The Dawson Baily Spring Site

This spring and the property on which it is located is rich with the recorded history of Arlington. It is believed that the old stone house, now incorporated into the structure of the Dawson Terrace Recreation Center, is the house Thomas Owsley built (about 1697). If this is so, it would be the oldest house in Arlington. When Dr. Jacobs purchased the property in 1936, he found the spring enclosed in a rectangular brick structure with a rusted metal roof. He instructed the stonemasons building his castle house to use leftover stone to construct the hexagonal-shaped spring house you see today.