Jul 17, 1975
National Register of Historic Places - Ball-Sellers House
Statement of Significant: The Ball-Sellers House in the Glencarlyn section of Arlington County is remarkable for its clapboard roof which is a rare survival in Virginia. Associated with two of the original families of the present Arlington County, the house was built on a farm which became one of the earliest planned commuter suburbs of Washington, D. C. The modest structure is probably the oldest house in Arlington County. The property on which the house stands was included in a grant by William Fairfax to John Ball, who received 166 acres of land on Four Mile Run in 1742. A long-time resident of Prince William (later Fairfax) County, Ball is believed to have built the original log section and its frame lean-to. When he died in 1766, he directed that his property be sold and that the proceeds be divided among his wife, Elizabeth, and his five daughters. The sale occurred in 1772, when William Carlin (1732-1820) purchased the farm for 100 pounds. However, Elizabeth Ball had elected to take her widow's dower rather than accept her husband's will, and so may have occupied the house until her death (around 1792). William Carlin's will stated that the property should be sold in lots small enough for persons with little money to purchase them. The scheme proved to be impracticable, and finally the estate was divided into three lots, each sold to one of Carlin's three sons. Lot 1, the "Mansion House Tract," was acquired for $874 in 1835 by James Harvey Carlin. After his death, the 94-acre tract was operated as a dairy farm by his son Andrew and his daughter Ann. William W. Curtis and Samuel F. Burdett bought the Carlin farm in 1887, and it was they who developed it as a subdivision for "all men and women of moderate means or who receive stated salaries." Planned to take advantage of a railroad station which has made Carlin Springs (as the area was then known) a popular picnic area for Washingtonians since the 1870s, the development was named Glencarlyn in 1896. At first the corporation retained possession of the old house. After sever- al changes of ownership in the twentieth century, the property was given by Marian Sellers to the Arlington Historical Society in 1975. The most notable architectural feature of the house is its clapboard roof, a form which has received little attention from architectural scholars in the past. Seventeenth- and eighteenth-century records occasionally mention such roofs, and occasional fragmentary survivals have been noted by modern students who were unable until recently to recognize them as a form of roofing which was apparently not unusual in the seventeenth century, and on lesser buildings into the nineteenth century, but of which few examples are extant. Rarely has one survived in so complete a form as that of the Ball- Sellers House, which also retains many associated incidental features such as bracing laths, caulking, and gable-end weatherboarding.
National Register of Historic Places - Ball-Sellers House
Statement of Significant: The Ball-Sellers House in the Glencarlyn section of Arlington County is remarkable for its clapboard roof which is a rare survival in Virginia. Associated with two of the original families of the present Arlington County, the house was built on a farm which became one of the earliest planned commuter suburbs of Washington, D. C. The modest structure is probably the oldest house in Arlington County. The property on which the house stands was included in a grant by William Fairfax to John Ball, who received 166 acres of land on Four Mile Run in 1742. A long-time resident of Prince William (later Fairfax) County, Ball is believed to have built the original log section and its frame lean-to. When he died in 1766, he directed that his property be sold and that the proceeds be divided among his wife, Elizabeth, and his five daughters. The sale occurred in 1772, when William Carlin (1732-1820) purchased the farm for 100 pounds. However, Elizabeth Ball had elected to take her widow's dower rather than accept her husband's will, and so may have occupied the house until her death (around 1792). William Carlin's will stated that the property should be sold in lots small enough for persons with little money to purchase them. The scheme proved to be impracticable, and finally the estate was divided into three lots, each sold to one of Carlin's three sons. Lot 1, the "Mansion House Tract," was acquired for $874 in 1835 by James Harvey Carlin. After his death, the 94-acre tract was operated as a dairy farm by his son Andrew and his daughter Ann. William W. Curtis and Samuel F. Burdett bought the Carlin farm in 1887, and it was they who developed it as a subdivision for "all men and women of moderate means or who receive stated salaries." Planned to take advantage of a railroad station which has made Carlin Springs (as the area was then known) a popular picnic area for Washingtonians since the 1870s, the development was named Glencarlyn in 1896. At first the corporation retained possession of the old house. After sever- al changes of ownership in the twentieth century, the property was given by Marian Sellers to the Arlington Historical Society in 1975. The most notable architectural feature of the house is its clapboard roof, a form which has received little attention from architectural scholars in the past. Seventeenth- and eighteenth-century records occasionally mention such roofs, and occasional fragmentary survivals have been noted by modern students who were unable until recently to recognize them as a form of roofing which was apparently not unusual in the seventeenth century, and on lesser buildings into the nineteenth century, but of which few examples are extant. Rarely has one survived in so complete a form as that of the Ball- Sellers House, which also retains many associated incidental features such as bracing laths, caulking, and gable-end weatherboarding.
Jul 17, 1975
Posted Date
Jul 10, 2023
Historical Record Date
Jul 17, 1975
Source Name
National Register of Historic Places
