The Future of This Old House Is in Supervisors' Hands

The last vestige of Lunette, which was a 40-person town in eastern Loudoun County at the turn of the 20th century, is a dilapidated farmhouse stuck in a modern housing development in Aldie.

The two-story house, built in the early to mid-1800s along Braddock Road, served as the general store and post office for the tiny town, which was a few miles south of Arcola, according to "Loudoun Discovered," a series of books written by Waterford cartographer and Loudoun Extra columnist Eugene M. Scheel.

More than a century later, the issue of whether the house should be demolished or salvaged has landed in the laps of the Loudoun supervisors.

Greenvest, the developer that owns the house and the Kirkpatrick Farms subdivision in which it sits, is required to preserve the structure's facade under a proffer agreement with the county. In a June 4 letter to the Board of Supervisors, Greenvest offered to donate $100,000 to the county or to a Loudoun historical preservation society as the price for being allowed to violate that agreement and tear down the building.

Several supervisors criticized the company's offer at Tuesday's board meeting. Supervisor Andrea McGimsey (D-Potomac) called Greenvest's handling of the house "appalling." Supervisor Kelly Burk (D-Leesburg) said the Greenvest donation was a "way for the developer to buy their way out." Ed Gorski, a former county planner who acts as a land-use officer for the Piedmont Environmental Council, said such a payment would set a "horrendous" precedent.

But board members said they also were sensitive to the views of Kirkpatrick Farms residents. Leaders of the 959-member Kirkpatrick Farms Community Association have said the facade of the stone-and-brick house holds little historical value, and they want it gone.

"This is not an asset that the community wants to retain," said homeowners association President David L. Anderson. "Lacking in historic character, at the moment it is an eyesore. It's a source of vandalism; it's a source of attracting some unwanted teen visitors on occasion. There seems to be no appropriate way to dispose of it."

The nine-member board voted unanimously Tuesday to start the process of altering Greenvest's proffer agreement with the county. Supervisors will study the issue in the coming months and could wind up allowing the developer to demolish the house or giving it permission to sell the structure to a third party.

Greenvest purchased Kirkpatrick Farms in 1999, and the family that had been living in the Lunette house moved away in 2001. Two Greens/Kirkpatrick, a Greenvest subsidiary, moved the house from one part of the development to another in 2005 and used it for office space. In recent years, the developer has tried unsuccessfully to move it to a third location and convert it into storage or meeting space for the homeowners association.

Even the supervisors who supported getting rid of the house said they disapproved of how Greenvest had cared for the property.

"The developer has not taken adequate care of this structure," said Supervisor Stevens Miller (D-Dulles), who authored the legislation to change the proffer agreement. "But I would like to cope with this in a way that meets the community's needs."

In the June 4 letter to the board, Greenvest said the original proffer agreement was flawed.

"We understand the importance of preserving history and historic structures," wrote Christopher L. Rudy, vice president of land development for Two Greens/Kirkpatrick. "We feel that the proffers, which were in place when we purchased the property, were too restrictive concerning the uses allowed for the Lunette house, and we feel the best uses for the house could not be obtained."