Large property in Seven Corners could be developed

The Febrey-Lothrop house. [ARLnow]

The Febrey-Lothrop House, a vacant home with a fascinating history on a 9+-acre lot in Arlington adjacent to Seven Corners, could be headed to the market soon, ARLnow reported on March 4, although it is not currently for sale.

The property, at 6407 Wilson Blvd., which includes a couple of outbuildings, could end up as a park or a site for a school or could be sold to a developer for housing.

“The exterior of the house is in a disheveled state,” Vernon Miles writes in ARLnow. “Windows are broken, paint is peeling away from the side of the building, foxes drink from rainwater in the clogged pool.”

A 2015 article in Arlington magazine recounts the history of the house: John E. Febrey, a real estate broker, built a farmhouse on the property in 1865 and grew corn, oats, and other crops on what was then a 26-acre property.

After Febrey died, the house was purchased by Alvin Mason Lothrop, co-founder of the Woodward & Lothrop department store chain, who used it as a summer retreat. At some point around 1900, part or all of the original house was replaced. After Lothrop died, in 1912, the property stayed in the Lothrop family for decades.

During World War II, the Lothrops reportedly leased the house to eccentric millionaire Howard Hughes, the founder of Trans World Airlines. Hughes hosted lavish parties there, where he entertained such guests as the movie star Jane Russell and former Washington Redskins owner George Preston Marshall.

Randolph “Randy” Rouse, a socialite and real estate developer who had made a name for himself as an amateur steeplechase jockey near Middleburg, Va., acquired the property for less than $125,000 in 1951. He kept nine acres and sold the rest for homes in what is now the Dominion Hills neighborhood.

Rouse married the actress Audrey Meadows, who had a starring role in “The Honeymooners” TV show with Jackie Gleason. They divorced two years later.

He married his second wife, Michele, in 1983, and died in 2017 at age 100, reports an obituary in the Fauquier Times, that calls him a “legend” in the Virginia fox-hunting world.