My Dad bought a hunt horse from Bolinvar and it’s one of the most beautiful farms I’ve ever seen (and I’m from Kentucky!) Soooo pretty. Drool. The funny thing is, the owner built that barn because he didn’t like the original barn, which was amazing as well. Must be nice!
<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><div class=“ip-ubbcode-quote-title”>quote:</div><div class=“ip-ubbcode-quote-content”>Originally posted by SidesaddleRider:
Just thought I’d pass on the news that Huntlands has been sold. 
Just a month or so on the market, and someone put down $18 million for it! Must be nice.
And FYI, it’s 500 acres are NOT in conservation easement. 
</div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Wow! Huntlands IS an amazing estate. I ran into Paul & Laura at The Coach Stop one Sunday at breakfast back in July. Paul told me that he was going to try and acquire Huntlands from Roy Ash, owner of Llangolan. Do you know if it was Paul who bought Huntlands? It would be just fantastic if he did, as he would be the kind of person to preserve Huntlands’ historic integrity.
<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><div class=“ip-ubbcode-quote-title”>quote:</div><div class=“ip-ubbcode-quote-content”>Originally posted by Bootes:
Wow! Huntlands IS an amazing estate. I ran into Paul & Laura at The Coach Stop one Sunday at breakfast back in July. Paul told me that he was going to try and acquire Huntlands from Roy Ash, owner of Llangolan. Do you know if it was Paul who bought Huntlands? It would be just fantastic if he did, as he would be the kind of person to preserve Huntlands’ historic integrity. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
No, it was not Paul who bought it. Laura told me she had heard that it was someone from the Hamptons who bought it, who after paying like $30 million for a 5 acre place there, thought 500+ acres for $18 million was a bargain! 
However, Paul and Laura are looking at Jack Andrews’ land (45 acres) that he has for sale across from Bolinvar. However, all it is is land partially cleared with stone walls, so it would take quite a while to get a house, barn, and fencing put in. I’m not sure what they are planning on doing, or how long they will be staying at Huntlands past the end of the year.
Ah, the rich get richer …
I had to laugh (although clearly not all the way to the bak as some will) with regards to the saga of Canterbury.
Perhaps I’m just too dumb, but I remain amazed to see a massive old estate - as lovely as it is - languish on the market for almost half a decade (or more, when unofficially for sale) like Canterbury did at $9M. In fact it was even offered for possible trade for land in Florida by the owner in published ads, I kid you not.
Anyhow a drop down to $7.5 million officially, still without interest but then quickly snatched up on a purported whim. A big song and dance about the new owner’s greater good with intent and then shock and awe (yea, right) when it’s flipped right back onto the market at viola … $13.5 million or a little less as the new “conservation focused” owner are willing to subdivide the land. Updated Canterbury Listing Mar 06
Well it was a nice though while it lasted that an old estate in the true classic Virginia hunt mold could remain undivided and not fall prey to profiteers. In 15 years when multiple McMansions are scattered over the old 375 acre grounds of the estate they’ll be sure to call the boxes ‘Fox Chase’ or ‘Full Cry’ 
Is this the time where we do the cough cough, say “It figures” or merely roll our eyes? :no:
Maiden Lane
I was driving down Mainden Lane which is Delaplane I think and notice several signs up for new developments. One was advertising 1-5 acre lots as well as 50-100 acre estates. Talk about confusing development.
Question about Bolinvar for those familiar w/ hunt country history - how old is it? I’m wondering if it’s named after the book, or whether it is in fact the actual Bolinvar estate?? The book Bolinvar (Derrydale Press - highly recommended, it’s my fave horse book ever) is, I know, based on a Middleburg family’s actual history (from diaries and journals and the like) - I’m just wondering if this is that family’s estate?? Anyone??
I’m not sure about the book, but the ORIGINAL part of Bolinvar is pretty old. George Straub redid the main house when he bought it (I think in '99 or 2000), and built the main barn (put over a million into it!) . In addition to the main 227 acres of the farm, there is the other part of the farm (called Patton Farm when it was listed for sale, at 100 acres for $5 million, and the other 227 acres for $11 million, or both together for $16 million), which has an older house and nice barn on it. Pato Muentes rents this part of the farm for his San Jose Stables. But I couldn’t really give you specific dates on when things were built.
I haven’t seen the Dunhavens (new owners) since around the first of the year, but I’ll try to remember to ask them if they know when the house was originally built.
Regarding Canterbury, all I can say is, I warned about subdivision when I heard that Jack bought it!
And the place with the lots listed on Maiden Rd in Delaplane is Chattins Run. There is a website for it (www.chattinsrun.com), I think.
Thanks SSR, that’d be great! I’m just curious/nosy!! :lol: I’ve never actually read the book specifically looking for details about the estate but my vague recollection is that it was MUCH bigger than that (book takes place during the Regency period), and that at the time there were no less than 3 separate stables… One for the racers/chasers, one for the hunting horses, and one for the farm horses. I have a feeling that this estate probably did/hopefully still does exist (in some lesser form), since everything else in the book is accurate. You can even look the horses up on pedigreequery.com, except for the few crossbreds mentioned, who you can usually track elsewhere! :yes:
There is “another” Bolinvar discussed and illustrated in the first edition of Kitty Slater’s Hunt Country of American which looks nothing like the stone Georgian mansion built in 1925 and located at 36987 Mountville Road, Middleburg … it very well could be one in the same but architecturally the residence today is quite different.
I could not find the residence listed in (and obviously in its is Loudoun Co, although some M’burg homes are discussed) the book “A Pride of Place; Rural Residences of Fauquier Co, Virginia”
Thanks for checking, Glimmer!! The only other clue I can offer is that the estate mentioned in the book can’t have been far from downtown M’burg. In one scene, the visiting relative’s carriage breaks down & they make it to the forge in M’burg & he offers to walk from there. I was thinking 2 miles sounded about right, since that would have been an exasperating walk but not impossible.
This month’s issue of Virginia Living magazine (August '06) features the great Canterbury as their profile ‘on the market’ home.
Some very lovely photos of the house since it was sold last year and somewhat fixed up both inside and out. That included adding 2 miles of fencing to the estate and clearing overgrown brush, etc.
The owners who are (if they can sell it at the asking price) going to make a significant profit appear overwhelmed by the sheer demands of such an estate. I can also assume unprepared too with dealing with the hefty cost related to a 20,000 sq ft manor house and many other homes and buildings on the property.
They remarked how they were quoted as wanting to return the property to its former glory but how “try to return it” is more what they are able to do. (Thomas-Talbot will now be also representing this estate for sale in addition to Allen Real Estate)
Sadly another massive hunt country estate, almost an icon, is just being listed for sale: Llangollen Farm, as pictured here. The 1,100 acre Upperville (VA) estate is being listed for $22 million via Armfield, Miller & Ripley. I believe there is a Huntland (also for sale) connection with the current ownership. The massive horseshoe-styled stable - which is a bit too modern in its style for me - is unque. Along with the training track, ponds, paddocks, pastures … etc. It really is an amazing place but of course a shame that a property with just two different owners in 75 years is sold now when developers are so hungry for hunt country lands.
A flashback citation to the property: Time Magazine Nov. 20, 1939
Most famed U. S. jumping Jill is Mrs. John Hay (“Jock”) Whitney, a spirited, devil-may-care rider who has been winning blue ribbons on the horseshow circuit for 15 years. Before her marriage to Croesusrich young Whitney in 1930, Mary Elizabeth (“Liz”) Altemus was well known in the hunt country around Philadelphia. After acquiring the 2,200-acre, million-dollar “Llangollen” estate near Upperville, Va., Liz Whitney became the most glamorous horsewoman in the U. S. Her drawing-room gum-chewing, social-worker hairdo, haphazard clothes were aped by many lesser socialites. Her riding technique became the very pattern for aspiring horsewomen. Her money-fed horses were the envy of the show-ring. Two years ago at the National she rode her Grey Knight to three blue ribbons in one day and wound up with the hunter championship.
Maybe TomKat will get into fox hunting - with Scientologist in tow - with the local hunt in M’burg 
Well, that will certainly liven up the neighborhood! I hope that rumor is true ! I doubt we’ll need to worry about them breaking up the farm into lots for gobs of more money…like Flint Hill Farm (a.k.a Chattins Run).
Are Chattins Run’s lots selling ? I had heard they sold the main house with 15 acres, and 2 100 acres lots had sold. So they still have 585 acres to sell??
Dunno about Chattins Run, but the lovely Ms. Gretchen’s Preserve at Thistle Hill in Hume (4 100 acres lots across from her Thistle Hill of 8-10 or so 20-40 acres lots) have not gotten nibbles at all, I understand.
Seen at the Virginia Fall Races at Glenwood Park today were two black rap artists (not sure their names) with a film crew following them. I asked the sound girl what was the deal and she said the fellas were two of the Lost Boys of Congo (or some African nation torn by civil war - sincerely sorry for my lack of international politics - that has lots of war orphans and displacements) who are now in the U.S. and who are bonafide rappers. The film crew is doing a documentary on the rappers and their hard times (well, yeah, they were hard times, I’d say, of a sort we can never even imagine.) They were guests of some high placed recording artist who was in turn a guest of somebody at the races.
TomKat and rappers moving to Middleburg. Did they follow Sheila Johnson??? Yikes.
I must say, it concerned me greatly that our local Rappahannock paper had a full page article on Sheila Johnson some while back. I hope to the gods that she never sets her sights on this county.
Mule Lady
Don’t worry about Sheila Johnson’s story in the Rappahannock News. It was merely a space-filler - my cubicle mate George Rowand did a good story about Sheila J. and her goings on for the RN"s sister paper in Fauquier. The Times Community Newspapers often share stories like that - ones with general appeal that aren’t necessarily ‘county news’ but are interesting in general. Meant nothing. Never fear.
a little bird tells me that chattins run is in a bit of trouble - financially speaking. and with prices going south…
but this is just rumour - i’m hardly “in the know”. but people do seem to speak freely in front of wallflowers…
don’t get me started on sheila johnson.
tomkat, rappers, sheila johnson and heliport pads on ag land that you can’t farm - yet still gets ag zoning and lower taxes.
oh - my blood pressure is rising…
the “conservation buyer” label has often been used, by some folks, as a way to get land and subdivide it. don’t get me started on that either - it’s an intolerable abuse of a sound conservation practice.
[QUOTE=Hunter’s Rest;1918189]
Dunno about Chattins Run, but the lovely Ms. Gretchen’s Preserve at Thistle Hill in Hume (4 100 acres lots across from her Thistle Hill of 8-10 or so 20-40 acres lots) have not gotten nibbles at all, I understand.
Seen at the Virginia Fall Races at Glenwood Park today were two black rap artists (not sure their names) with a film crew following them. I asked the sound girl what was the deal and she said the fellas were two of the Lost Boys of Congo (or some African nation torn by civil war - sincerely sorry for my lack of international politics - that has lots of war orphans and displacements) who are now in the U.S. and who are bonafide rappers. The film crew is doing a documentary on the rappers and their hard times (well, yeah, they were hard times, I’d say, of a sort we can never even imagine.) They were guests of some high placed recording artist who was in turn a guest of somebody at the races.
TomKat and rappers moving to Middleburg. Did they follow Sheila Johnson??? Yikes.[/QUOTE]
Thanks for the clarification/reassurance, HR! Guess we’re safe in our little backwoods holler for now.
