Twice a year the Friends of Historic Huntley opens up the Huntley manor house on Harrison Lane, just up the hill from the bottomland that is now Huntley Meadows Park. The house and outbuildings were built in the 1820s as a second home for Thomson Francis Mason, a member of the large family that played so great a role in the history of the county in the Federal period. The main house, a storage building, a four-seat privy, and another outbuilding are extant; archeologists have found the ruins of another building, symmetrically positioned across from the storage building. But they haven't found the hearth, and they're not sure where the slaves were quartered.

The property served as a military encampment in the Civil War—the 3rd Michigan was here—and then passed into the hands of the Amlong and Harrison families.

The manor house and outbuildings are now the property of the county park authority, but (as you can see) are not generally accessible to the public. The county has $700 thousand available from earlier bond sales, which will pay for restoring the exterior of the buildings; another $2 million is needed to complete restoration of the site, to provide parking and a visitor's center, and to meet accessibility requirements. Fortunately, once funds become available, much of the original construction is intact: subsequent owners did not "improve" upon the original. On the other hand, the brickwork is not of the highest quality, and so stripping the white paint from the buildings is not feasible.

The root cellar gives access to an underground brick-domed ice well; the scale of the well (a bit smaller than a similar one at Gadsby's Tavern) suggests to historians that the property may have served as an inn for part of its life. At this point, the historical record is mute.

I suspect that wedge-shaped piece of wood on the door jamb held a curtain rod. Leta says that it was not unusual to hang curtains across interior doorways: heavy in the winter, light in the summer. One nail is visible where the molding has been removed.

posted: 6:05:36 PM