of trust and responsibility in county, state, and national
governments.

The architectural history of Green Spring Farm parallels its chain of
title. Both the structure and interior design of its buildings have
undergone numerous alterations and remodelings. None of these changes,
however, has destroyed the simple dignity of the house, and it stands
today as a symbol of the traditional strength of spirit of the
Virginia freeholder-farmer in an area which is undergoing the
transition of America's urban revolution.

HISTORICAL NOTES

I. GENTLEMAN FREEHOLDERS: THE MOSS FAMILY (1770-1835)

When Green Spring Farm came into being in the middle years of the
eighteenth century, it represented the second generation of Virginia's
agriculture. By 1750, the great plantations of the proprietor and his
grantees, laid out on land cleared from the virgin forest and planted
with as much tobacco as the owner's supplies of manpower and London
credit would allow, were disappearing. In the evolution of farming,
another generation of farms and farmers was taking over the Tidewater.
Smaller in size than the great tobacco plantations, these farms
utilized a larger proportion of their acreage for crops and cultivated
a greater diversity of crops than before. For these second-generation
farms, wheat and corn for export to England and the West Indies became
the principal income crops.

The men who assembled and worked these new farms were themselves part
of a new generation of Virginians. Many belonged to families which
in 1750 could look back on more than a century of residence in
America, and they were more attuned to the problems and potentials
of the New World than those of the Old. They were the generation
that successfully brought forth a new nation in their own times and
added new dimensions to both its spirit and substances. John Moss
was one of this new generation of Virginians.

Precisely when and how John Moss assembled the acreage that comprised
Green Spring Farm is not certain. Fairfax County land records show a
purchase of land by John Moss in September 1777, but, although this is
the first connection of his name with the land of Green Spring Farm in
these records, there is reason to believe that he may have occupied
and farmed the land prior to that date. For him to have done so would
have been consistent with the practice of his times and also would be
in accord with the tradition of his present-day descendants whic