The first carriage to pull into the circle drive in front of Frascati in 1823 was very likely bringing James Barbour and his wife, Lucy, to the just completed home of his brother, Phillip Barbour. Certainly the carriage would have slowed, the lathered horses catching their breath just as James and Lucy did as the columned portico of Frascati was graciously revealed. The fresh red brick and bright white columns elicit an “oh my” from Lucy and a “well done brother” from James. Beneath the portico, Phillip Barbour and his wife Frances stand proudly as he sweeps his hat off in welcome to his brother and his wife’s sister. “James and Dolly should be here shortly” he cries as the footmen help their guests from the from the sporty Phaeton.
Philip Barbour was currently Speaker of the House in Congress while his brother James was a former Virginia Governor and later Senator. James and Dolly, their nearby neighbors, were of course the Madisons at nearby Montpelier. Quite the house warming. Hard to imagine? Not at all! Frascati still stands just as it did that day 201 years ago when its builder, Thomas Jefferson’s mason John Perry declared her finished. Frascati is on the National Register of Historic Places and is a Virginia Historic Landmark.
For aficionados of historic homes, Frascati has few equals and even fewer in such excellent condition and in such a superb location in Orange County, Virginia.
Frascati is proudly offered for sale with Wiley Real Estate in Charlottesville, Virginia, home to Thomas Jefferson’s University of Virginia and his home, Monticello.
For more information about Frascati, please contact John Ince, Wiley Real Estate, 434-981- 3011.
I wrote this article about my parents in 2014. They are both gone now but I find myself in those same happy shoes these days, enjoying the fruits of our labor and feeling blessed to have wound up in such an extraordinary place. I would love to help you find your last, forever home in Virginia’s piedmont, the perfect place for the rest of your life!
It’s time. Your career has run its course, your children have flown the nest and for the past few years you’ve been thinking about what is to come. Perhaps it’s Florida for you with easy winters, boats and shuffleboard. Perhaps it’s a townhouse in the city with coffee shops around the corner, theater and opera on a whim. Perhaps you’ll settle as close as you can to the grandkids.
In the late 1970’s, contemplating retirement after 30 years in the navy, my mom and dad, stationed at the Washington Navy Yard began taking long weekends, investigating those parts of the country that looked promising. My mom had been a navy wife following my dad from port to port, moving thirteen times with five children. It had been a hectic life, glamorous at times, certainly full of adventure but never had there been a home. She had never seen a tree grow. Her dream was a place in the country where she could have a horse. My dad wanted nothing more than to help make her dream come true.
They looked in New England and felt the winters might be too cold. They looked in South Carolina and felt a bit too northern for the south. They looked here and there, taking long weekend trips till they planned a short two hour drive towards the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia and discovered Madison County. I was in my 20’s in California and my mom started sending me photos of beautiful farms which had old farm houses in need of renovation. Most were completely out of reach financially, (over $150,000) but I could tell the excitement was building. One day I got a call telling me that they had purchased the old Graves home place in near Rochelle. It had an old brick farm house on 22 acres with a big red barn and a pond full of bass and bluegill. They would call it St. Clair, a family name.
Last week I was visiting my Dad. Two of my sisters were there. As we sat in the living room of this elegant home that has been in our family for more than 30 years now, we started going through the scrap books. There are my mom and dad, wonderfully fit with barely a hint of gray, posing with a pitchfork, beaming. The before and after pictures are striking as they turned “this old house” into their beautiful home. There is my sister’s wedding album, and mine with the big white tent set up next to the house. There are the grandkids floating on noodles in the pool, now in their 20’s and 30’s with kids of their own. There is my mom on Henry, her wonderful Morgan horse that she loved for 20 years and rode all over the hills and mountains of Madison County. There are Gus, Muppet, Tess, Joe and Meg, all the lucky dogs that lived happy, full lives at St. Clair.
My mom passed away from a sudden stroke this past January. She and my dad had been married 60 years, 30 in the Navy and 30 on the farm where they spent the rest of their lives. St. Clair was a magnet that brought my four sisters and me to Virginia every summer for our reunions and eventually to live close enough for an easy visit, fifteen minutes for me. Thirteen grandchildren will have life time memories of summers at St. Clair and each of us knows that this charming little place in the country answered perfectly for a happily ever after for Mom and Dad.
You may be planning for the rest of your lives now. My plans are shaped by my parent’s example and the knowledge that this chapter can be the main course, especially if it contains the elements of challenge, growth and romance. For me it will be a place in country, near the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia.
Land close in to Charlottesville can be quite expensive with demand for nice building sites being in very high demand. A good building lot up to five acres for a single family home with can be anywhere from $65,000 to $500,000 depending on location, amenities and the surrounding area. A building lot in Keswick Estates, an elegant country club north of Charlottesville where one would likely build a luxury home would be on the high end of that range while a very nice five acre wooded lot in Southern Albemarle County is currently offered for just $75,000.
With larger tracts of land, greater than 25 acres, you will also find a very wide range. Variable factors will be the potential use for the land including division rights, agricultural potential, access, aesthetics, (views, lakes, streams, rivers) and again, most importantly, location. With prices so high in Albemarle County, (Charlottesville is the county seat), many buyers who want acreage will find the surrounding counties of Orange, Madison, Greene, Nelson, Fluvanna and Louisa to offer more affordable land, often with exceptional views, privacy and fewer restrictions. For reference, the median price per acre in Albemarle County for raw land between 25 and 200 acres is $45,000 while the average price per acre in the surrounding counties is around $10,000.
Land is very difficult to assess on line. Until you can understand the property’s relative location in regards to surrounding properties, accessibility, potential homesites, proximity and availability of services you cannot really understand its value. I recently showed some land listings to clients from California who wished to create a family compound with five homes. They sent me a long list of properties they had picked from Zillow. Most had descriptions of private, recreational, wooded, great views, great hunting, stream on property and a a low per acre cost. They were very excited to see these properties but quickly realized that steep mountain land on a long right of way with 4WD access only did not seem so suitable in person.
If you are interested in purchasing land in this area I’d be happy to help. I’ve specialized in land, farms and estates brokerage in Virginia’s Piedmont for more than 40 years and would love to share my knowledge of the area with you.
The C’Ville Expert is authored by John Ince, of Charlottesville Country Properties,
John Ince – Listing Agent in Charlottesville VA
specializing in the sale and marketing of farms, estates, and country residences within 50 miles of Charlottesville, Virginia. Apart from his 35-year career in Charlottesville real estate, John enjoys being an ambassador for one of the best places to live in America. For anyone who places a priority on “quality of life”, Charlottesville and its surroundings must be on your shortlist of where to spend the rest of your life. The town of Charlottesville is remarkable, a true melting pot with cultural venues not found in cities ten times the size. The countryside is breathtaking and just scant minutes from downtown with lush farmland and historic estates many tracing back to original land grants. The Blue Ridge Mountains rise to the west moderating our weather and providing endless recreational activities with hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding, and fly fishing for native trout all within 20 minutes of downtown. We hope you’ll enjoy some personal insights into the lifestyle one can enjoy here from these posts and that you will refer to Charlottesvillecountry.com for more information on real estate in this wonderful area.
