ved from the original, and, in other
instances, the landscaping done by the Straights in the late 1940's.

HOUSE SITE. The mansion house faces south and is connected with the
Little River Turnpike by a black-top (asphalt-surfaced) road which
passes on the west side of the house and runs north to Braddock Road.
Inside the post and rail fence, alongside this road, the driveway up
to the house is lined with trees, and the yard in front of the house
is open and flat. Between the lawn and the road, a line of cedars in
the fence row serves as a screen.

The back (north side) of the house faces a semicircular open grass
lawn, bordered with hedges which provide both a screen for the lawn
and a background for several stone carvings and cement castings which
decorate a lawn approximately 1,500 square feet in size. At the
northeast corner of this open space is located the log cabin; beyond
the log cabin, approximately 110 feet in a northeasterly direction, is
the barn, which is converted into living quarters.[85]

Northwest of the main house, facing on Green Spring Road, is the
spring house. Originally built over a series of natural springs in
order to have water for cooling dairy products, this stone house was
converted into a small dwelling house by the Straights in 1942.

GENERAL ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN AND HISTORY. In its present condition,
the mansion house at Green Spring Farm cannot be considered to
represent any particular period of American architecture. The original
core of the building illustrates a design which was typical of the
colonial era in Tidewater Virginia. This portion of the house is of
brick construction, two stories plus attic and cellar, with the rooms
in each end of the house separated by a center hallway. Large chimneys
at each end of the house made possible heating by fireplaces in each
room.

It seems probable that this structure formed the core of the mansion
house when it was occupied by the Moss family (1770's to 1835). To
this core, various outbuildings and dependencies were added; a
separate cookhouse or kitchen annex to the main house was one of these
related structures, as were the family's sanitary facilities. Clothes
washing, churning, candlemaking, and various other household tasks
were also performed in separate buildings. No direct evidence of the
appearance of the main house or the various related outbuildings has
been discovered; some inferences about these matters may be drawn from