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THE HISTORIC BROADLANDS PROJECT
Clyde's Willow Creek Farm
Click here for the Willow Creek Farm factsheet.
Clyde's Willow Creek Farm was conceived and designed by John Laytham, Clyde's Restaurant Group, in collaboration the Weather Hill Company of Charlotte, Vermont, and Mark Orling, of Rust, Orling Architects. The history of the design of this facility goes back to the early 1980s, when Clyde's Restaurant Group purchased a series of antique heavy timber structures that had been destined for the wrecking ball. These structures were photographed, labeled, disassembled, preserved, and stored for later restoration with no clear understanding of where or when they would be employed. When the opportunity for a new restaurant at Broadlands arose, this became the perfect venue to combine these historic pieces in creating what will become a truly unique restaurant for Northern Virginia. These four original antique buildings, each disassembled, moved, connected, and restored with various reproduced ells, represents the classic American Inn.
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The main building, the Historic Samuel French Tavern, was a classic 2 ½ -story Federal country inn, built in 1804, and added to in 1821. It had two ells and a large barn. The builder and first owner, Samuel French, was a captain in the Militia (officially commissioned in 1824), and was reputed to be a well-known bridge builder and ‘bon vivant’. His inn was a significant center for social and political gatherings for almost two centuries.
The primary inn structure is a 43’ x 34’ hand hewn, post and beam, ‘Georgian frame’, with a classic dining room ell and a large stable/bar. It has a pilastered entrance, 12 over 12 double hung windows, and heavily molded cornice. Inside, there are many original rooms, seven fireplaces and a soapstone bake oven, with antique paneling, mantles, wainscot, chair rails, wide beaded sheathing, and paneled doors. The old plank floors are very wide. There are parlors, a keeping room, and a museum-quality paneled tap room.
Off the back of the Tavern is a secondary historic building, the Roxbury House, first built in 1810. Hand hewn from massive timber, the old 30’ x 93’ structure with the original ‘farmer’s porch’ now houses two paneled dining rooms, warmed by three fireplaces. The larger room displays paintings of the hunt country and the original mantel. The wing of the wider original front house is decorated with prints from the early days of our country.
Clyde's Willow Creek Farm also includes a large attached barn, the Chandler Barn, built c.1885. This amazing Victorian beauty is a 40’ x 84’ post and beam, with two elliptical cupolas, and was originally built for hay, feed, and stock. It had milking cows, horse stalls and a chicken coop on the first floor. Laytham commissioned and assembled a magnificent collection of American folk art to fill this room. Whimsical weathervanes in the shape of a rooster, a ram, a herald, an Indian, and a dog, to name a few, were created by Nantucket artist Mark Perry. Sweeping panoramas of a metaphysical early America by East Coast artists David Wiggins and Kevin Paulsen adorn the walls, the long interior hallway, the entrance area and the small private room. Tavern signs, trade signs, and gameboards by vintage signmaker Brian Laurich are found in the Chandler Bar, along with a grasshopper weathervane displayed prominently above the bar, Perry’s replication of the famous original found at Boston’s famous Faneuil Hall.
The eye will delight in the outrageous art found in all the rooms at Clyde's Willow Creek Farm. An enormous collection of interesting American Folk Art is featured in the Chandler Barn. Antique carriages from the late nineteenth century hang from the ceiling of the Carriage Bar, and a life-sized horse from France, the former mascot of the 21 Club in New York, pulls a antique carriage at the entrance to the barn. A complete collection of “Audubon’s Fifty Best” from the Original Havell Engravings of John James Audubon’s Birds of America are featured in the front dining room and adjacent small bar. Two beautiful sleighs are poised outside the entrance, restored to their original condition.
An outdoor garden, with beautiful trees surrounded by teak benches for relaxing, and a coi-filled pond and waterfall, creates a delightful dining area. As a final touch, a tiny old Virginia farmhouse, the Richmond House, c.1780, has been relocated and restored as a warm little bar in the garden, where it sits radiating welcome with priceless original hand dressed and beaded beams, paneled wainscot, early mantle, and, of course, a wonderful old bar.
Opening Date: December 1, 2006
Clyde's Willow Creek Farm
42920 Broadlands Boulevard
Broadlands, VA 20148
571-209-1200
Directions from Reston, VA:
- Dulles Toll Road to the Dulles Greenway
- Exit 5, Claiborne Parkway
- Left onto Claiborne Parkway
- Right onto Broadlands Boulevard
- Entrance to Clyde's Willow Creek Farm is on the right
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