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The Aldie Rectory, with its ivy-covered walls, blossom-filled gardens, white front porch swing, and quirky rooms and doors has a comfy, homey feel.
“The day I walked in, it just felt like I belonged. It felt like home. I bought it the next day. It reminded me of growing up and visiting my grandmother’s farm, which had a rickety two-story house with floors that squeaked,” recalls Darlene Williams, owner of the Aldie Rectory, which is in the village of Aldie, VA. “This was a hospital and a rectory. Its purpose has always been good-hearted.”
In fact, the Aldie Rectory, built in 1803, was used as a residence until the Civil War, when it was converted into a hospital for soldiers. Etchings of names and initials in a window in Williams’ music/living room reflect that era in the house’s history.
“Soldiers would etch their names in glass so that when their families went looking for them they would have a clue where they’d been,” Williams says. The late John Tyler, longtime resident of Aldie, had a personal interest in the house.
“His grandmother boarded here while his grandfather was off fighting in the Civil War,” Williams says. Tyler, who died last year at age 85, used to knock on Williams’ door every few months and ask if he could see his grandmother’s initials, which had been carved in the window.
A Name That Stuck
In 1878, the house was sold at auction to the Mount Zion Baptist Church and used as a parsonage until it was sold to a group of Episcopalians in 1907, who used it as a rectory. It’s been known as the Aldie Rectory ever since. The current dining room was the former public part of the rectory, which explains the separate door at the front of the house that opens directly into the dining room.
When Williams bought this house six years ago, she bought six acres and a house with six working fireplaces. She also bought a house that reflects renovations over the centuries that create some quirky features. When an upstairs sleeping porch, for instance, was enclosed and converted into a bathroom, the former owners didn’t bother to level the floor, so it still slants. A door that didn’t quite fit was cut in an odd way to make it fit.
“No two doors in this house are alike. Every one of them is different,” she says with a laugh. None of this bothers Williams, 53, who is a vice president of sales and marketing. She likes the charm of her old house.
Hers is a home where living outdoors is easy, what with its inviting porches, old barn, and lovely pool. A stream on her property is used for the mill race to the Aldie Mill, the last mill in Virginia that is powered by twin overshot wheels.
Alan Skipper, landscape architect and owner of Metes & Bounds Landscape Design, keeps Williams’ garden lush with fresh flowers throughout the spring and summer. On a recent visit, for example, blue hydrangea, irises, and lilies were all blooming. The scent of magnolias was almost intoxicating.
“The Village People”
Williams adores living in Aldie. “When you cross Route 15 and get in this village, your blood pressure drops,” claims Williams, who feels more connected to folks here than she ever did while living in suburbia.
“We keep in touch with each other. We get together on Saturday mornings. When it snows, we have neighbors who come and plow you out without asking,” she says. Williams even vacations with her neighbors, who she lovingly calls “The Village People.” This year, a group of them went to Bermuda together. Last year, they visited 16 states in 16 days. Her next door neighbor is “Buzzy, the fire chief.”
How much homier could things be?
