Boxwood Winery - Middleburg

Boxwood Winery is a new addition to the Virginia wine industry (vines planted on 16 acres in 2004), producing only estate-bottled red wines in three distinct styles. Topiary is a blend of Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Malbec in the St Emilion style. Boxwood reflects the Médoc style with Cabernet Sauvignon as the principal grape. Rosé is a dry rosé wine produced every year in limited quantities from Boxwood varieties. The wines are aged in French oak for twelve months; once fully established, the winery will produce no more than 5,000 cases annually.

Boxwood is owned by John Kent Cooke, son of legendary Washington Redskins owner Jack Kent Cooke (1912-1997). Hugh Newell Jacobsen, renowned Georgetown architect, designed the multiple structures on the property.

Visitors are welcome by appointment for a tour and tasting. Tours of the winery, located just one mile outside Middleburg (2042 Burrland Rd.), last approximately forty-five minutes and are limited to fifteen people per tour. $20. The Boxwood Estate is a National Historic Landmark, one of the earliest established farms in historic Middleburg, the epicenter of Virginia's Hunt Country. 540-687-8778.

Wine bars & shops: Boxwood Winery has three satellite Tasting Room locations: downtown Middleburg (open Thursday through Sunday), Reston Town Center (1816 Library St., Reston, Virginia; open seven days a week 703-435-3553) and Chevy Chase (Maryland). The Reston location (see photo below) features live jazz on Thursday evenings (no cover). The Tasting Room boasts enomatic wine dispensers stocked with mixed wines, including homemade vintages and select Bordeaux imports, with a variety of tasting options: by-the-ounce (in three sizes), by-the-glass and by full bottle. Wine-friendly snacks — primarily charcuterie, artisan cheeses and gourmet desserts, are offered.

www.boxwoodwinery.com

Culpeper Packard Campus Theater

Culpeper is home to the Library of Congress Art Deco-style 206 seat Packard Campus theater that showcases classic American films, all of which have been named to the National Film Registry. Currently there are three shows a week: Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 pm., and admission is free. One program a month is a silent film presented with live musical accompaniment (piano or theatre organ).

To reserve a seat call 540-827-1079 x79994 or 202-707-9994 no earlier than one week prior to the screening you plan to attend. Directions are provided on either phone line. The current schedule may be found at:
www.loc.gov/avconservation/theater/schedule.html
The reservation phone line is open Mon-Fri 9-4 (closed holidays). Reservations for Saturday screenings may be made on the Friday of the previous week. The facility is approximately 70 miles west of Washington, DC.

Packard Campus audiences are treated to cinematic delights in a handsome theater with superlative sound, state-of-the-art film projection, and comfortable seating (you won’t remember when you last had so much leg room in a movie house). The state-of-the-art projection booth is capable of showing everything from nitrate film to modern digital cinema.


Packard Campus of the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center is a 45 acre state-of-the-art facility where the Library of Congress acquires, preserves and provides access to the world’s largest and most comprehensive collection of films, television programs, radio broadcasts, and sound recordings. The preservation facilities are not open to the general public for tours.


The exacting techniques of proper storage take place in the Collections Building and the Nitrate Film Storage Building. Both areas are underground and climate controlled, but whereas the underground bunker that became the Collections Building had to be completely gutted before being reconfigured, the Nitrate Film Building was built from scratch and has specially designed blast-proof vaults for storing the unstable nitrate film used for motion pictures before 1953 (cellulose nitrate film is flammable and highly explosive). Both buildings are well suited for the low-temperature, low-humidity storage that is necessary for long-term preservation.

Trivia: The Packard Campus Collections Building occupies the 1960s era decommissioned underground bunker site of the Federal Reserve that once warehoused $3 billion in U.S. currency to be used to replenish public supplies in the event of a nuclear disaster.

Click on link for a detailed article about the facility:
www.pictureshowman.com/articles_restprev_NAVCC_part1.cfm

Click on photo to enlarge:

Bacon's Castle (Surry County)

Bacon’s Castle
465 Bacon’s Castle Trail
Surry, VA (south shore of the James River)

With its cruciform shape, triple diagonal chimneys and curvilinear gables, Bacon's Castle is a rare surviving example of Jacobean architecture in America, and one of the oldest surviving brick homes still standing in English North America. Built in 1665, the house was home to a prosperous planter, Arthur Allen, who also planted a garden adjacent to his house for the use of his family and household. The house passed to Major Arthur Allen at his father's death; Major Allen was a wealthy merchant and a Justice of the Peace in Surry County. A supporter of the colonial governor and member of the House of Burgesses, Allen was driven from his house in 1676 when Nathaniel Bacon and his men staged what came to be known as Bacon's Rebellion. Bacon was the leader of the rebels who revolted against Royal Governor Berkeley. The house was taken over by some of his men during the revolt.

The house had many owners throughout the eighteenth century. John Henry Hankins purchased the Castle in 1844 and later built a Greek Revival addition. Later in 1880, Charles Warren purchased the house. His grandson, Walker Pegram Warren lived in the house until his death in 1972. This important early colonial site was acquired in 1973 by the Association for the Preservation for Virginia Antiquities and opened to the public in 1983 as one of its museum properties. Bacon’s Castle is a National Historic Landmark. National Register of Historic Places #66000849.

Note: only three Jacobean plantation houses survive in the Western Hemisphere; the other two are in Barbados -- Drax Hall and St. Nicholas Abbey -- both constructed in the 1650s.

Visitors today can step back to the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century through the doors of Bacon's Castle. Using the Allen's inventories from 1711 and 1755, furnishings have been selected to interpret daily life. Much of the early and original massive hand hewn beams are evident on the upper floors of the home. On the first floor, the raised panel woodwork in the downstairs chamber and great hall reflect the early eighteenth-century renovations of Elizabeth Bray, wife of Arthur Allen III. Several dependencies survive, including a smoke house and slave quarters, and the recreated garden can be visited.

Bacon's Castle is located across the James River from Williamsburg on Route 617 in Surry County, just north of the intersection of Route 617 and Route 10. Admission is charged. Seasonal opening dates, but always closed Mondays and Tuesdays and July 4. Phone 757.357.5976.

http://www.apva.org/baconscastle/

The multi-story staircase is contained in the shallow brick projection at the rear of the house, and thus takes up no interior space; these two projections give the house its rare cruciform shape.

1797 Wayside Inn in Middletown

540.869.1797

The Wayside Inn, since 1797, has been serving the public for over 200 years. Nestled in the Shenandoah Valley, at the foot of the Massanutten Mountains in Middletown, this historic inn trades on its 18th-century ambiance. On offer are 22 guest rooms and suites, each decorated in period themes. Dining features regional American cuisine served in seven dining rooms by a waitstaff dressed in Colonial costumes.

The first travelers to the Inn started coming in 1797, pausing for bed and board as they journeyed across the Shenandoah Valley. The Wayside was then known as Wilkenson's Tavern. When rugged highways were hacked out of the wilderness twenty years later, and the Valley Pike, now Route 11, came through Middletown, the tavern became a stagecoach stop, a relay station where fresh horses were readied, and where weary passengers could dine, drink, rest and refresh themselves in comfort while the team of horses was being changed.

During the Civil War, soldiers from both the North and South frequented the Inn in search of refuge and friendship. Serving both sides in this devastating conflict, the Inn offered comfort to all who came and thus was spared the ravages of the war, even through Stonewall Jackson's famous Valley Campaign swept past only a few miles away.

Jacob Larrick bought the Inn before the war, changed the name to Larrick's Hotel. In the early part of the 20th century, when it was again sold, the new owner Samuel Rhodes, added a third floor, wings on each side, and a new name, The Wayside Inn. In the next few years, as pot-holed pikes were transformed into paved roads, and automobiles begin touring the Valley, the Inn proclaimed itself "America's First Motor Inn."

In the 1960s a Washington financier and antique collector Leo M. Bernstein, with an enthusiasm for new projects and a fascination with Americana, purchased the Inn, which he restored and refurbished with hundreds of antiques. He also bought and refurbished another Shenandoah Valley hostelry, the Battletown Inn (c. 1809) in nearby Berryville. Mr. Bernstein died in the fall of 2008, and the future of the Wayside Inn is uncertain.

Stratford Hall

Stratford Hall, one of the great houses of American history, is known for the family of patriots who lived here. The mansion sits atop steep cliffs above the Potomac River in the Northern Neck area, some 40 miles southeast of Fredericksburg.

Thomas Lee purchased the land in 1717 and built the brick Georgian Great House in the 1730s. A successful tobacco planter and land speculator, Lee owned more than 16,000 acres, distributed between Virginia and Maryland. In a single generation during the 18th century, six Lee brothers lived here. Two became members of the Virginia House of Burgesses; two others were signers of the Declaration of Independence; the other two represented Virginia in Europe. General "Light Horse Harry" Lee, a relative, lived at Stratford Hall; his son, the great Confederate general Robert E. Lee was born here, January 19, 1807. The estate was owned by the Lee family until 1822.


Stratford Hall is preserved essentially the way it was 250 years ago. The plantation still operates as a farm, on 1,670 of its original acres. Visitors can tour the Great House, outbuildings and the plantation grounds and gardens. The “H” shaped edifice features a distinctive tapering exterior staircase, hip roof lines and eight massive chimneys. Its bold architectural style and complex brickwork set it apart from other Virginia plantation houses. The home is furnished with an outstanding collection of 18th-century American and English decorative items.

Four out buildings (including a kitchen) flank the corners of the Great House, and the estate is complete with a mill, farm buildings, coach house, stables and slave quarters. Visitors may stay overnight on the estate grounds in cabins and guest cottages.


Stratford Hall is open daily from 9:30 am to 4:00 pm. (admission charge). From the Visitor Center guests can take Great House tours (on the hour) from 10:00-4:00 and visit museum exhibits. Gift shop on premises. Dining room open Tuesday-Sunday 11a-3:00p.

804.493.8038; www.stratfordhall.org
Stratford Hall is on the National Register #66000851, and also a National Historic Landmark.

Sky Meadows State Park

Sky Meadows State Park straddles land in Fauquier and Clarke counties on an eastern slope of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The name Sky Meadows comes from former owner Robert Hadow, who named the property "Skye Farm" after a site in his native Scotland.

Totaling more than 1,800 acres, the park has 12 miles of hiking trails and offers direct access to the Appalachian Trail, which crosses Rt. 50 just west of the village of Paris. The park is a three-day hike from Harper’s Ferry, WV, and two days from Shenandoah National Park. Close to northern Virginia's center of equestrian culture, it includes riding trails, as well; two bridle trails traverse six miles of paths (separate from the hiking trails). There are facilities for pond fishing and picnicking.

Annually the Delaplane Strawberry Festival is held here on the Saturday and Sunday of Memorial Day weekend.

The park is in Delaplane, less than two miles south of Paris, Va., via Rt. 50 to Rt. 17 South (or seven miles north of I-66, Exit 23 on Rt. 17 North). Although the park lands are on both sides of Rt. 17, the park entrance proper is on Rt. 710. There are no cabins or campsites with hookups at this park, but primitive camping is allowed by reservation.

The historic Mount Bleak House not only serves as the park's visitor center and office, it is furnished as a middle-class farmhouse, giving visitors a glimpse of middle-class life during the 1850s. From the rear of the house is a spectacular panoramic view of mountains and rolling hills. Picnic tables, restrooms, and gift shop are located behind Mount Bleak House.

Mount Bleak House, built in 1843, is open for guided tours on weekends and holiday afternoons from mid-April through October. In 1731, Lord Fairfax sold a 7,883-acre tract of land just south of Ashby’s Gap to James Ball. Isaac Settle of nearby Paris bought land from the descendants and in 1812 built a large estate house called “Belle Grove.” In 1842, he sold Belle Grove farm to his son in-law, Lewis Edmonds, who subsequently sold 148 acres to Settle’s son, Abner, who built Mount Bleak House. In 1868 Mount Bleak became the property of George Slater, who had been in Mosby’s Rangers during the Civil War. Slater and his son lived there for 55 years.

In 1975, Paul Mellon of Upperville purchased and later donated this 1,132-acre tract to the state for development as a state park, sparing the land from real estate development. Another 248 acres were acquired in 1987, thus providing access to the Appalachian Trail. In 1991, Mr. Mellon donated another 248 acres, designated the Lost Mountain Bridle Trail Area.

Click image to enlarge:

Sky Meadows State Park
540.592.3556
www.dcr.virginia.gov/state_parks/sky.shtml

Photo above courtesy Rob Tabor

Salamander Farm

Sheila Johnson's 165-acre estate, Salamander Farm, is located on Zulla Road between the Plains and Middleburg. When Johnson discovered that the property’s second owner, Rhode Island governor Bruce Sundlun (who was given the code name Salamander in World War II and received honors for his valor as a pilot), had called the farm "Salamander," she changed the name back. A salamander is the only creature that can mythically walk through fire and still come out alive.

“My daughter’s love of horses brought me to the area,” Johnson says. “But I bought the home because of the view. The view is hard to duplicate.” Johnson lives on the majestic property that overlooks the Blue Ridge Mountains with daughter Paige (a Grand Prix horsewoman), son Brett and her husband.

Recently Sheila Johnson became an owner of the Washington Mystics, Wizards and Capitals sports teams. A former music teacher at Sidwell Friends School in Northwest Washington, billionaire Johnson still plays violin and remains passionate about music. She recently donated $3 million to endow a Performing Arts Center at the private Hill School (Middleburg).

Entrepreneur Johnson lived in a double-wide trailer on the grounds of Salamander Farm while renovations to the stone house were taking place (the relatively modest home was expanded to 14,500 sq. ft.). In order to preserve the original stone facade, the additions were primarily constructed on the lower floor and in side wings. Consequently, contrary to the layout of most estate homes, the principal rooms of the house are on the lower level. She employed Washington-DC-based interior designer Thomas Pheasant to realize her vision for furnishing her home.

Ms. Johnson created resistance and much controversy when she announced plans to develop another property (the estate of former ambassador to France, the late Pamela Harriman) into a hotel/conference center complex right at the edge of the village of Middleburg. Approval was eventually granted, and construction is still underway. An opening date for the 120-bed Salamander Resort and Spa has been pushed back to early 2011.

700 guests descended on Salamander Farm when Ms. Johnson married Arlington County Circuit Court chief justice William T. Newman Jr., in 2005. An avid cook, these days he spends much of his time in the elaborate kitchen at Salamander Farm, baking cakes, pastries and making home-made ice cream. Coincidentally, Newman was the presiding judge over Johnson’s divorce from Robert Johnson in 2002, with whom she founded the cable network BET.