| 07-01-07 Interesting comments and observations made my Brother Jim
McDaniel's. Don't the blocks seem to be about the
same height as the lodge is off the ground now?
Was the lodge wood-sided back then with the concrete
blocks exposed. It's possible the stucco covering came at some later date
and just visually covered up the concrete blocks that used to be visual? If
so, it is difficult to compare heights from this photo.
The 1920s photo from the hotel is equally puzzling.
The "large shadow"
Is a real mystery. I haven't heard of anything that
large in the middle of the building, have you? It looks like there might be
some stairs at the end of the building, but the photo is bad and it could be
my imagination wanting to see stairs there. The structure at the end of the
aerial photo looks to me more like scaffolding than something fixed to the
building. It extends out quite a distance.
Wor. Lusi Pages, said...
How many windows we have on the back of the
building? I know there is one in the ante-room, and I think there are two
in the Lodge room. If that is the case then the picture you have was taken
of the building the same size as it is today, with the difference being on
the steps, door, etc. . There is a note on the historical data, compiled
for the 100th anniversary and published in 1977, which mentions that the
steps were moved inside and the front door moved to the side of Main Street,
"where it is today".
There is no way to tell with certainty, from the
historical notes, when that took place but you can make a reasonable guess.
As you know from the records, "the Lodge" ( the building? or "the
Lodge/membership, etc"?) was moved to its present location in June of 1920,
an the purchase of the building was finalized on July 18, 1921.
It appears that the Lodge owned a piece of property
in the Town of Clifton, and at a separate location, which the Lodge
exchanged with R. C. Hickey for the site now owned and occupied by Acacia
16. I have seen a deed from the Trustees of Acacia to R.C. Hickey, and then
a contemporaneous one from R. C.
Hickey to the Trustees (This appears to be the one
deed recorded in Liber V-8, at page 248, dated July 18, 1921 and recorded on
September 23, 1921 amongst the land records of Fairfax County, VA).
The historical note that is on Page 20 as shown on
the web page relates, sort of step by step, on the activities directed to
purchase the building and land.
The purchase price for the building was established
at $250.00. It appears that a company "Joint Stock Co." was created to
purchase the mill and rent it to the Lodge, under certain conditions. It is
reported that at the May Stated, 1903, $90.00 had been collected, with an
additional collection of $40.00. The transaction was then consummated and
they executed a Deed of Trust payable to Mr. Hickey for the balance of the
purchase price. It also appears that payments of interests were made on a
yearly basis and I conclude that if no payment of interest was made, then it
was added to the principal, because the record show that although other
payments were made thru the years , when the Lodge exchanged parcels with
Mr. Hickey there was "the debt of $100 still owed on the Deed of Trust."
Back in those years Deeds of Bargain and Sale were not necessarily recorded
at the time they
were executed, as it is the practice today, and
the creditors/note holders
recorded the Deed of Trust up[on execution, and when
the debt secured thereby was paid then the deed of Bargain and Sale was
recorded. This may have been the case of the acquisition of Acacia's
property, and the justification of the lapse of time between 1903, when
negotiations started,
and 1921 when the deed was finally executed by Mr.
Hickey. In many
instances there were evidences to support this
assertion by the fact that they started talking to Mr. Hickey in 1903, made
payments in 1908, 1909, 1911, and 1920, and finally consummated the deal in
1920/1921.
The historical notes, mentioned that the Lodge's
Treasury was "badly
depleted", and then continues "with what meager
funds that could be
mustered, the first project undertaken was to
eliminate the steps outside and move them inside, and later the main
entrance was moved to the center front side of the Lodge facing Main Street,
as it is today." It seems to me that the steps were moved inside shortly
after 1921, and if you look at the historical notes and remember the
economic history of the country, they were probably constructed before the
big crisis in the late 1920's.
I always thought that that our forefathers had
built an addition to the building on the side by the creek, to include the
steps, ante room, etc. If we have four windows on the back of the building,
then my original idea is correct. If we only have three windows on the back,
then the picture that you have tells us that I was wrong and there was no
addition, as it shows only three windows. In that case one can assume the
picture that you just published today, showing the steps on the outside of
the building, was taken on or before the year 1921.
Best regards,
Luis Pages |
