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North Fairfax Street

The Carlyle House was completed in 1753 by John Carlyle Person John Carlyle b. 1720 · d. 1780 Scottish-descent merchant born in Carlisle, England, in 1720; one of the eleven founding trustees of Alexandria in 1749, and builder of the stone Carlyle House at the head of what … , one of the eleven founding trustees of Alexandria, on a block-long lot fronting the Potomac ^[1] Source 1 Miller, Artisans and Merchants, 1991 Book . Its cut-stone masonry and two-story symmetrical plan were exceptional for the Virginia tidewater in the mid-eighteenth century, where brick was the usual prestige material. The east front door — the one facing the river — carries a keystone above it cut “J. S. C. 1752”: J and C for John Carlyle, S for his first wife Sarah Fairfax Carlyle Person Sarah Fairfax Carlyle b. 1728 · d. 1761 Second daughter of of Belvoir; in 1748 married , anchoring the Carlyles into the Fairfax network. Her sister Anne Fairfax was the wife of Lawrence Washington of Mount Vernon … , the date marking the year the masonry was begun ^[2] Source 2 R. H. Spencer, "The Carlyle House" (W&M Quarterly, July 1909) Book .

In March and April 1755, General Edward Braddock made the house his headquarters while meeting with the royal governors of Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, and Massachusetts to plan the opening campaign of the French and Indian War ^[3] Source 3 Powell, History of Old Alexandria, 1928 Book . Present in the house that spring were Braddock and his aide-de-camp Captain Robert Orme; Commodore Augustus Keppel, commanding the squadron that brought Braddock from England; Col. Sir Peter Halkett of the 44th Regiment of Foot; Benjamin Franklin, who had ridden down from Philadelphia; Richard Henry Lee; and the young Col. Washington, who first met Braddock at Carlyle’s table ^[2] Source 2 R. H. Spencer, "The Carlyle House" (W&M Quarterly, July 1909) Book .

The five colonial governors met in formal Council in the first-floor parlor on April 14, 15, and 16, 1755 — Robert Dinwiddie of Virginia, William Shirley of Massachusetts, Horatio Sharpe of Maryland, James DeLancey of New York, and Robert Hunter Morris of Pennsylvania — to apportion colonial contributions to Braddock’s expedition. The Council concluded that “such a Fund can never be established in the Colonies without the aid of Parliament,” and asked the British ministry to find “some method of compelling them to do it.” This was the first British-officials-in-Council suggestion of taxing the colonies — a line that ended in the American Revolution ^[2] Source 2 R. H. Spencer, "The Carlyle House" (W&M Quarterly, July 1909) Book .

The Braddock expedition itself ended in catastrophe at the Monongahela on 9 July 1755: Halkett killed, Braddock mortally wounded, the column routed.

Carlyle held enslaved persons in the household throughout his residence; surviving estate inventories list them by first name ^[4] Source 4 HABS Alexandria survey Government record .

John Carlyle’s surviving correspondence includes a letter dated 28 June 1760 to his neighbour Col. George Washington at Mount Vernon, relating to quit-rents on the estate of Washington’s elder half-brother Lawrence; the original is endorsed in Washington’s hand “Colo Carlyle’s Lettr, 28th June 1760, relat’g to my dec’d Br. Law’s Estate” ^[2] Source 2 R. H. Spencer, "The Carlyle House" (W&M Quarterly, July 1909) Book .

The building passed through a succession of owners after the Carlyle family sold it, was obscured by a Victorian-era hotel built around it in 1848, and was restored beginning in 1970 by the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority. It is now operated as a house museum.