A New Book Celebrates Historic Huntland

A New Book Celebrates Historic Huntland

By Marc Leepson

Christmas Morning 2007 dawned cold, gray, and dreary in the Northern Virginia Piedmont. Betsee Parker—female horse owner, ordained Episcopalian minister, committed preservationist and philanthropist, and recently widowed with a young child—made her way to Huntland, the historic country property north of Middleburg she had purchased seven weeks earlier.

Parker was alone at her home in nearby Delaplane, and decided to “go out there and see how quiet it was. The quiet of the land is so lovely there because there are dirt roads around it and at [nearby] Foxcroft the girls weren’t in school, so that road was very quiet. I just wanted to hear how quiet it was.”

If Parker hadn’t happened by that cold, dreary Christmas morning, it’s very likely that historic Huntland would have burned to the ground. “I don’t know who [else] would have seen it if there had been a fire because no one was living across the road at the time and no one was on the land living there,” she said.

Parker walked up to the one-time pristine house and stood on the front stairs taking in the horse country quiet and gazing across the wide front lawn.

“As I panned looking to the right,” she said, “I looked down into the sunken garden and saw this funny little narrow column of smoke coming up by the side of the porch. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I had no idea what it was. At first, I thought, ‘Is somebody smoking a cigarette back there?’”

It wasn’t cigarette smoke, Parker quickly realized. An electric wire leading into the house was completely on fire. “It was in full flame,” she said, “not just a smoker, full flame.” On Christmas morning. With no one else on the grounds.

“I thought the only thing I could do was call a local fire department and the closest one I knew of was in Philomont. So, I rang the fire station and told them there was a fire here and they came out and put it out.”

If Parker hadn’t happened by that cold, dreary Christmas morning, it’s very likely that historic Huntland would have burned to the ground. “I don’t know who [else] would have seen it if there had been a fire because no one was living across the road at the time and no one was on the land living there,” she said.

“Strangely enough, I happened to be here when the wiring caught fire—and if I had not been, I believe it could have been catastrophic. It frightens me when I think about it.”

The catastrophe averted, Parker, with Jerry Coxsey superintending, soon began meticulously repairing, restoring, and preserving Huntland, along with its one-of-a-kind hound kennels and stables. On December 24, 2013, nearly six years to the day that the place came dangerously close to burning to the ground, the National Park Service added Huntland to the National Register of Historic Places.

“With sweeping vistas across fields devoted to cultivation for nearly two centuries, Huntland includes at its core an 1830s dwelling built by a master brick mason, William Benton, Sr.,” the Park Service National Register nomination noted.

William Benton came to these shores from England early in the 19th century. He is best known for superintending the building of Oak Hill, the home of President James Monroe near Aldie, in the early 1820s.

Benton went on to build several other structures in the Middleburg area, including a house he named New Lisbon on 171 acres he purchased in 1833. Benton and members of his large family lived at New Lisbon, which was finished in 1834, for the rest of the 19th century. His heirs added surrounding acreage over the decades, and sold the New Lisbon property in 1900 to the recently widowed Annie Gregg Leith.

Largely absentee owners owned Huntland for decades when Parker bought it in November, 2007, from California industrialist Roy Ash and his wife, Lila.

“The Browns did not live here [full time],” Parker said. As for repairs and maintenance, “There was a tremendous amount of work to be done to make it livable.” The good news today is that the house, kennels, and stables have been carefully restored and preserved to their nineteen-teen and twenties magnificence. It’s an American historic preservation story with more than a few twists and turns—and with a happy ending.

This story has been excerpted from the book. Journalist and historian Marc Leepson, who lives in Middleburg, is the author of ten books, including the just-published Huntland: The Historic Virginia Country House, the Property, and Its Owners, 1741-2022. Details: https://www.marcleepson.com