Around 1760 James Lane Jr and his son William, members of the enterprising Lane family, built two mills and a distillery here where Rocky Run meets Cub Run. The water power of each creek was harnessed to grind wheat into flour to sell in Alexandria and overseas, to saw trees into lumber, and to transform the ground grains and local fruits into whiskey and brandies. When water was low, water from both creeks could be used.Perhaps James’ brother, William Carr Lane, served the liquors distilled here at his ordinary, the Newgate Tavern (the tavern site is located in the Centreville Historic District). Willliam must have been impressed with his brother's mills as he bought one for himself upstream along Rocky Run shortly after James established his mills. That mill still stands, though the machinery was stripped out in the 1930s. People know it today as Cabell's Mill.The Lane distillery was abandoned by the 1830s, but the Lane family continued to own the mills here until 1857 when Nestor Kincheloe purchased the complex (he transferred the sale to William B. Kincheloe who owned the mill until his death in 1900). Sometime under Kincheloe family ownership, James Pendleton Robinson became the miller. Robinson operated the grist mill until 1924 and he also ran a store that served the African American community adjoining the mill.

Lane's Mill at the turn of the 20th Century

Tranquil today, these woods were once filled with the rhythmic sound of the wooden gears, grinding stones, thumps and hisses of three mills and a distillery. Water powered machines in the 18th and early 19th century. These now silent remains are protected and preserved by the Fairfax County Park Authority and citizens like you. Please take only photographs and leave no trace. Note, the ruins are not visible from any road and may be so overgrown in the spring and summer as to be nearly invisible. Trails along Rocky Run and Cub Run can be accessed from a number of points: a trail connects near the intersection of Rydell Road and Rt 29 runs along Cub Run; a trail along Rocky Run can be accessed at the end of an unnamed access road just to the west of Virginia Tire &amp; Auto Shop. Some trails may not be passable during periods of high water.

Lanes Mill Ruins

Centreville was once described as existing within a "nourishing neighborhood," explore the sites south of the town, finish your tour in the delightful town of Clifton which, in the years after the Civil War, became the "big town" in the area!

But surely it is also the memories associated with a place that make it special? Sunnyside was the home to 6 (or is it 7?) generations of DeBells and the last DeBell resident here, Mildred DeBell, took on the task of preserving the memories of her family and of Centreville. For many years visitors to Centreville Day could visit a delightful display of Centreville memorabilia collected by the DeBell family going as far back as 1826, organized and presented by Mildred DeBell. The items were, as Mildred described it “a mish-mash” of letters, ledgers, photographs, newspapers and magazines, rationing stamps from World War II, old dairy items, and an heirloom christening gown. Mildred noted that her husband, Stuart, and his mother both tended to be “pack rats.” Many of the items were from the mid-20th century and reflected Centreville’s gradual change from rural town to Washington suburb during that period. When Mildred arrived in Centreville in 1938, when she barely out of high school, the town had numerous service stations, three stores, and a truckstop: “Our post office address was Clifton Station," recalled DeBell. "We had a Fairfax telephone number and we went to Manassas to shop." Newspaper clippings and photographs about the opening of Dulles Airport, the Meadows at Newgate (the garden apartment complex that was built after Sunnyside was moved in 1968), London Towne townhouses and Ellanor C. Lawrence Park documented the town’s growth. Other items reflected Centreville's social life and Mildred’s life more particularly. The were pictures and records related to Centreville Elementary School, where Mildred taught school, Saint John’s Church, and the Rocky Run Garden Club which Mildred, Ellanor C. Lawrence and a handful of other ladies had begun. Lawrence had a home at Middlegate, and there were also photos of an earlier resident of Middlegate, Dorothy Radford, who had been a guest at Mildred’s wedding. Personal momentos that took on a broader significance as Middlegate became part of Ellanor C. Lawrence and the Centreville of Mildred's memories, represented by a map, drawn by Mildred later in life, passed from memory to history.

Why does this old place matter? What makes Sunnyside special? Is it important that there may be a log building hidden beneath the wrap-around porch and the clapboard siding?

That is part of Sunnyside's lore, it's origins as a log home. An unrecorded tenant farmer may have built a log home as early as the 1740s or at later points in time. But the first unambiguous record of a house is a tax record that shows that Joel Mann had a modest house valued at $500 in 1866. Perhaps that was a log building. Centreville merchant John Daniel DeBell purchased the house in 1878 and expanded it to accommodate his growing family (the 13th child was born in 1886). His son, John Thomas DeBell added to the house again in 1916 and then built a dairy in 1926. When John Thomas died in 1946, his son Stuart continue to manage the dairy through the 1950s. But as Fairfax County grew and dairy farms dwindled, the DeBells moved with the times and opened an insurance office and a restaurant, the Newgate Inn. The family farm, located where the Centreville Regional Library stands today, was sold. But not the family home.

If you ask anyone who has lived in Centreville for a while and they will remember another thing that makes Sunnyside special, though they may not know it by name, they do recall the day in 1968 when a huge, old house was lifted off it’s foundations onto a trailer and very, very, very slowly moved down Route 29 and brought to this location. 




Sunnyside (DeBell House)

Sarah Summers at Level Green In 1859, Sarah (Sallie) Summers moved to Level Green Farm in Centreville with her sisters and brothers and widowed mother, Marianna Johnson Summers. Many years later, Sallie wrote the story of her life, including her vivid memories of Centreville in 1861, when she was 15 years old. By early June 1861 the Southern soldiers were encamped all around the Summers farm. The young soldiers went “swimming” in the run behind their house and picked cherries as they walked through the orchard. The boys came to the house to buy vegetables, chicken, and eggs from Mrs. Summers. Sallie thought that was an excuse, because they liked to sit and talk to the girls. War seemed to be just one big encampment. Suddenly, it all changed. About the middle of the July the Southern troops hurriedly marched away in the direction of Bull Run and Manassas. The Summers children sat on the fence and watched as troop after troop passed along the road by the gate. The cause of their sudden departure was soon apparent, as the Union troops moved in from Fairfax Court House. Regiment after regiment marched down the road in front of the house. Mrs. Summers had a fine field of corn, already several feet tall, right in front of the house. The road wasn’t wide enough to suit the troops and they tramped right through the cornfield. The corn was flattened to the ground and ruined. They were soon in the midst of the Union army. A northern regiment camped across from their house. Their tents were even pitched in the yard. Colonel Platt and Colonel Fisher had their wives with them and they moved into rooms in the Summers house. On July 18, there was an engagement at Blackburn’s Ford (near where present day Route 28 crosses Bull Run). Bullets were falling in their yard. One almost hit Mrs. Summers. Soon the wounded were being brought back. The porches of their house were turned into hospitals, with the wounded everywhere. Of the Battle of Bull Run on July 21, Sallie wrote: The first we knew of the way events were going on the afternoon of the 21st was when Col. Platt and Col. Fisher sent saddle horses for their wives to get back to Washington without delay. The roads and fields were soon filled with Union soldiers running like mad to get back to Washington. They were so scared they hardly knew which way they were running. It was a hot Sunday afternoon and they were all nearly dead for water. Our well had gone dry that summer and we would direct them to the springs. The Summers family and their servants hid in the basement until almost morning, when they finally ventured upstairs to get some sleep. When they awoke, it was raining. As they were eating breakfast, they heard horsemen coming into their yard. It was the southern cavalry, looking for any Union soldiers. In the fall, the Confederate winter encampment began. General Beauregard had his headquarters in the Stewart house across the road from Level green. He sent an officer to inform Mrs. Summers that he would require her house for the use of his staff officers. Despite the fact that Mrs. Summers was very sick with the measles she had caught from the soldiers, the officer said they had to leave. Army wagons and an ambulance for Mrs. Summers were there the next morning to take them to the home of Mrs. Johnson, her mother, who lived near New Baltimore. The Summers family could not return until late in 1865. Everything in the house was gone, and the house damaged. All of their trees had been cut down, the fences all destroyed. With the help of their old neighbors who had stayed in Centreville, they began to pick up the pieces of their lives and restore their house and farm. There are descendants of the Summers family still in Fairfax County. -- Claudettte Ward, Historic Centreville SocietyUse the link below to read the whole article.

Richard Omohundro was the original occupant of this 18th-century hewn-log farmhouse and plantation. The core of Level Green may have been built before 1741 by Richard Omohundro (Omohundra). Omohundro was granted a "three lives lease" on 200 acres of land by Willoughby Newton for Omohundro, his wife Ann, son Richard and daughter Mary. The lease would last the duration of their lives as long as they paid their rent of 500 pounds of tobacco and 4 shillings. In the lease agreement, it is noted that Omohundro had already constructed a small house. 

Omohundro died only a few years later, in 1745, and rather than continue with their lease, his wife and children moved on. Samuel Garner purchased the farm in 1748 and his house is noted on a 1748 survey of Newton's holdings. On the map is marked "the Beginning" of William Lynton's patent east of the Little Rocky Run. Using this and the stream branches shown on the survey it does place Garner's home the same area as Level Green. Garner and his wife sold the land back to Newton the following year. Perhaps raising tobacco in an area that was still more frontier than "civilization" proved too much for them, or perhaps they lacked the support of social networks that were typical of the people who moved to the Centreville "frontier." Omohundro, Thomas Brown, Andrew Hutchison, and Jacob Remey, all early settlers, all had ties of marriage or other association that might have helped them establish new homesteads in Centreville.

The Civil War was another trying time period that stands out in the history of Level Green. There are many stories of the battles fought around here, of the officers who set up headquarters and issued orders, and of the tens of thousands of soldiers who endured the long months of being in winter camp here. More uncommon is an account of what the War was like for a teenage girl. Below is such an account  excerpted from local historian Claudette Ward's article, "Women in Centreville and the Civil War."

Level Green

In 1988, when Mrs. Brown donated the stone to the Historic Centreville Society, she revealed that some 80 years earlier she was looking out of her window and saw a white neighbor move the stone onto her father’s property. Not wanting to make any trouble, her father left the stone in place until it was discovered by Boy Scouts in 1971. Though there were plans to create a path to the stone and encircle it with an elaborate iron fence, they were never realized. It seems the stone was soon forgotten by everyone, except Mattie Brown. As western Fairfax rapidly expanded in the 1980s, highway development took swaths of Mrs. Brown’s land. The bull dozers were getting closer to the location of the stone. Anxious that it would be destroyed or buried by the construction, Mrs. Brown reached out to a neighbor who put her in touch with the Historic Centreville Society. Members of the Society found the stone within 1 and ½ feet of construction markers and removed it.  The Boy Scouts who found the stone in 1971 had been dispatched by historian Eugenia Smith. Ms. Smith had just completed writing her book, Centreville, It’s History and Architecture, which was intended to raise public awareness of the area’s rich history and the many cultural resources that were in danger of being lost to “suburban sprawl.” Interested in both searching for evidence of Willoughby Newton’s patents and in stimulating public interest in Centreville history, Ms. Smith approached Fairfax Troop 1122, led by Don deLaski, and Centreville Troop 893, led by Leon Spencer, to organize scouts to search for 7 different Newton boundary stones Smith had identified in her research. Smith’s research had been funded by the Fairfax County Division of Planning and they helped provide the scouts with maps and coordinates. The scouts camped out on Big Rocky Run near Braddock Road, hiked to Saint John’s Church for a history lesson, and then dispersed to the 7 locations with compasses and maps in hand and slogged through mud and brambles on their determined quest. One group found a surveyor’s pipe where a stone was once said to be, two groups found interesting building foundations but no stones, and one group, Group Six, found a boundary stone in Mattie Brown’s yard.  Willoughby Newton (1702-1767) lived in Westmoreland County but over the course of 10 years, from 1739 to 1749, he acquired over 6,000 acres of land in and around today’s Centreville area. Newton had surveys conducted beginning in 1739. The 1739 surveyor, James Thomas, identified 14 points, labeled A thru P (omitting J which could be easily confused with an I), that defined Newton’s first patent for 1719 acres between Little Rocky Run and Great Rocky Cedar Run (more simply known as Big Rocky Run today). Point “P” was marked by inscribing Newton’s initials and the year, 1739, onto a large stone partly buried in the ground.

Inscribed with the date 1739, this stone predated Fairfax County, which was established in  1742, and is hailed as “Fairfax County’s oldest dated artifact.” Mattie Orrie Gaskins Brown donated the stone to the Historic Centreville Society. The Society loaned the stone to the Fairfax County Library which kept it in storage until it could be placed on display when the newly constructed Centreville Regional Library opened in 1992. In 2017 the stone was loaned to the historical display at the Sully District Government Center on Stonecroft Blvd.



Newton Boundary Stone

Old homes like Orchard Hill are difficult to date. Land ownership was well documented, but not what was put on the land. Fairfax County didn’t issue building permits until the 20th century. It didn’t even tax the value of buildings until 1820, and those records contain little to no detail about the buildings apart from a very general estimate of value. So how old is Orchard Hill? No one really knows. The Fairfax County Historical Index lists its date of construction at about 1780. A 1972 HABs report, suggested the building could be 40 years older and date from the 1740s. It could also be of a more recent vintage, perhaps 1810 or even 1840. It was drawn on an 1870 survey, so it is at least that old. We do know that in 1730 William Lynton (also spelled Linton) patented this land, which was a type of ownership under the colonial system. Lynton, like Willoughby Newton and other large landholders, lived elsewhere and purchased land as a means of generating income and providing for heirs. Land patents generated income by rents, but, as of this writing (with the libraries closed due to the pandemic), no records of Lynton’s tenants have been found. It’s likely that Lynton died not long after purchasing this property (a William Linton died in Prince William shortly before 1736), so it is possible he never had the chance. In 1751 James Nesbitt acquired control of Lynton’s patent by marrying Ann Lynton. Nesbitt did establish at least one set of tenants on the northern portion of this land. William Buckley and his two sons, William and John, were given a three-lives lease good for the lifetimes of William and the two boys. They were required to pay their rent in tobacco and they would have built a home here and a suite of out-buildings to maintain the farm, apple orchards were also common at this time. Could Orchard Hill be the Buckley home? It may well have been David Lane’s home, which he called Hayse (or Hays). His father William Lane purchased the Orchard Hill tract from James Nesbitt. Like Nesbitt, Lane used the land to generate income and thus, when he bequeathed it to his son in 1808, he asked that David not “take possession” without his mother’s consent so that she would not be deprived of the income. She consented in 1809 and David is listed with his own household in the 1810 census. But David did not make a record of his mother’s consent with the Fairfax Court. As a result, one of David’s first attempts to vote was ruled illegal in what must have been a very hotly contested election between George Minor and Richard Coleman for the state legislature. Hayse wasn’t David’s home for long, he died a young man and his brother sold the property. In 1839 it was purchased by Daniel Taylor. Taylor farmed it for the rest of his life, until his death in 1864. His sons Daniel Jr. and Thomas carefully divided the farm between themselves and the heirs of their brother William (other siblings sold their interests to their brothers). Daniel Jr. was allotted the portion with the building you see today, clearly shown on an 1870 survey of the division of land. This became Daniel Jr.’s life-long residence as well. Daniel Jr’s 1899 will reflects his consideration and love for his family. He bequeathed his home first to his brother Thomas, then to his nephew James, and then to his nieces Annie and Gertrude, with the stipulation that the property not be sold until the last of them either died or married and no longer needed the the house to be their home. Gertrude and Annie both married, Gertrude wed William H. Fox and Annie married William Stiebling. Together they sold Daniel Taylor’s farm and home to Joseph and Maude Roberson (nee Taylor) just before Christmas in 1913, with the stipulation that Thomas Timothy Taylor, their father and Daniel's brother, be allowed to remain in his room in the northwest corner of the house. The Robersons, Foxes, and Stieblings agreed to contribute to Thomas' care for the remainder of his life. Joseph passed the old house to his sons in 1933. As Centreville changed so did Orchard Hill. The orchard and farm are gone, but the house still serves to protect and support families in it’s 21st century role as a community center.

Imagine this place as it was, a farm for more than 100 years. A comparison of the 1850 agricultural census for Orchard Hill, when it was the home of Daniel Taylor, with the 1880 census, when Daniel’s son, Daniel Jr. lived and worked there, reveals very similar farm operations. Both grew wheat, oats, corn, potatoes, and hay. There would have been milk cows nearby for butter production and an apple orchard was located east of the house where private homes now stand. A cemetery, hardly noticeable today, is to the southwest of the house, between Orchard Hill and the pool house. Today, Orchard Hill appears to be a very different place.

Orchard Hill

Also known as Piney Branch Mill or Hope Park Mill, Robey's Mill is a 3-story frame building on a high stone foundation on the west side of Piney Branch stream. The gristmill likely was built between 1790 and 1804 by either Edward Payne or David Stuart. The property was part of a plantation named Hope Park. Stuart was the husband of the widow of Martha Custis Washington's son. Stuart offered the mill for sale in 1815. A miller named John Barnes Sr. bought the mill in 1837 and trained his eldest son, "Young Jack," the trade. Young Jack (Jack H. Barnes) inherited the mill and miller's house from his father's estate in 1853. Jack H. Barnes became one of the band of infamous Confederate guerrillas known as "Mosby's Rangers" during the Civil War and was captured three times. The miller's office on the southwest corner of the second floor contains wall carvings made by both Union and Confederate soldiers during the war. Fairfax County saw repeated occupations by both sides during the war. The mill was a Confederate outpost "No. 3" during the winter of 1861 to 1862 but was in an area mainly controlled by the Union after this. Family history tells of Union soldiers raiding the mill property and confiscating a pig that was one of the pets of a Barnes daughter. The child and one of the family's enslaved servants went to the Union camp and successfully pleaded for the safe return of the pig. The mill property was sold at public auction in 1869 to James Fox. The mill changed hands to a Mr. Summers in 1884 and to Frank Robey in 1886. Robey's ownership was a period of prosperity with the mill sometimes operating daily except Sunday; he also housed a general store on the ground floor. Frank Robey's brother, George, was the mill's stone dresser. George's son, Major Robey, ran the mill from 1904 to 1905. At capacity, the mill would produce about 16 bushels of fine stone ground flour per day. After Major Robey married, he moved from the area in 1905 and the mill ceased operations. Fraank Robey died the following year. A Mr. Stafford purchased the mill in 1930 and made major renovations. However, the mill only operated occasionally in the 1930s, as a demonstration of the milling process, and has not run since. Photos taken of the building in the 1930s show a water wheel around 18 feet in diameter. The original milldam was a crib dam constructed of 15-foot-long pine logs with the area between the logs filled with natural rock. The millrace was about 70 feet long and fed the water into a flume 20 feet above the ground. In 1951, a Mr. Wilcox bought the property and attempted to repair the buildings but the cost was prohibitive. David McGrath purchased the mill in 1963 and replaced the original board and batten siding. The mill was listed as a Fairfax County historic site in 1969, part of a county overlay historic district in 1980, and on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. Part of its significance is the survival of the ca. 1800 mill and three wood frame related buildings: the miller's house, smokehouse and springhouse, all clustered on the north side of the road. The miller's house has twentieth-century additions and the mill has had frame additions that were visible in 1930s HABS photographs removed. The property is currently in private hands and is not open to the public.

Robey's Mill was built by Edward Payne or David Stuart sometime between 1790 and 1804. Also known as Piney Branch Mill or Hope Park Mill, Robey's Mill is a 3-story frame building on a stone foundation on the west side of the Piney Branch stream. The Barnes family operated the gristmill from the 1830s to the 1860s, and one son became a Mosby's Ranger during the Civil War. The miller's office on the southwest corner of the second floor contains carvings made by both Union and Confederate soldiers. The mill was a Confederate outpost. "No. 3" during the winter of 1861 to 1862 but was in an area mainly controlled by the Union after this. The mill's most prosperous era was under the ownership of the Robey family from 1886 to 1905. When operating at full capacity, the gristmill could produce 16 bushels of fine stone-ground flour in a day. 

Robey's Mill

<h4>Overview of the Ivakota Farm Historic Site</h4>
The Ivakota Farm actually dates back to the hardships and culture women faced in the post -Civil War era. For many women in this time, care and nurturing defined their lives, whether restoring their lives when sons, husbands, brothers, and fathers didn’t come home or providing essential nurturing when the men came home scarred from the war. In the 1880s, the land of the future Ivakota was actually a large dairy farm operated by three different land owners. One of the owners, Frank and Ellen Shaw, bought 239 acres in 1909 and renamed the land “Ivakota,” which refers to the three states that Ellen Shaw had lived (Iowa, Virginia, and North Dakota).&nbsp;
By 1915, Mrs. Ella Doris Shaw sold the farm to the National Florence Crittenton Mission. This mission was founded by wealthy philanthropist Dr. Charles Crittenten, who lost his daughter in 1883 and decided to provide a nationwide network of houses for unwed mothers as well as orphaned or abandoned children. At the time of the sale, the Mission was led by prominent Alexandrian Dr. Kate Waller Barrett. Soon after acquiring the land, Dr. Barrett and her associates repurposed the land and built Ivakota Farm into a nationally-recognized, fully funded Progressive Era site. The site won awards for its education and produced an income as a working farm. The goal was to provide women with hope in dark times, whether the women were pregnant, diseased, battered, and so forth. It included temporary housing, a school, and medical care for these women.
The site eventually gained residence halls for the disadvantaged women as well as a health clinic and vegetable canning operation. In total, there were more than a dozen buildings and cottages. As a result of this work, countless women received the help they needed.
Ivakota Farm continued operations until the late 1950s, and the land was sold in the early 1960s.1&nbsp;
<h4>Transcription on the Historical Marker</h4>
On this land stood Ivakota Farm, founded as a Progressive Era reform school and home for unwed mothers and their children. In 1915 Ella Shaw donated her 264-acre farm to the National Florence Crittenton Mission (NFCM). Named for the states where she had lived—Iowa, Virginia and North Dakota—Ivakota provided a rural setting for inspirational, physical, domestic and religious education primarily for delinquent girls. Social reformer and NFCM president Dr. Kate Waller Barrett oversaw the program until her death in 1925. Ivakota included a school, nursery, health clinic, dormitories, a commercial farm and a cemetery. After leasing to charitable organizations NFCM sold the land in 1962.2

In the first half of the 20th century, Ivakota Farm was a Progressive Era site and forward-thinking home for disadvantaged, troubled, and unwed young women. Between 1915 and its closing in the late 1950s, the home served as the residence for more than 1,100 women and treated around 9,000 women a year in its outpatient clinic. In addition to the residence, Ivakota Farm functioned as an award-winning industrial farm and education center, using local, state, and federal funding to provide training in canning, gardening, sewing, and other skills. 

Nowadays, a beautiful neighborhood sits at the old Ivakota Farm site, though the Fairfax County History Commission erected a historical marker in 2007 to provide both residents and visitors with a comprehensive overview of the cultural and social history of Ivakota Farm.

Ivakota Farm

The caboose marks the original location of the Devereux train station, constructed in 1863 on the Orange &amp; Alexandria Railroad. After Union troops took control of northern Virginia in 1862, the U. S. Military Railroad took control of rail lines, and U.S. Military Railroad rail superintendent Herman Haupt commissioned Alexandria rail superintendent John Henry Devereux to construct a "siding," or low-speed spur track, at this site. Railroad workers in named the station honor of Devereux. Devereux Station was part of a lifeline for supplies and troops, as it was used for moving wood for locomotives, and the railways were targets for Confederate raids. When a passenger station was built in 1868, the area was renamed Clifton Station by Harrison G. Otis, who purchased much of the land around the rail line and opened a hotel the following year. As a result, Clifton experienced an evolution into a resort community in late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Orange &amp; Alexandria railroad became the Southern Railway. Norfolk and Western Railway merged with the Southern Railway in the early 1980s and the merged company was also known as the Norfolk Southern Railway. The station was removed in 1958, but the tracks are still in use by Amtrak and Virginia Railway Express. The Norfolk and Western Railway caboose, or the end car of a freight train, was in use from 1974 to 1991 and was later placed at the site to mark where Devereux Station once stood. The Virginia Department of Historic Resources placed the marker in 1996.

This antique caboose and corresponding historic marker commemorate the history of the region its former train stations, one of which was utilized by Union forces in the Civil War. The marker mentions that there were two railroad stations between Manassas Junction and Fairfax:  Sangster's Station and Devereux Station. After the war ended, both of the train stations were replaced, and the construction of a passenger station at Devereux Station led to Clifton's rise as a resort community. Near the marker is a late-twentieth-century red caboose from the Norfolk & Western Railway, one of the many railroads that have passed through Clifton over the past 150 years.

Southern Centreville - Clifton

Lanes Mill Ruins

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources