Colross

and main entryway Virginia The land on which Colross was first located was originally part of the Northern Neck Proprietary, a land grant that the exiled Charles II awarded to seven of his supporters in 1649 during the English Interregnum. Following the Restoration in 1660, Charles II finally ascended to the English throne. Charles II renewed the Northern Neck Proprietary grant in 1662, revised it in 1669, and again renewed the original grant favoring original grantee Thomas Colepeper, 2nd Baron Colepeper and Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington in 1672. In 1681, Bennet sold his share to Lord Colepeper, and Lord Colepeper received a new charter for the entire land grant from James II in 1688. Following the deaths of Lord Colepeper, his wife Margaret, and his daughter Katherine, the Northern Neck Proprietary passed to Katherine's son Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron in 1719. John Potts, a prominent Alexandria merchant, developed the Colross property as a forced-labor cash-crop farm. He began building a brick mansion on the property between 1799 and 1800. Potts encountered financial difficulties and placed the unfinished mansion on the market in 1801. Some sources say Swift's wife reportedly named the estate Belle Air; Swift continued to construct the mansion. Mason used Colross as his chief homestead and made substantial modifications and additions to it. Mason built a high brick wall around the exterior of the Colross property. Orlando B. Willcox, who later served as a Union Army general, visited Colross on several occasions around 1851; he described it as a "fine house and ground and the chief residence of the Masons of Alexandria, much frequented by officers of the army". Willcox also remarked on the "hospitality and civility of the head of the house", Pen Mason's mother, Elizabeth "Betsey" Clapham Price (1802–1873). During the American Civil War, Colross was seized by Union authorities. Smoot's wife was a member of the Alexander family, and was therefore a descendant of the estate's former owners. While there, the Smoots' daughter Betty wrote, "the grounds included a whole square block and were enclosed with an ancient brick wall ten feet in height". In 1917, another lumber merchant, William Hoge, acquired the mansion. Under similar circumstances to those of nearby Abingdon, properties surrounding Colross underwent industrialization with the construction of a warehouse complex and ancillary industrial buildings associated with Alexandria Hay & Grain. In Alexandria, the mansion's remaining brick foundation was buried beneath a slab of reinforced concrete for over 50 years. Structures on the site have since included a large 50-truck garage, Andy's Car Wash, a Dominion Virginia Power substation, and the Hennage Creative Printers facility. == Architecture ==

of the front elevation of Colross The mansion at Colross was built in the Georgian architectural style Colross features wide halls and spacious rooms. The Colross property originally occupied the entire 1100 block of Oronoco Street. The grounds of the estate also contained ancillary outbuildings. The exterior brick walls of the mansion are laid in a Flemish bond pattern, exhibiting a "well proportioned width" of mortar joint between the bricks. Two sets of double inside chimneys extend above the roofline on each side of the mansion's main structure. The front façade of the mansion's main structure, which originally faced Oronoco Street in Alexandria, is five bays wide and contains the house's front entrance at the first floor's center bay. The front entrance is covered by a spacious Neoclassical architecture style portico, which is supported by two sets of double wooden doric columns at the front and engaged columns on the brick façade. The portico's frieze is subordinated to the architrave. The mansion's front door is topped by a leaded fanlight in the shape of a segmented arch. Leaded sidelights flank both sides of the main doorway. All of the mansion's windows feature colonial-style lintels. The mansion's roof is covered by gray slate and is further embellished with three dormer windows facing from the home's front façade. The roof is topped by a balustraded deck. Similar moulding contours were used at varying scales throughout the mansion's exterior construction. The mansion's cornice is composed of ornamented moldings. To the north of the mansion was a garden, which was purportedly well known for its boxwoods, lilacs, and roses. The garden remained through the ownership of the Smoot family. A winding path led from the mansion to a large burial vault, which was closed by a great iron lock. According to members of the Smoot family, the lock to the burial vault would "never stay locked more than three days" at a time. A vase of urn stood in the front lawn of the mansion; according to tradition this marked the location where Pocahontas was baptized. The urn remained in its location throughout the American Civil War and was later acquired by the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities. ==Archeological excavation==

The former Colross land tract on the 1100 block of Oronoco Street, which is bounded by North Fayette, Oronoco, Henry, and Pendleton streets, In 2005, Alexandria's Archaeological Protection Code requirement forced Diamond Properties to halt its construction to allow for an archaeological excavation of the Colross site. The excavation occurred between March and June 2005, as mandated by the city of Alexandria. Diamond Properties paid R. Christopher Goodwin & Associates Inc., a cultural resource management firm, about $100,000 to explore the site for historical artifacts and to ensure all burial plots had been removed. While only a few artifacts were recovered, historians said the dig offered a clearer view of early 19th-century life at Colross. Discoveries included an underground domed brick cistern that served as a water purification system and evidence that enslaved people lived in outbuildings on the Colross estate. Archaeologists also discovered the mansion's original basement floor, which was laid in a herringbone bond. Evidence of the estate's exterior walls, the foundations of the smokehouse, stables, and a burial vault were also unearthed. In the northwestern portion of the property, what is thought to have been the foundation of a rectangular burial vault was found. No burial remains were discovered. All interments were presumably removed in the early 20th century. Thomson Francis Mason was originally interred at the Colross graveyard in 1838, as were two of his daughters. Subsequent residents had their remains reinterred at Christ Church Episcopal Cemetery in Alexandria. According to the Alexandria Economic Development Partnership, the delay in construction caused 79 condominium buyers to abandon their purchases. ==Significant Mason family events==

The Colross estate was the location for several significant events involving the Mason family. Sarah Elizabeth Mason (1819–1907), a daughter of Thomson Francis Mason and his wife Elizabeth Clapham Price, married St. George Tucker Campbell at Colross on November 17, 1841. Virginia Mason (1830–1919), another daughter of Thomson and Elizabeth married William Hathorn Stewart Davidge at Colross on February 1, 1853. Colross was also the venue for the funeral of Mrs. Virginia King, wife of Dr. Benjamin King, on December 31, 1850. Mrs. King was a sister of Mrs. Judge Mason. According to local tradition, two small Mason children, William and Ann, were playing in the estate's yard when a storm arrived. William took shelter in the estate's chicken coop but the wind toppled the structure, killing him. Soon after William's death, his sister Ann drowned in a bathtub at Colross. Both children were interred in the estate's burial vault in the garden. Successive residents at Colross, including members of the Smoot family, claimed the estate was haunted by the deceased Mason children; they reported hearing children "giggling, singing, and talking", and witnessed apparitions of children in pre-Civil War attire. == References ==