Upperville, Virginia

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Upperville, Virginia
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Upperville
Location within Fauquier County
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Upperville
Upperville (Virginia)
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Upperville
Upperville (the United States)
Coordinates: 38°59′38″N77°53′05″W / 38.99389°N 77.88472°W / 38.99389; -77.88472
CountryUnited States
State Virginia
County Fauquier
Time zone UTC−5 (Eastern (EST))
  Summer (DST) UTC−4 (EDT)

Upperville is an unincorporated village in Fauquier County, Virginia, United States, along U.S. Route 50 fifty miles from downtown Washington, D.C. and near the Loudoun County line. Founded in the 1790s along Pantherskin Creek, it was originally named Carrstown by first settler Josephus Carr. Through an 1819 act passed by the Virginia General Assembly, the name was changed to Upperville.

Contents

John Updike wrote of Upperville in his sardonic 1961 poem Upon Learning That a Town Exists Called Upperville. [1]

History

Upperville has been designated as the Upperville Historic District and is a Virginia Historic Landmark that is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Also listed are Blue Ridge Farm, Oakley, and Rose Hill Farm. [2]

Situated eight miles to the west of Middleburg and part of Virginia's famous Piedmont horse country, the Upperville/Middleburg area is home to a number of prominent Thoroughbred horse breeding farms and country estates. The Upperville Colt & Horse Show, conceived by Colonel Richard Henry Dulany and first held in 1853, remains the oldest such event in America. A Dulany family member owned Oakley Farm. It was the site of two battles during the American Civil War. Near Upperville, Californian Henry T. Oxnard built a horse breeding operation in 1903 that he named Blue Ridge Farm. It was bought by Rear Admiral Cary Travers Grayson in 1928, and members of the Grayson family still own the property, which is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Over the years, others who came to live in the area included heiress Isabel Dodge Sloane, who built the highly successful Brookmeade Stud, Llangollen estate where Liz Whitney Tippett lived for nearly six decades, Bertram and Diana Firestone's Newstead Farm, Sandy Lerner's, [3] and the very prestigious Rokeby Farm of Paul Mellon. It was Mellon who donated the money to build Trinity Episcopal Church in 1960, which is at the center of the small community's social activities. For two days each year more than ten horse farms and centers in Upperville and Middleburg open their gates to visitors. Since 1960, the Hunt Country Stable Tour has raised money for the outreach programs of Trinity Episcopal Church. [4]

Notable people

See also

Related Research Articles

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Llangollen Farm is an historic American horse and cattle farm located in western Loudoun County, Virginia on Trappe Rd. near Upperville at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Eight miles (13 km) from the town of Middleburg, the area is home to a number of prominent Thoroughbred-breeding farms and a large country estates. The farm was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2017.

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Colonel Richard Henry Dulany was an American equestrian.

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Blue Ridge Farm may refer to:

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Oakley is a historic home and farm located near Upperville, Fauquier County, Virginia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blue Ridge Farm (Upperville, Virginia)</span> Historic house in Virginia, United States

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Old Welbourne Farm and Dulany Family Cemetery</span> Historic site in Loudoun County, Virginia, US

The Old Welbourne Farm and Dulany Family Cemetery is a historic farmstead in Loudoun County, Virginia, near the village of Upperville. The main farmhouse, a brick three-story building, was built c. 1878 in the Queen Anne style, and remodeled in 1910, giving it more Colonial Revival stying. The 620+ acre property includes the site of a c. 1812 Welbourne family stone homestead, and the 1837 Dulany family cemetery, which was established when John Peyton Dulany lived in the old Welbourne homestead. Dulany was responsible for the construction of Welbourne, and died one of the county's wealthiest men. Colonel Richard Dulany, founder of the Piedmont Fox Hounds (1840), which is the oldest fox hunting group in the United States, and the Upperville Colt & Horse Show (1853), was born in the 1812 cabin on the property and is buried in the Dulany family cemetery on the property. The "Old Welbourne" house described here probably was built by Richard Dulany, Jr.

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References

  1. Rosswrites.com
  2. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  3. Ayrshire Farm
  4. Middleburgonline.com
  5. A $7.25 million fixer-upper: Turning Bunny Mellon’s private art museum into a home