Long & Foster® Real Estate, Inc., the largest independent residential real estate company in the United States and a leader in the sale of luxury properties, today announced it has listed, as part of its extensive number of current listings, The Maples, a 60-acre, Civil War-era estate that has been fully renovated and restored to preserve its heritage while embracing modern conveniences. The property, which includes an assemblage of nine fully-restored buildings, is listed by Andy Stevens, an associate broker with Long & Foster’s Middleburg sales office, and is being offered for $5.3 million.
Built in 1853 by William Sutton for Joshua Fletcher and his wife, Eliza, the stucco-over Virginia-fieldstone, four-over-four manor home had remained occupied by the original family until 1999, when Stevens and his wife, Michele, manager of Long & Foster’s Middleburg sales office, purchased the estate from Fletcher’s great, great-granddaughter. Since then, the Stevens’ have worked to meticulously restore the manor house and its outbuildings, committed to preserving their original state and reflecting the architectural design of the period, while also upgrading them with today’s top amenities and technology. The renovation, agrees the couple, has been a journey of love for the house and the history it holds.
“Due to age and vision problems, Mrs. Burkholder, from whom we purchased the property, had lived the last 17 years in the main house on the first floor, basically leaving the rest of The Maples locked in time,” said Stevens. “We uncovered a lot of treasures and history here and were able to retain much of the home’s original parts to preserve its character. For example, the seven fireplaces are all original, as are the outside shutters, most of the windows and casings, and much of the hardware and wood used throughout the house.”
Treasures discovered during renovations include the home’s original handwritten deed, recorded in 1835, and the original contract between the builder and Fletcher. Both hang on a wall in the home’s front hallway and will convey with the house, as will an original spinning wheel and a dining table also discovered during the restoration process. And of course there are the original solid, one-and-one-half-inch thick, four-panel cherry wood doors that hang in the doorway of nearly every room, that according to documents, cost $5 each to make in 1853. There’s also a hole in the original kitchen door caused by a bullet that landed there during the Battle of Unison in the fall of 1862.
According to a report in The New York Times in November 1862 by a reporter who was embedded in a Union patrol, Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart was having dinner at The Maples when the manor fell under the attack of cannon shot and gunfire. Stuart was in the area to lead a small Confederate force in the delay of a much larger Union Army that was advancing towards Gen. Robert E. Lee’s forces. The delay allowed Lee and his men to reach Culpeper in time to regroup before the Battle of Fredericksburg.
According to the reporter: “Nearby the wood in which the rebels were placed, stood the elegant mansion of Mr. J. Fletcher; and on arriving on the ground immediately after the cessation of firing, we found it occupied by the officers of The Ninety-fifth New-York Regiment. Here a sumptuous dinner had been prepared for Stuart and his staff, and was eaten with much satisfaction by a company equally hungry and far more loyal.”
Local lore also has it that Fletcher, himself wounded during the war, was threatened with the burning of The Maples by a Confederate soldier after an argument about orders to burn area barns and release livestock in an effort to limit availability of such supplies to Union troops. Later that night, Fletcher died from his wounds, leaving his wife to raise their 14 children, 13 of which were born at The Maples. All of the Fletcher children attended school in the one-room school house on the property that now serves as the garage. The Maples was never burned.
“Purchasing The Maples was a rare opportunity to own and renovate a pretty much totally undisturbed Virginia manor home in a magnificent setting,” said Andy Stevens. “In our determination to restore the property, we recycled as much as possible. The paneling, molding and much of the wood used in the renovation of the house were milled from pine and other wood we found in the barns or in other parts of the house. We even used the bricks from the basement to repair the brick walks around the house and between the other buildings,” he added.
Major renovations in the main house included removing 15 tons of plaster, bucket by bucket, from the first floor ceilings and two-foot thick stone walls so that updated plumbing and electrical systems could be installed before new plaster was put up. In addition, the home was checked for structural soundness and reinforced when needed. While the four-over-four floor plan was kept intact, the Stevens’ did redesign part of the main floor with the addition in the back of the house of a gourmet kitchen, a half-bath, an office and a closet. In addition, a convenience doorway was cut between the front parlor and the library.
Other renovations included removing, inspecting and re-roping the original windows using the original weights, inspecting and repairing the home’s seven fireplaces, repairing and reproducing the medallions surrounding the chandeliers and electrifying a number of original lights.
The dining room, with access to the kitchen and to an enclosed all-weather side porch, features a continuous hand painted mural on the room’s four walls depicting the outside landscape. The first-level center hallway runs to back of the home where the Stevens’ added a large porch that opens to pastoral views of pastures, the Blue Ridge Mountains, a pool, a patio, a hot tub and the property’s other outbuildings.
A circular driveway lined by mature maple trees meanders past the front of the home with its main level and second-level porches, welcoming visitors to The Maples. The manor’s original front door opens to a large foyer accented by the original pine floors and a stair case and railings that lead to the second level.
A redesign of the second floor included combining two of the four original bedrooms to create a master suite, bath, dressing area and closets. The remaining two bedrooms, each boasting a fireplace, were restored to reflect the home’s architectural feel but were also updated to include custom-built, floor-to-ceiling storage and a media/study column that houses high-speed internet, telephone, high definition TV. In addition, a second full bath was added.
A smaller stone house on the property, which once housed the workman who built The Maples, was renovated with a two-story addition and converted into a two-bedroom guest house complete with a kitchen, a dining area, the original stone fireplace and a large family room. The second floor features a large master bedroom and bath, a separate Jacuzzi tub and glass shower, and a laundry area, as well as vaulted ceilings that expose original beams. The smaller second bedroom also boasts exposed beams and a smaller bathroom.
The original two-story summer kitchen now functions as an office and features an upper-level overflow sleeping area or den. The building is also wired for multiple telephone lines and high speed internet. The original fireplace now serves host to a wood-burning stove, while the pine staircase to the second level, caramelized in color by years of exposure to smoke when the building served as a kitchen, is flanked on one side by a mix of original plaster and exposed stone. The second-level is accentuated by a vaulted ceiling that exposes original pine shakes and sheathing.
The three-level bank barn with exterior walls made entirely of two-foot thick local fieldstone was also reinforced and restored, including one of its gabled ends which reaches 55 feet in height, and is composed of more than 800,000 pounds of stone. The lower level of the barn offers hay storage and two large stalls. The main level, divided into three sections is used for storage, as is the two-sectioned third level. Nearby, a two-stall, smaller wooden barn includes a tack room.
Other original buildings restored on the farm include a monitor barn, believed to be a rare example of this type of architecture in Loudoun County. Originally designed for grain, it is now used for equipment storage; a cow barn that has been converted to a woodworking shop that served as the site of where most of the milling was done of the wood used in the restoration of the various buildings; and a square clapboard spring house flanked on two sides by troughs that now serves as a potting shed.
The beautiful 60-acre property, with long views of the Blue Ridge Mountains, is surrounded by hundreds of acres of pasture and historical battle ground protected by a conservation easement. The historic Panther Skin Creek also runs along a back portion of the property, providing ample opportunity to fish for local walleye and pickerel.
“The Maples is located approximately seven minutes from Middleburg, 30 minutes from Dulles International Airport and one hour from Washington, D.C., making it an attractive investment for a buyer seeking a get-away retreat or primary home,” said Andy Stevens.
Nearby notable properties include the venue of the Upperville Horse and Colt Show, founded in 1853 and believed to be the oldest such equine competition in the nation, and the prestigious Rokeby Farm, owned by the heirs of American philanthropist Paul Mellon. Upperville is considered part of Virginia’s famous Piedmont horse country and the village is designated as a Virginia Historic Landmark and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
“The Maples is a truly exquisite and unique property and requires the global exposure Long & Foster’s Extraordinary Properties program provides by leveraging our exclusive affiliation with Christie’s International Real Estate and our affiliations with Luxury Portfolio International, Luxury Real Estate and Leading Real Estate Companies of The World,” said Gary Scott, president of Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc.
“Through our New Look of Luxury campaign, featuring co-branding between Long & Foster and Christies, we can further highlight these affiliations and bring the widest possible international spotlight on distinguished properties such as this one to connect qualified buyers to them.”
For more information, visit ExtraordinaryProperties.com.