Fairfax County Supervisors to Consider Establishing Resident Curator Program

Rough around the edges historic properties could see new life in Fairfax County under a program being considered that would allow people to live in the properties rent free in return for updating and keeping up the properties.

It’s a system being used successfully in other jurisdictions around the nation. “We’re people of modest means,” Darrold Endres, a nursing home administrator who has been living in and restoring an 1860s farmhouse near Boston with his family for years, told The New York Times in an often-cited story about such programs, published in 2007.

The headline to the story says it all: “Nothing Down, $0 a Month, Hammer Required”

Similar programs have come about because governments own more houses of historical interest than they can afford to maintain, the Times noted. Often the properties were on farms acquired decades ago and converted to parkland. “Now a few states have begun turning these properties, along with some of the surrounding land, over to live-in curators, who take on restoration responsibilities in lieu of paying rent or taxes,” the Times reported.

Fairfax County is now considering such a program, which would allow residents to live in and restore publicly owned historic properties.

The Resident Curator Program would vet potential candidates who would agree to fix up the properties; they would work out agreements with the county in exchange for living rent-free. The county commissioned a study by John Milner Associates to explore the idea.

The proposed project is a joint effort by thecounty Park Authority, Department of Planning and Zoning and History Commission.

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors will hear more about the program on Nov. 18. If passed, it could be the first of its kind in Virginia. Maryland has been operating a Resident Curator Program since 1982. ( Read: Saving States’ Historic Jewels)

In January 2011, Virginia’s General Assembly authorized localities to develop resident curator programs, enabling them to create, by ordinance, “a resident curator program
such that private entities through lease or other contract may be engaged to
manage, preserve, maintain, or operate, including the option to reside in, any such
historic area, property, lands, or estate owned or leased by the locality.”

The report by John Milner Associates prepared for the county lists a number of properties in Fairfax County that might be considered for the program including:

• Barrett House in Lorton
• Lahey Lost Valley House in Vienna
• Gabrielson House in Oakton
• Lamond House in Fort Hunt
• Mount Gilead House in Centreville
• Physician’s House in Lorton
• Stempson House in Lorton
• Ash Grove in Vienna
• Hannah P. Clark House in Lorton
• Hunter House in Vienna
• Minnick House in Lorton
• Turner Farm in Great Falls
• Middlegate House in Chantilly
• Stone Mansion in Hybla Valley
• Elmore Farm, Herndon
• Dranesville Tavern in Herndon
• Clark House in Falls Church area
• Lewinsville House in McLean
• Purple House in Great Falls

PHOTO is of Clark House, in the Falls Church area of Fairfax County