OVER THE MOON
Middleburg Chapter XXV Wealthy visionaries have helped rewrite the history of hunt countrey over the past quarter century. BY VICKY MOON
ON THE STREET WHERE YOU LIVE How many people does it take to change the sidewalks in Middleburg? Dozens. Plus one more to yap about how the great the old ones were. Many residents still mourn the day the one and only stoplight was installed at the main intersection of town. When a whiff of change is in the air, long-time Middleburgers start to hyperventilate. And the latest arrivals want to burn all the bridges. Such was the case over the past year, when a $4.2 million traffic-calming, pedestrian and safety improvement project along Route 50 from Aldie through Middleburg and on to Upperville wreaked havoc for business owners, visitors and anyone looking for a place to park. The renovations over a dozen messy months included new brick crosswalks, granite curbs, pedestrian lighting, enhanced sidewalks and an upgrade to the underground water pipes. The construction was often accompanied by the rumble of grumble. “I believe some of the biggest changes in these last 25 years are physical changes,” Mayor Betsy Davis says. “If one could step back in time, you’d see a few less buildings along Washington Street and some of the side and back streets. These changes always come as a bit of a scare to those of us that have been here for a long time. But after time, those changes aren’t really noticed as much. We become accustomed to it and life goes on. “Of course, our newly renovated streets, crosswalks and lighting have changed our streetscape a bit, but I believe this has only added to the beauty and safety of our town, its citizens and visitors.” It’s a good thing these sidewalks can’t talk. Because, as Washington Life celebrates its first 25 years, quite a bit has unfolded out in Hunt Country over that span.
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Jack Kent Cooke and his last wife, Marlene, with the Vince Lombardi Trophy won by the Redskins for Super Bowl XXVI in 1991. (Photo ©Vicky Moon)
Jacqueline Cooke, at about age 5, dressed as a Redskin for Halloween. Her mother Suzanne Martin Cooke looks on. (Photo ©Vicky Moon)
DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES Jack Kent Cooke, the late, colorful Washington Redskins owner, provided reams of copy for sportswriters and broadcasters. His third wife, Suzanne Martin, a long-time resident of the community, bore him a daughter she named Jacqueline Kent Cooke, while his football team was headed to victory in Super Bowl XXII in San Diego. His marriage to Martin lasted 73 days. After that, Jacqueline would visit her father at his estate on weekends. She frequently invited a little tow-headed friend for play dates. The little boy came home to his writer parents with stories about Cooke’s fourth-and-fifth wife, Marlene Ramallo Chalmers, often referred to as the “Bolivian firecracker,” especially when she was sun-bathing topless by the pool. Jacqueline, meanwhile, grew up to be a poised, beautiful young woman who is now involved in the world of fashion. Upon his death in 1997, Cooke left the ownership of the football team to the Jack
Kent Cooke Foundation, which provides high school, college and graduate school financial aid to hundreds of worthy brilliant students, most of them from impoverished backgrounds. When his son, John Kent Cooke, lost in the bidding for the team to a group of investors led by Dan Snyder, he got into the wine business. His 140-acre Boxwood Estate Winery, designed by architect Hugh Newell Jacobsen, is just around the corner from the new sidewalks in town where many come to slowly sip the French-inspired reds called Boxwood, Topiary and Trellis. Meanwhile, Jack Kent Cooke’s “Far Acres at Kent Farm,” originally 640 acres and once part of former Sen. John Warner’s “Atoka Farm,” has been subdivided and sold several times. Now called “Foxmount Farm,” the 133acre property changed hands in 2013 for $3.3 million. OSCAR OSCAR Dynamo entrepreneur Sheila Johnson already
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