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| You are here: Home > Learn > Sites and properties > Ball-Sellers House |
Arlington's oldest surviving house
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About the
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Garden and events
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The demonstration garden (foreground, south side of house) shows the kinds of plants the Balls might have planted. |
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Following John Ball’s death in 1766, William Carlin, an Alexandria tailor who included George Washington and George Mason among his clients, purchased the house. Three generations of the Carlin family owned the property for more than 100 years. The third generation, brother and sister Andrew and Anne, ran a dairy farm and built the 1880 house that adjoins the Ball cabin to the west. |
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They might have planted the giant wisteria vine that still blooms near the house (pictured in center of photo, south side of house looking east). When the Carlin family sold the property in 1887, the land was subdivided into a community known today as Glencarlyn, the oldest subdivision in Arlington. The house survived and was used as a school, a summer cottage, and a home. |
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The last owner, Marian Rhinehart Sellers, gave the house to the Arlington Historical Society in 1975 so that it might be preserved and open to the public. Special events, such as a Colonial crafts day pictured below, help visitors understand the lives of the first residents of the Ball-Sellers House. |
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