Manassas Journal Messenger | Learning Services site up for sale

The property that once housed Learning Services Corp. on Fairview Avenue in Manassas is up for sale.

The asking price for the campus, which has seven buildings on the site, is $2.2 million.

Learning Services, headquartered in Durham, N.C., had used the 3.5 acre site to treat and rehabilitate up to 30 brain injury survivors needing care and services beyond hospitalization. The facility closed in May.

Howard Blank, associate broker for Prudential Carruthers Commercial Division, Manassas, who is handling the sale, said the site “is both historic and beautiful.”

He said it could easily be converted into a day care, private school, church, office complex, apartments, assisted living or bed and breakfast.

The landmark building on the property is a historic structure built in 1890. A portion of the unique house was built by John Tillet, a Confederate veteran from Fairfax, and an addition was added about 20 years later.

An asymmetrical brick and stone building in the Second Empire style, Tillet’s house originally had a dormer-pierced, slate covered, bracketed Mansard roof and a portico which was never completed.

Tillet, who died in 1920, left his residence in trust to the Manassas Methodist Episcopal Church to be used by his wife, Susie, until her death. She died in 1932 and the house went unused for several years while the church deliberated over what to do with it.

In 1946, a fire which started in the pantry burned part of the interior and destroyed the roof of the house which had for years been vacant.

It remained a partly burned-out shell open to the weather and vandalism for seven years. In 1953, Roy Bauserman purchased the house from the Methodist Church trustees.

He and his sons rebuilt the interior, re-roofed it, replaced the window panes and completed the unfinished front section.

The building contains a kitchen, dining room, living room, family room and a bath on the main level and four bedrooms, a sitting room, bath and balcony on the upper level. There is also a partial basement.

After Learning Services purchased the site from the Bauserman family, other buildings were constructed on the site that included one group home with five bedrooms and another with seven bedrooms. An apartment with a kitchen, living room and two bedrooms was also built.

The old carriage house was remodeled and contains a kitchen, great room, three offices and an attached barn for storage. There is also a teaching house with offices and a large training room as well as maintenance building on the site.

The total square footage of the buildings is 19,556 square feet.

The zoning is currently R-1, commercial special use permit.

The property is located at 9524 Fairview Ave., adjacent to the Manassas Police Department.