Proches removed, front, rear, and sides and rebuilt, probably in 1964, at the time the nursing home facility wings were added to either side of the mansion.  Former natural-color birck and stone exterior painted white.  Fountain at front converted to flag circle.

Grounds altered by the demolition of several outbuildings and a stone tower; power house or gardener's shed behind mansion is the only remaining outbuilding besides the gate house, q.v., which is not located on the manor property.

Interior: main stair replaced.  Slight modification of floor plan recently, but much original woodwork present, including doors, windows, mantels.  Woodwork & trim, including columns and cornices, painted d.blue except in former dining room and stair hall.  Paladian windows in west lobby and former dining room converted to bookcases when flanking wings built.  Marble tiles cover lobbies and great hall on 1st floor; carpeted oak floors, 2d & 3d stories, and in former dining room.

Waist-high oak wainscoting in former dining room (the only room having unpainted woodwork).  Room also has a built-in oak sideboard.

Ceiling height. 1st floor: c.12 1/2 feet.

Stair rail, newel, balusters & skirt are natural-finish maple and appear to be replacements.  Treads & under-stair paneling are oak.

Plan, 2d floor, consists of three large bedrooms across the front, and three smaller rooms at the rear, front and back separated by a long wide transverse hall.  Fireplace in center, front bedroom only; all other hearths blocked and mantels removed.  Doors and stairs to flanking wings on either end of hall.

Plan, 3d floor: about 8 bedrooms, some with less than full height ceilings and dormer windows.  Front and back banks of rooms divided by transverse hall.  No passage to flanking units on 3d floor.

Some rooms on 2d and 3d floor redecorated, others renovated and converted into small living units with private bathrooms and kitchens.  These rooms are presently unoccupied, but will eventually be used as administrative offices and as special living units for recuperating patients.

Former flag circle remains but remnants of fountain removed circa 2000 when flag circle was replanted.

 

Power house or gardener's shed demolished in 1986 when the Caton Merchant House assisted living facility was built behind Annaburg Manor.  Rear doorway in stair hall bicked up and back porch removed when a hallway connecting the two facilities was built.

 

Interior: Dark blue trim repainted white.  Marble tiles in hallway were covered in carpet, which has since been removed and the tiles exposed once again.  When the mansion wa converted to a nursing home, the central doorway from the ballroom to the front porch remained but both flanking doorways were converted to windows.

 

Administrative offices occupy the entire 2d and 3d floors.

 

As of February 2006, construction has begun on two new nursing home facilities to replace the current aging, outmoded facility at Annaburg Manor.  Each new facility will have the bed capacity of one current wing.  Once the new facilities are completed and patients are relocated to the new facilities, plans call for the demolition of the 1960's era nursing home wings and a restoration of the historic mansion.  The Caton Merchant House will remain in place, though it is unclear if the hallway connecting the two facilities will remain.

Robert Portner, a native of Germany, owned 2,000 acres of land in the Manassas area.  He and his wife Anna, whom he married in the mid-1870's, lived both in Alexandria, where he owned a brewery, and in Manassas at Annaburg.  Annaburg, built in 1892, replaced an earlier house on the property, the residence of Christian Mathis.  This house, known as the Pink House, with its two wings, was moved to its present location on East Street in about 1893, and is also known as the R.S. Hynson House, q.v.

 

An entrepreneur with varied interests, Portner erected the Prince William Hotel in Manassas in 1904.  It burned in 1910.  Portner also operated two stone quarries at Manassas, financed the construction of the Manassas Masonic Lodge, donated money to construct Main Street from Portner Ave. to Center Street, and established a fund to care for indigent children of Manassas.

 

Portner created a spectacular estate at Annaburg, a showplace of turn-of-the-century northern Virginia.  The house contained 35 rooms total, was electrically lighted and had a mechanical air conditioning system which Portner had invented in 1878.  Annaburg is said to have been the first residence in the U.S. with this kind of air conditioning.  Elaborate grounds, including numerous outbuildings, surrounded the mansion.  There was a 25-acre park containing many kinds of trees, a goldfish pond, swan pond, swimming pool, and various gardens.  A stone tower which was still standing, though in ruins, until very recently, was built for sentimental and decorative reasons, but may have housed Portner's wine made from grapes grown on the property.

 

Of the seven known outbuildings on the Annaburg estate, only one, referred to both as a gardener's shed and a power house, still exists.  There is, in addition, a gate house separated many years ago from the manor parcel and located on the corner of Portner and Main Streets.  The outbuildings that no longer exist include a stable, a 6-car garage, an ice house, and a play house.

 

About a mile away from the main house, Portner had a fenced deer park which contained a small hunting lodge and a fishing lake.  The area is now part of Manassas Park, and the Deer Park Apartments were named for this park.

 

Robert Portner acquired the Mathis property on which Annaburg is located in the early 1870's for use primarily as a summer residence.  He significantly enlarged the property (at one time Portner's holdings included Liberia) to about 2,000 acres and built Annaburg.  Portner died in 1906.  Between 1914 and 1918 his son Oscar lived at Annaburg with his wife Anna and their children year round.  In 1919 the Portners moved to Washington and the house was reconverted for use as a summer residence.  Oscar Portner died in 1924.  Between 1924 and 1929 Annaburg fell into disuse and was eventually gutted by a public auction.  The house was abandoned and subject to vandalism between 1929 and 1947.  In 1947 the Portner family sold the estate to Mr. I. J. Breeden, who sold off some parcels and built on others.  From the old Annaburg estate were formed subdivisions Yorkshire, Yorkshire Acres, Deer Park, Liberia, Annaburg, Landmark Square and Musket Hills.  Fort Beauregard, a Civil War fortification located near Liberia, was destroyed and on its site was constructed a bowling alley.

 

John Kennedy Sills owned Annaburg from 1964 to 1979, lived at Annaburg, and operated a nursing home.  Sills had constructed the long 2-story flanking wings on either side of the mansion, comprising the nursing home facilities.  In 1979, the Prince William Hospital Corp. took over Annaburg and continues to operate it as a nursing home.