The Woodlawn Cultural Landscape Historic District includes the historic properties Woodlawn, George Washington's Gristmill, the Pope-Leighey House, Woodlawn Baptist Church Cemetery, Woodlawn Quaker Meetinghouse, Grand View, the Otis Tufton Mason House, the Sharpe Stable Complex, and Woodlawn United Methodist Church Cemetery. The district represents myriad preservation strategies, struggles, and compromises.
No resource in the district remains as originally built. The Woodlawn Quaker Meetinghouse has an early addition. Various owners and tenants altered Woodlawn, Grand View, and the Otis Tufton Mason House to their own tastes or to adapt them for contemporary living. The Pope-Leighey House and the Otis Tufton Mason House were moved from their original locations to preserve the structures, while original settings were lost.
The Gristmill is a 1933 reconstruction of a mill that was in disrepair by 1850. The current sanctuary accompanying Woodlawn Baptist Church Cemetery replaced the original 1872 church in 1970. While its 1880s sanctuary was lost to Fort Belvoir land acquisitions during World War II, Woodlawn United Methodist Church Cemetery remains active and intact.
Remarkably, this network of interrelated buildings and sites has survived. Collectively, they mirror the evolution of the cultural landscape
of Northern Virginia from a series of large agricultural estates to modern developments of smaller, privately owned properties.
The different preservation strategies expressed in this historic district are a microcosm of the constantly evolving field of historic preservation.
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