George N. Saegmuller House

Not to be confused with Saegmuller House.

The George N. Saegmuller House is an 1894 building located in Arlington, Virginia, United States, and is registered on the National Register of Historic Places.

Background

The land that would eventually become the Reserve Hill farm, named for the reserve Union troops encampment there during the Civil War.,[1] was bought by Gilbert Vandenberg (or Vandenbergh) from his brother in 1857.[1] Upon his 1894 marriage to one of the Vandenberg daughters, Maria Jane, George Nicholas Saegmuller purchased the house from his father-in-law.[1] It is on this land that the George N. Saegmuller house now sits.[2] The mansion is 3,718 square feet, and has 21 rooms and ten fireplaces.[2] The house is now owned by the Columbus Club of Arlington, the home corporation of the Knights of Columbus Edward Douglass White Council.

History

The George N. Saegmuller house, built by the inventor of the same name, was built of in 1894 after the original wooden farmhouse burned down in 1892.[1] Construction of the mansion was completed in 1903.[3] Saegmuller decided to build the locally-quarreled bluestone mansion in the style of the Nuremberg castle, though the mansion has touches of traditional Southern architecture, such as the portico. The "Big House," as it is known to Saegmuller's descendants,[2] functioned as the family's summer home until Saegmuller's 1926 retirement.[4]

The house was the first to have a telephone line in Arlington County, installed in 1894 between the Reserve Hill and Easter Spring Farm, owned by John Saegmuller[7]. The house was also the first to have running water in then-Alexandria county.[2] This was done through the construction of the water tower in 1896. The water tower was modeled after one on the Nuremberg city wall, of which Saegmuller had a beer stein. This stein remains a prized family heirloom.[5] The house was equipped with the latest technology of the time: a lighting system powered by gas, and four bathrooms, one with a shower.[1] The Saegmuller family raised livestock, including cows, horses, pigs, chicken, geese, and guinea hens, maintained a vineyard and orchard, and grew crops such as corn and hay.[1] By 1891, George N. Saegmuller was thought of as one of the “principle farmers” of the area of then-Alexandria county.[1] In 1882, Saegmuller built a stone barn, in the spot where now sits the Knights of Columbus EDW Hall.[6] The Reserve Hill property also included three tenant farmers’ houses and a house for the foreman, and the area of the farm totaled over 240 acres by 1911.[1] Saegmuller died in the home on his 87th birthday, February 13, 1934.[4]

The mansion was owned as a private home until 1951, when it was bought by the then-named Columbus Club of Clarendon[2]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, United States Department of the Interior: National Park Service
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Rosenberg, Madelyn, "Full House", Arlington Magazine, Arlington Magazine
  3. ↑ Vincent, Kevin. "George Nicholas Saegmuller". Historical Marker Database. Bernard Fisher. Retrieved 16 November 2014.
  4. 1 2 "George Nicholas Saegmuller, Inventor, Is Dead". The Evening Star. The Evening Star. 14 February 1934.
  5. ↑ White, John M., "EDW Stein", The EDW History Project
  6. ↑ J, A, "Saegmuller Barn", The EDW History Project
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