A Middleburg Fencing Fixture Closing the Gates

A Middleburg Fencing Fixture Closing the Gates

By Leonard Shapiro

When Cole Porter released the song “Don’t Fence Me In” in 1934, he definitely did not have the late Middleburg business owner George White in mind.

For most of the last 40 years, George White Fencing, established in 1984 and operating out of offices on Federal Street, has been doing just that, fencing in thousands of acres all around the Middleburg area and occasionally beyond.

George White

Photo by Middleburg Photo

His company put in some of the fences around The Hill School, The Middleburg Tennis Club and countless properties small and large in Loudoun, Fauquier, Clarke and Fairfax counties. When they surveyed Joe Theismann’s Loudoun property, the retired quarterback jogged behind the truck as it surveyed the scope of the job.

Driving through Middleburg, you might notice the two-board black fence at the Middleburg Charter School. George White Fencing designed and donated it to keep the playing fields separate from the parking lot.

One of its most memorable jobs was at George Washington’s Mount Vernon, not exactly a convenient daily commute for the crew. “But it was well worth the effort to have our fencing proudly displayed on historic grounds,” said Lizanne Driskill, daughter of the late George and Nanette White.

In February, one of Middleburg’s oldest businesses completed its last fencing job at another Loudoun property. Lizanne said the family-owned Piedmont Enterprises has retired the fencing operation.

“We decided as a family that when Fernando Villavicencio, our long time manager, was ready to retire, it was a good time to close the fencing company doors,” she said.

Fernando was hired in 1984 and quickly became an integral part of the team, and the White family by extension. Chilean by birth and educated in Germany, he’d been working as the farm manager at Foxlease Farm in Upperville when he first met George.

“Mr. White taught me how to not only manage the crew, but also prepare the quotes, manage the equipment and work directly with the clients,” Fernando said in an interview with ZEST two years ago.

George White (1930–2014) was born in Franklin, Tennessee, but eventually moved to Virginia where he stayed with his aunt, Mary Nicoll, and her husband, Delancey, at their Cloverland Farm in The Plains. While visiting his aunt for long periods, George would fox hunt with Orange County and even briefly attended the Hill School in its original location.

A farmer and horseman who never met a stranger, George was a serial entrepreneur at heart. Almost twenty years before George White Fencing and Piedmont Enterprises were established, he sold hay and feed up and down the east coast, operated a supply and hardware store to service local farms and had an oil and heating division. From that vantage point, George saw an opportunity for a professional fencing company.

At its peak, the fencing division had more than 30 employees, with nine different crews installing fences all around. Back in the day, the average job involved installing 10,000 linear feet of fencing on a single property, a number that in recent years averaged about 3,000 feet.

“Fernando and the company’s long time office manager, Betsy Cockrell, are both retiring after many years of hard work and dedication to the fencing company and our family,” Lizanne said. “We’d like to thank all of our crew and our wonderful past and present clients in this area for all of their support over the many years.”