelt visited Wallace here in 1936. Birchwood was later reconstructed using the original logs.