The road that The Barrett House was built adjacent to was called the Ox Road by 1813. Originally, the Ox Road was constructed, beginning in 1728, by Robert “King” Carter to transport western farm commodities and copper to his warehouse at Occoquan. It is possible that the portion of Ox Road at The Barrett House was not part of Carter’s original road to Occoquan.

Giles Run, which passes through the tract, was named after Giles Tillett, who obtained an early land grant along another portion of the run.[2]

The property had several owners over time. The original 3,500 acre tract was subdivided into lots in 1788 when John Lawson purchased a lot of 970 acres. The tract was further subdivided in 1851 when Edward Swann purchased 258 acres.

During the Civil War, the property was owned by Augustus Carusi.

In 1891, William Wimsatt purchased the 258-acre property.[3] Barrett House was likely constructed around the turn of the twentieth century as a country home for a lumber merchant working and residing in the District of Columbia. Based on construction materials, construction methods, house style, and land tax records, the house was likely constructed c. 1901 when lumber merchant William Wimsatt owned the property.

The house value in 1901 is listed in the tax records as $774. This value remained constant through the time that the house was purchased by The United States government for use by penal officials.

A newspaper story noted that many District of Columbia residents were purchasing property in the Lorton area for country homes.

The little village of Lorton, which is the railroad station for the workhouse, lies in a beautiful rolling and well-wooded country. Land is not expensive there, and a number of citizens of Washington have in the last five years purchased tracts of land, built homes, and settled, with the intention of remaining, and have spent large sums of money in improving, painting, and fertilizing their lands… January 13, 1911 [4]

Wimsatt founded the Johnson and Wimsatt Lumber Company, of the District of Columbia, with his brother-in-law, Eratus Kurtz Johnson. Wimsatt’s family had previously been in the lumber business. His older brother, Samuel, worked as a clerk at a lumber yard when William was 15 years  old.[5]

The Johnson and Wimsatt Lumber Company owned a three-masted 91-foot schooner, which carried raw lumber to the company wharfs in Washington, D.C. The ship was named the JOSEPHINE WIMSATT, likely after William Wimsatt’s wife, Florence Josephine Wimsatt (nee Cleary.)

Johnson & Wimsatt suffered losses in 1902 when a fire swept the company wharf on Water Street. The planing mill, machinery, and lumber (valued at $15,000) was destroyed.[9] William Wimsatt sought to rebuild and proposed specifications for a wharf extension and new planing mill. The wood construction material was consistently pine.

At the channel front and along the sides of the proposed wharf extension…large pine piles will be used, sawed off at extreme low water. These will never rot. On top of these piles 12 by 12 Georgia pine caps will be used and on top of the caps Georgia pine floor six inches thick. The walls will be of Georgia pine twelve inches thick. The inclosure will be filled in with dirt and oyster shells. The planning mill which the applicant wishes to erect will be of Georgia pine frame, with North Carolina pine joists and weatherboarding; boiler and engine room of brick. Roof, corrugated iron or tine, all of good, substantial construction.[10]

When William Pollock purchased the property in 1903, he entered into a trust agreement and used the property as collateral to secure payment to Wimsatt. He was further required to obtain insurance on the house for the value of $700. In 1904, Wimsatt mortgaged his household furniture and  library effects, which he had in his Fairfax County house, for $90.[11]

At the time of purchase, Pollock was 25 years old and unmarried, though he married shortly thereafter. His occupation in 1900 was listed on the census record as Scientific Aid – Government. In the 1910 population census, Pollock’s occupation was listed as stenographer for the Bureau of Manufactures. William and Ray F. Pollock, his wife, used the District of Columbia as their legal residence. Trust agreements, which used the 258-acre property as collateral, indicated that the Pollock’s were residents of the City of Washington.

During Pollock’s ownership, the house was known as “Pine Croft.”[12] The use of pine wood in the construction of the house, including the wood floors, suggests a probable basis for the name origination.

Mrs. Pollock was active in the community and, as president of the local Woman’s Good Road Association, held an oyster supper at the house.[13]

In August 1910, Pollock sold the house to Percy Skinner, who had been leasing the house for two years. Pollock purchased the house back in 1912.

Along with other parcels and homes, The Barrett House was purchased by the United States government in 1914 for the District of Columbia workhouse and reformatory, which had been constructed in the area.

Captain Morris Barnard, Superintendent of D.C. Penal Institutions, likely lived in the house during all or part of his tenure.

Barnard’s home, a handsome, almost pretentious place, is about a mile down the road from the Lorton reformatory. It is about half-way between the reformatory and the workhouse, where prisoners for lesser offenses are confined…[14]

Capt. Barnard seemed tired as he sat with reporters on the spacious veranda of his white, wood home, a little more than a mile from the reformatory…[15]