Naming

Whenever a property carries a name, it feels as though it carries a certain weight or importance, whether or not the provenance is obvious. As we did research into the history of Larner-Jones House, and talked to locals who knew the prior owners, it became clear the house has often been referred to by a name rather than its street address.

This, naturally, might prompt one to consider what is in a name, anyway. Perhaps it is somewhat obvious or intuitive that the tradition of naming houses took root in England, where even today they do love to name properties. For one thing, there is the notion that naming a property added a certain prestige, and allowed a family of any standing to have a slice of the noble life. Names, after all, are free, and who would live at 12345 Street Road when you can live at Downton Abbey?

On a more practical level, both in early England and the United States up until the 1900s there was not much of a road system, so the idea of referring to a house by its street name and number was not particularly workable. On the other hand, simply calling a property the "Collins House", for example, might only be useful to the extent that you knew the Collinses, or had ever visited their house. If not, knowing there was a Collins House wouldn't tell you much about it or where it was.

Little Hunting Creek Plantation

In the United States, almost no one names new houses anymore unless it is a beach or resort property, and naming a vacation home seems similar to naming a boat, where wordplay and whimsy rule the proposition. Still, there are a number of well-known properties that most everyone has heard of in the US, such as the White House, Biltmore Estate, Gracie Mansion, Fallingwater, the House of the Seven Gables and others. Some of these names are of obvious origins, and some are decidedly not.

For example, one Virginia property that most have heard of is Mount Vernon. What most do not know, and we didn't until we looked it up, is that Mount Vernon wasn't always called Mount Vernon. In fact, the first name of the property was Little Hunting Creek Plantation, so named for a nearby stream. George Washington's older half-brother Lawrence changed the name of the property to Mount Vernon in honor of Vice Admiral Edward Vernon and his victory in the grisly-named War of Jenkins' Ear, fought between Spain and Great Britain.

The war itself started when a Spanish patrol boat boarded the British brig Rebecca off the coast of Florida in 1731. Accusing the Rebecca of smuggling, the Spanish captain cut off the ear of Rebecca's captain and sent the captain off with a warning to the King. The captain, with severed ear as a visual aid, subsequently testified to this in the House of Commons, so enraging the British Parliament that a war was successfully prosecuted under the command of Vernon. And it was in this fashion that the avenger of Robert Jenkins' ear happened to become the namesake for the home of our country's first President.

The Falls Church

Locally to us of course, the city of Falls Church itself is named for The Falls Church, the city's oldest structure. Built in 1769, the church was named the Falls Church because of its location at the intersection of the Middle Turnpike and the road to the Falls of the Potomac (or "Falls Road"). Now Little Falls Street, and bisected by I-66, the Falls Road was originally an Indian trail that terminated at the furthest point up the Potomac that is navigable by canoe.

There are a number of named properties in Falls Church, most notably Lawton House, originally named "Home Hill" by Robert and Ruth Judson, who built it around the time LJH was built. The property was renamed Lawton House after the Civil War for its then-owner General Henry Ware Lawton, who was killed in the Spanish-American War. Two different schools for girls were based at Lawton House in the late 1800s, and the house was briefly the regional headquarters of the Confederacy during the Civil War. Lawton House is on the National Register of Historic Places.

There is also Mount Hope, built between 1790-1815 and the second oldest structure in Falls Church. Perched atop a local hill, Mount Hope was often also referred to as "Old Duncan Place" for its owner Captain William A. Duncan following the Civil War. There are several other named properties, such as Bonnie Briar [ED: mentioned by commenter, currently up for sale], Birch House, Tallwood and the DePutron House.

All of which brings us back to the old farmhouse at the corner of Maple and Columbia. It is certainly not an English estate, hasn't been the home of a Civil War general, and isn't the oldest property in town. And we certainly aren't the sort that would seek to name the house of our own volition. Having said that, while its primary distinction is that it is old, there have been a number of notable residents of the house (topic for another post), and as I mentioned at the start it is clear from the research and local talk that the owners have been invoked when referring to the house by name. We find that there are two who are most deserving to have their names attached to the property.

Most of the research done in 1970, and some of the references in books like Falls Church: Places and People, have referred to the property in variations of "Larner House". Mrs. Caroline F. Larner purchased the property and house in 1890, and she lived there until her death in 1915. We believe much of the expansion of the house was done while she owned it (subject for yet another post). In 1915, she willed the house to her daughter Mary D. Moore, who lived there with her children until 1941, making for a solid 53-year run of Larners in the house. In fact, subsequent owners of the house reported returning home one day to find old Mary rocking away in their front parlor as if she still owned the place.

In 1960, the family of Theodore and Mary Jones purchased the grounds and house. While all the research and books about Falls Church mention the Larners, all the living Falls Church long-timers talk about our property as the "Jones House". We purchased the property from the Jones family, who lived in the house for 52 years straight, dating from their purchase in 1960.

So, while it would be tempting to call the property the "Red House" as our kids do, we find it most appropriate to call it the "Larner-Jones House", in deference to the families who lived there for 105 years of the house's 140-160 year history.