Carlby House, Carlby Lane, Alexandria, Virginia
George Washington fished here. It's unknown whether or not he actually slept on the land now occupied by Carlby House, but his Mount Vernon fishery was located in this very spot.
That's the only historical fact that's certain about Carlby, despite the oft-repeated legends from its real estate listing. More on that in a bit...first, let's get a look at this show-stopping house.
The house was carefully labeled, dismantled, and painstakingly re-assembled in its new location. The new roof shingles were modeled after its neighbor's, Mount Vernon's.
Below is the view from the front door facing the circular drive and Carlby Lane. It's a private road, named after the owners who restored the house, Carl and Beatrice Porter.
The road was named for the house.
It can be argued that this is the back entrance of the house because the front faces the Potomac, but the views from either front door are terrific, both inside and outside.
As pretty as those are, we're more concerned with this view for the moment:
If Carlby was mine, I would pair it with local designer Barry Dixon and the living room would look something like this, below:
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His rooms feel historic yet comfortable.
(By the way, since this is a historic house, I wondered if those were the original Pinkie and Blue Boy paintings in the living room. They're not -- actually, it turns out that the originals are not that far from me, at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California. I should go see them.)
Meanwhile, if the dining room...
was also paired with Barry Dixon's Sylvan Setting project, it would become sumptuously stylish, like this:
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It opens to a smaller den and powder room:
Like the bathroom, the kitchen is not original to the home. It was renovated in the 1990's.
I'm not sure if this is what designer Barry Dixon would do here, but these kitchen finishes would go very nicely with his other designs we're copying.
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The kitchen has a back stairway:
Here is the main staircase:
It's said that General Winfield Scott (1786-1866) carved his name on this railing when he was a boy.
Carlby has five bedrooms (three pictured) and four bathrooms (none pictured) in 2,992 square feet.
Now let's go check out that view from the back/front of the house.
The property includes 151 feet of water frontage, a double garage, smokehouse, and a shed.
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Carlby is located in what was Field No. 1 with 120 acres. See where it reads "fishery" on the edge of the water?
Here's today's map for comparison:
After WWII, Captain Carl Porter bought the land intending to build a house close to his work at the Naval Yard. Instead he found and moved a house that needed restoration -- one known as Mitchell House.
In 1976, historian Barbara Spann attributed Mitchell House as the boyhood home of General Winfield Scott. She wrote about how the Porters restored the house in Carlby: A Fairfax County, Virginia History and Architecture Landmark.
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The book further says that Carlby was built in the mid-eighteenth century by George Booth (1679-1763?) in Sussex County, Virginia. (Built the year before he died?) However, another story claims that it was built by Daniel Mason for his daughter...who just happens to be General Scott's mother.
It's believed that General Scott lived there because he carved his name on the railing...or that his initials are carved under the staircase, depending on your source. However, yet another source lists his childhood home as Laurel Branch, in Dinwiddie County, Virginia.
{Does he look like someone who would deface the stairs? source}
I couldn't find further proof beyond the stair stories that General Scott did live there -- and interestingly and confusingly for researchers, the name Mitchell house is associated with a Captain Winfield Scott Mitchell.
It really doesn't matter whether the house is associated with him or not, though, thanks to George Washington's fishery, and more importantly, the Porters' obvious love and legacy for Carlby.
