History
LIVING AT THE LAKE
Diversity describes life at lake Jackson. Homes include rustic log cabins, renovated summer cottages and large modern homes. Main roads are paved while others are gravel. Residents are as diverse as the types of homes.
Lake activities include swimming, fishing, boating and water skiing. Children wade at Big Beach. On peaceful days, one can canoe or kayak on a quiet lake, enjoying the scolding cries of kingfishers and watching osprey dive into the water. Other times the lake is crowded and noisy. On sunny summer weekends, the lake is filled with pontoon boats, fishing boats, jet skis and motor boats puling skiers.
Birds inhabiting the lake include robins, gold finches, great blue heron, woodpeckers, geese, ducks, kingfishers, osprey, hawks and bald eagles. Fish include bass, crappie, sunfish and catfish. Mammals include squirrels, chipmunks, foxes, coyotes, raccoons, possums, muskrats, beaver, bats, deer and the occasional bear. There are turtles, snakes, lizards and toads.
The Lake Jackson Citizens Association was originally formed in 1948. The purpose of the Association is to promote and encourage measures concerning the health, safety, protection and the betterment of the area of Lake Jackson. The Association represents the Lake Jackson area and its members in affair with public officials, and with civic groups and other entities of the area. The Association owns and operates the Common Areas of Lake Jackson, provides recreational facilities and activities and carries out related functions for the maintenance and governance of the same. The three boat ramps accessing the lake are managed by the Citizens Association.
A essential part of life at the lake is the sense of community. Boaters wave to each other and to folks chillin' on their docks. In challenging times, residents help each other. A long-time lake resident stated, "Residents join together in times of need. I have never been in that neighbor's house. But, if they need me I'm here and if I need them, they're here." Lake Jackson is a very unique, special, beautiful place to live.
BACK IN THE OLD DAYS
The area of land where the lake now resides was once 800 acres of farmland. The area was known for its Moonshine and yellow pine timber.
In 1927, the Alpaugh family came to the area to build a dam across Occoquan Creek. The dam was constructed by local workers over a period of two years. The lake bed was excavated by twenty teams of men, horses and mules. The completed dam was 300 feet wide and 25 feet high. In 1928, Mr. Alpaugh sold the dam to Virginia Public Service which later became Virginia Electric & Power Company (VEPCO). Concrete was added over the wooden dam and a concrete walkway built. A hydro-electric power plant built at the dam produced electricity for the surrounding area until 1955 when it became a booster station providing power when needed. Prince William County has owned the dam since 1963 and is responsible for the safety and maintenance of the dam.
In 1930, the Alpaugh family had a house built for themselves with a good view of the lake and dam. The house was a half-sized version of Confederate General Robert E. Lee's mansion in Arlington Cemetery. It is presumed that the lake is named after Stonewall Jackson.
Mr. Alpaugh began to develop Lake Jackson into a summer vacation colony for Washington D. C. residents. An Alpaugh daughter said that lots were purchased as picnic sites and that Washingtonians would drive down to the lake during the Depression for a day at the lake. By 1940 Alpaugh had built 80 rustic log cabins. Local lore is that Mr. Alpaugh rode his horse around the lake and would point to where he wanted a cabin erected. Many residents may have this to blame for inaccurate property lines.
The first cabins were of horizontal log construction, built using the local pine trees and local laborers. During World War II, building at Lake Jackson stopped as the Alpaugh sons served in the armed forces. Construction resumed after the war. The new cabins were of vertical log construction.
As the area grew in the '50s, people winterized the cabins. The dirt roads that began intersecting the community were named after friends and family, one after each Alpaugh child and even one after the dog, Maya. Lester Road was named after the man who sold plots until he was found slain in his home in the 1950s. "You get back in there, you could be up in the middle of Maine," said Willard Scott, a weatherman of NBC's "Today" show. Scott built a house in Lake Jackson and lived there from 1950 to 1960.
An article in a May 1991 issue of The Washington Post described Lake Jackson as an intensely private community with a reputation for artists and intellectual bohemians. Residents had moved to the lake for serenity, quiet and cherished their independence. The article quoted a resident who said that when he moved to the lake in 1961, only 3 houses were lived in year round. In 1991 there were so many year-round residents that they even had cable TV!
An article from The Washington Post in October 1995, described Lake Jackson as a tiny bohemia with 400 often odd little houses...a neighborhood hidden in the dark woods, isolated by unpaved roads and the twists of the Occoquan River. Residents were depicted as self-described eccentrics, basking in their privacy, as the Greenwich Village of the otherwise conservative Prince William County. "We have our rednecks and our very liberal thinkers, and it's an interesting combination," said a former president of the Lake Jackson Citizens Association.
The lake level was quite low for many months between 2010 and 2014. In the Spring of 2010, residents were informed that the lake level would be lowered for repairs to be made to the dam; the work would take about 2 months. With the water gone, lake access was almost impossible. Docks rested in the mud. Boats were pulled up onto the hills. Deer grazed on plants sprouting where there had once been water. Those daring to walk across the mud to enter the lake found themselves knee-deep in a substance that resembled quick sand as much as mud.
The repair work took about a year. Then the dam was closed and the lake levels went up. Docks floated, boats were out on the water and residents celebrated. Then there was an earthquake in August 2011 that cracked the Washington Monument in Washington D.C. After the quake, lake residents started complaining that the dam repairs were not successful. The lake would be at normal levels after rain but then slowly drain.
An investigation of the dam that included underwater diving was completed in October of 2012. Results determined that the earthquake of 2011 had cracked the dam and that water was seeping through the cracks. Solutions were investigated, including removing the dam. A decision was made to repair the dam. The repair to the dam cost over $1,000,000 and was completed in the summer of 2014. During these year, the residents often referred to the damn dam.
THE STORY OF ALVICTUS
In the late 1950s, Victor Purse was looking for lakefront property in Northern Virginia. Victor Purse had been the Deputy Chief of Protocol for the US State Department from 1954 to 1957. He was known for his extensive connections with foreign dignitaries and heads of states. He had befriended Queen Elizabeth II of England and King Saud of Saudi Arabia.
Victor and his wife, Alice, had been searching for mountain or waterfront property within easy access to metropolitan Washington. Victor found out about Lake Jackson when he learned that a member of the Albaugh family was charged with murder. The Lake Jackson sales manager, Richard Lester, had been shot and killed in his apartment. Luther Alpaugh was a suspect in the slaying. Purse learned which Lake Jackson properties Alpaugh owned and picked out a log cabin with the best location, on a high ridge with a great view. Alpaugh was persuaded by Victor to sell the cabin so as to have money for his legal defense. Alpaugh reluctantly agreed, but only if he could buy back the cabin if he were acquitted. The Purses purchased the property in 1959.
Luther Alpaugh was acquitted and wanted his property back. Victor would not give it up; improvements to the cabin were already under way. Luther was angry and started launching serious fireworks and mortar rounds at the construction crew working on the lake home. Victor Purse went out and got a bunch of fireworks of his own. A firework and mortar barrage continued back and forth across the lake for weeks before it stopped.
The Purses made extensive improvements to the property in their goal to build a luxury setting for glamourous parties. Eventually the home had 18’ ceilings, a patio, pool and a fountain with a large water wheel. Alice planted thousands of Azalea bushes from the edge of the lake to the top terrace of the home. The cabin had originally been named Happy House. The Purses renamed it Alvictus, using the first few letters of their names, AL + VICT, followed by +US.
Alvictus was used to entertain government officials and foreign dignitaries. One guest was Representative Rooney (D), United States House of Representatives from 1943-1974. He served as the Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee for the Departments of State, Justice and Judiciary. He was also close friends with FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. It is rumored that Robert Kennedy was a guest.
In the Society-Home section of the March 25, 1964 edition of The Evening Star, Mary L. Vaughan wrote a story about Alvictus. The article read, “There’s a heliport staked out in Victor Purse’s new backyard. It may be that the landing pad never will become a reality, but the State Department official is perfectly serious about its need after commuting daily for five years by auto from his Lake Jackson home. Of the heliport, Mr. Purse predicts, “Auto traffic will eventually make Shirley Highway (Interstate 95) practically impassable. When that time comes, every county will need its own heliport to get commuters to work in Washington.” The heliport was never used.
Alvictus was used in the late 60’s and early 70’s as a safe house by the US Central Intelligence Agency. How it came to be used as a safe house to hide Russian spies defecting to the United States during the Cold War is unclear. It is presumed that it was Victor who arranged for the CIA to use the home. The lake side home was ideal as it was hidden on a street with few homes, and had surrounding walls and security gates. Family and friend of the Purses’ recounted stories about when visits to the home were restricted or when guests were met with armed men walking the grounds and rooftop of Alvictus. Alice Purse admitted to her family that visits had to be restricted because Alvictus was an active safe house lodging spies.
The spies are log gone, as are the armed guards, but Alvictus remains as a beautiful home overlooking Lake Jackson.