Photo courtesy of Bright MLS
The front exterior of Carlby near Mount Vernon.
In 1946, Carl W. Porter — Fairfax County's director of public works and a retired U.S. Navy captain — attempted something few homeowners would consider. He had an 18th-century house dismantled piece by piece in Southside Virginia and rebuilt it on two acres of Potomac River waterfront just downstream from Mount Vernon. He and his wife, Beatrice, named it Carlby.
Nearly 80 years later, the house is for sale at 4509 Carlby Lane, listed at $3,799,000 — a figure that reflects a $451,000 reduction taken in May. The listing is 2,992 square feet with five bedrooms and four baths, on 2.18 acres with 151 feet of water frontage and a pier extending into the river.
Photo courtesy of Bright MLS
A sunset view from Carlby near Mount Vernon.
The house before it was Carlby
The house dates to 1762, when it stood in Sussex County and was known as the Mitchell House. A 1976 study by historian Barbara Spann, prepared for the Fairfax County History Commission and the county's Office of Comprehensive Planning, documented the house as the boyhood home of Gen. Winfield Scott — the officer who served in the War of 1812 and the Mexican-American War, and who was still commanding general of the U.S. Army when the Civil War began.
The ground the house now occupies has its own provenance. George Washington's 1793 map of the Mount Vernon estate identifies the parcel as "Field Number 1," and the water directly in front of it as the estate's fishery.
Photo courtesy of Bright MLS
The view from the patio at Carlby
The setting
The property sits back from the road, roughly 200 feet from the water's edge, approached by a long driveway aligned to the symmetry of the house and its outbuildings. The riverside facade faces a portico that echoes, at smaller scale, the arrangement at Mount Vernon upstream.
The floor plan follows a form common to grand 18th-century Virginia houses: a wide central hall with front and back doors aligned to draw river breezes through the house. With both doors open, the water is visible straight through from the entrance.
Photo courtesy of Bright MLS
The dining room at Carlby with a chandelier designed by the owner.
Inside
The first floor retains original wide-plank pine floors, 12-foot ceilings and period moldings and paneling. The living room carries detailed wainscoting and woodwork the Porters restored themselves, lit by nine-over-nine windows facing the river. Across the hall, the dining room has a period fireplace and a chandelier Captain Porter designed himself, modeled on one at George Mason's Gunston Hall.
A den with a full bath can serve as a first-floor bedroom. The galley kitchen, a half bath, a laundry area and a private staircase to an upstairs room complete the main level. Each of the principal first-floor rooms has its own period fireplace.
Upstairs, the owner's suite runs the full width of the house, with original floors, a wood-burning fireplace, an en-suite bath and views of both the front lawn and the river. Two additional bedrooms, a hall bath and custom built-in closets finish the level.
Outbuildings include a detached two-car garage with upper-level storage, a historic smokehouse and a shed, arranged in the same deliberate symmetry as the drive.
Who it's for
At just under 3,000 square feet, Carlby is not a large house by the standards of its price bracket — the value is in the land, the water frontage and a documented history that runs from a Sussex County farm to a Navy captain's improbable act of preservation to a parcel Washington once farmed and fished.
Listed by: Andrea Courduvelis 703-307-3170,
TTR Sotheby's International Realty (703) 714-9030,
Co-Listing Agent: Diane G Murphy 703-408-1152,
TTR Sotheby's International Realty
