years the combined property functioned as a single operating racehorse farm by Henry Oxnard and then as a boarding operation and breeding farm in 1927 owned by Grayson and Ross until 1931. Under the Oxnard brothers, Blue Ridge Stud evolved into one of the leading horse breeding farms in the country. According to W.J. Carter writing in The Southern Planter (1911) “Blue Ridge Stud at Rectortown, Va., is now second to no breeding establishment in the State in importance.” The Oxnard’s farm was considered among the very best horse breeding farms in the country. They produced a number of winners and sold 30 to 40 yearlings annually. THE SPRING HOUSE AT FOUNTAIN HILL in 2018. The spring was part of Joshua Fletcher’s original 200-acre lease from Carter.
BLUE RIDGE STUD In 1903 to 1904 (and a few parcels added later) the Oxnard brothers, James and Henry, purchased Rokeby from Joshua Fletcher (descendant) and Fountain Hill from E.B. White (who had recently purchased from the William Beverly estate). With those parcels as the core, the Oxnard brothers assembled a farm of 1,002 acres they called Blue Ridge Stud. Through Blue Ridge Stud, the Rokeby and Fountain Hill farms were joined for the first time since the land was a sprawling 9,699 acre tract owned by the Carter family. For the next 24
The Oxnards built a number of barns and outbuildings. (Much of this will be described in the next section, which details Rokeby’s buildings.) For example, the stud barns that are today houses at Rokeby were built under Oxnard. However, the Oxnard family had their residence at Heronwood, adjacent to the north of Rokeby. At Fountain Hill, Oxnard built broodmare stables, an implement shed, a yearling stable, hay barracks, and tenant houses. These include the Crawford House and Byington House. A complete list of Oxnard buildings occurs in the NPS (2006) report. Oxnard made minor modifications at Fountain Hill House, and presumably at Rokeby as well, but they lived at Heronwood.
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