Resident Curator Approved To Lease, Restore Historic Fairfax Family Property

VIENNA, VA — As part of a Fairfax County program to lease historic properties to residents to keep them from falling into disrepair, the latest lease is a Vienna area property.

On Tuesday, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved subleasing the historic Ash Grove House at 8881 Ashgrove House Lane in Vienna to resident Sheila Consaul. She will become the resident curator of the property and will move in this week. The term of the lease is about seven years and nearly 11 additional months.

Fairfax County has a Resident Curator Program, which subleases publicly-owned historic properties to selected residents to preserve them and keep them from falling into disuse. Under the program, resident curators do not pay rent but make a financial commitment to rehabilitate the historic properties.

Under the sublease agreement, Consaul will rehabilitate the Ash Grove House as a residence and host an open house for the public at least once per year. The financial commitment over the entire lease term is $236,955.

Mike Lambert, property manager of real estate development for the county's Facilities Management Department, said Consaul is a noted historic conservationist who recently restored a century-historic lighthouse on the coast of Lake Erie.

According to the county, Ash Grove House was built by the Fairfax family and is one of the remaining 18th century Virginia houses. Bryan Fairfax constructed the original part of the Federal-style house in 1790 for his son Thomas Fairfax, and the family remained there until 1847. The home's location is on the edge of Tysons on one acre of land between the wooded Old Courthouse Spring Branch stream valley and the Westwood Village townhouse community. There are several historic structures on the land, including the house, restored 18th century brick kitchen and smokehouse.

The home experienced a serious fire in 1960, but many of its architectural features had previously been removed in preparation for restoration work. Historic architectural drawings and photographs from the 1930s helped restore other damages from the fire, but some of its wood floors still have charred marks from the fire.

In a video update, Consaul shared her plans for the property.

"I wanted to take the opportunity to thank Supervisor [Walter] Alcorn and all of the Board of Supervisors here in Fairfax County for providing me this opportunity to not only have a unique place to live but to take the opportunity to renovate the property, bring it back to something that we can all be proud of and maintain the history and the heritage of such an important location here in Virginia," said Consaul.

Consaul plans to make the property available to the public for activities and to see the renovations.