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.
Few places in America are as naturally suited for horses as Virginia’s Piedmont. Rich, well drained pasture, four distinct seasons and a thriving equestrian culture and history make the Charlottesville area ideal for the equine enthusiast. People often ask, is it expensive to keep a horse in Charlottesville, Virginia? That question has a wide range of answers based on the horse owner’s desires and experience.
I keep two horses, Rosie and Billy, on our property of thirteen acres and spend about $1800 per year on our farrier, $1500 a year on feed, (Triple Crown Senior), about $500 per year for hay and maybe $500 on meds, fly spray and carrots. They have a run-in shed for shelter and about 8 acres of good pasture. That’s about $360 per month for two horses who are happy, healthy and used just for trail riding.
On the other hand, a competitive show hunter or three day event horse might cost $50,000 to purchase, require professional training and lessons at around $2,000 per month, require an $80,000 tow vehicle for your $40,000 gooseneck horse trailer and regular vet visits just because.
Somewhere between those two extremes is your answer. Horses are very self sufficient and easily pleased with nothing more than good grass. Have a look at some Virginia horse farms for sale today and feel free to get in touch with John Ince with any questions you might have.
Orange County was established in 1734 and was the largest county that has ever existed in America, “The states of Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and West Virginia were once part of Orange County. Over time, its boundaries have contracted to an elongated county of approximately 37 miles by 17 miles.” (via VA250). Few, if any, counties in the United States have witnessed the formation of this country as has Orange County. Two Presidents were born here, including James Madison who wrote the Constitution at Montpelier. Hundreds of antebellum homes still exist in Orange County including several important estates built and owned by our founding fathers with several directly influenced by Thomas Jefferson, a neighbor and colleague in nearby Charlottesville. One such example is Frascati which was built by Jefferson’s mason, John Perry, who also worked on Monticello and the University of Virginia.
Frascati is proudly offered for sale by Wiley Real Estate and is an extremely rare opportunity to acquire a National Landmark in Somerset, one of Virginia’s most exceptional estate areas.
Orange County is a delightful place to live with a decidedly rural flavor and two small towns, Orange and Gordonsville, both offering small town charm and an honest taste of Americana. One could easily fill weeks touring historic sites, visiting wineries, or enjoying the many outdoor activities in Virginia’s piedmont. As a long time resident of Orange County, I am convinced that we enjoy a near perfect situation where we thoroughly enjoy the intimacy of small town living as both Orange and Gordonsville are just 10 minutes away and Charlottesville, one of America’s most charming University towns, is just 30 minutes south. Learn more about Orange County >
Please give me a call if you have any questions about Frascati or Orange County and if you’d like to visit for a weekend or a week check out Maple Crest or any of the other delightful short term rentals in Orange County.
If you are considering purchasing a farm near Charlottesville or any of the surrounding counties you may be contemplating having a horse or two, maybe some chickens perhaps planting a vineyard. Ten acres would probably be plenty of land for that but you’ve just fallen for a house on 250 acres of pasture and woods with good fencing all set up for grazing cattle and making hay. You never imagined having to take care of so much land. Where would you start?
This is actually a quite common question and the answer is a win-win in most cases. Agriculture is still the most prevalent industry in these counties and most of it is handled by generational farm families that farm their own land and lease out additional land from property owners who are happy to have their property well cared for and even have some income while qualifying for land use taxation. The lessee is typically responsible for maintaining the land, fertilizing when necessary and maintaining fencing and farm roads and they have the machinery and knowledge to do that well. The property owner can farm vicariously from their porch and will often maintain a portion of the property themselves for any projects they have in mind. One needn’t be intimidated by too much land. Chances are the farmer in place would like to stay in place and pay you for the privilege.
Historic properties abound in Virginia. After all the “First landing” that became Jamestown in 1607 was more than 400 hundred years ago marked the beginning of the colonization of America. Virginia has been the birthplace of eight United States Presidents and Charlottesville, Virginia is home to three of the first five including Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe and James Madison. Each of their final homes, Jefferson’s Monticello, Monroe’s Highlands and Madison’s Montpelier are national landmarks and open to the public. Thomas Jefferson was certainly the most influential as far as shaping an architectural style found throughout Virginia’s piedmont. From his iconic Monticello which dubbed Charlottesville with its moniker Nickletown to the spectacular grounds of the University of Virginia with it’s serpentine walls and classic rotunda to the many important plantation homes like Frascati, Somerset Plantation and Barboursville that were built for his friends and colleagues by the same craftsmen that built his private home and his University of Virginia.
For those with a love of history there is a rare opportunity to acquire one of the most significant historic properties to bear the hallmark of Thomas Jefferson. Frascati was built in 1823 for Supreme Court Justice Phillip Pendleton by John Perry, Jefferson’s trusted mason who worked on both Monticello and the University. It stands today much as it did when completed in 1823 and remains a “Monument to the Piedmont”. Frascati is in excellent condition and is perfectly positioned on 62 acres in Somerset. Frascati is on the National Register of Historic Places and is a Virginia Historic landmark.
Here’s your second chance to acquire an iconic historic property in the heart of the Somerset estate area. Our buyer had a change of heart and sadly retreated from their commitment in the 11th hour. Frascati is now back on the market and ready for its next chapter with many recent improvements. Don’t miss this opportunity to own a piece of history in this most hallowed ground of Orange County.
Out in the spectacular countryside which surrounds Charlottesville one can find stunning Farms and Estates with acreage suitable for horse farms. Outside the City of Charlottesville in Albemarle County acreage is more affordable with country properties, large and small, available for any budget. The surrounding counties of Orange County, Greene County, Madison County, Fluvanna County, Nelson County and Louisa County offer great diversity in terms of geography, price range and proximity to Charlottesville while also providing access to such delightful small towns as Orange, Gordonsville, Lovingston, Madison, Stanardsville, Palmyra and Louisa. Whether you are looking for land for sale, a home in town, or a place in the country, it’s all here and I would love to introduce you to this part of the world and the wonderful opportunities that await you.
When you’re 29 there are still a lot of new things that might be coming your way. The years were longer then and the end was not in sight. My 29th year with my birthday just a week away in May, 1982 found me driving through the night in my camper topped 68 Dodge step side en route from Lufkin, Texas to Afton, Virginia with all I owned in the truck bed and my fabulous German Shepherd, Jay Jay beside me on the bench seat. I’d been driving east into the night on I-64 with the excitement and trepidation of yet another beginning keeping me awake until finally, knowing I was close, I pulled into a rest stop, backed into a space and crawled into the back with Jay Jay. I slipped into my sleeping bag and with the smell of stale clothes and leather, a panting dog and dark starry skies I pondered my future. Tomorrow I would arrive at Akid Arabian Stud and take the reins as manager/trainer of an Egyptian Arabian breeding farm in Virginia, a state I fled as fast as I could after graduating from West Springfield High School in Fairfax county 11 years before.
I woke with the dawn on that auspicious day to a view over the Rockfish Valley from the top of Afton Mountain. This was not the Virginia of the DC beltway I fled. The sun was rising over the most verdant green valley I’d ever seen. Below was a patchwork of rolling hills, winding roads and streams, bright green pastures and hayfields dotted with farmhouses, and old, brick manor homes. From this mountaintop overlook I embraced this new to me world with heartfelt thanks and expectations of miracles yet to happen.
Now the years are much shorter and much of a life has been lived by that young fellow. Fate has smiled for the most part and miracles have indeed occurred. A forty year career in farm and estate brokerage has made me intimately familiar with those winding roads and the lives people live along them. Two children grew up safe, happy and well and like me have come to recognize what a special place we call home. I often pull over when I’m climbing Afton mountain on I-64 and take a moment to enjoy that spectacular view and give thanks.
Charlottesville has grown in those 40 years, mostly well, but that view is just the same as is was in 1982. The promise it showed me those many years ago was kept and is being kept still for those who choose to embrace it.
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.
