Oatlands
George Carter, great-grandson of Robert Carter, the "King Carter" of early Colonial days, received in 1800 from his father, Councillor Robert Carter of Naomi Hall, a tract of 6,000 acres south of Leesburg, a small part of the vast Carter holdings. Upon this land during the ensuing two years he built Oatlands, the most pretentious and elaborate of the Loudoun homes of that day. George Carter did not marry until attaining the discreet age of sixty years when he took as his bride Mrs. Betty Lewis, a widow, who had been a Miss Grayson. Both George Carter and his wife are buried in the gardens of Oatlands. The estate was acquired in 1903 by the late William Corcoran Eustis of Washington and is now the country home of his widow under whose care both residence and extensive gardens retain their justly celebrated charm and beauty. Mrs. Eustis, a daughter of the late Levi P. Morton, at one time Governor of New York and later Vice-President of the United States, has long been the Lady Bountiful of Loudoun. None of the county's residents has ever equalled her benefactions to its poor and to its public institutions of every kind.
Rokeby
Rokeby, on the old Carolina Road south of Leesburg, so long the home of the Bentley family, also belongs to this period. It acquired its claim to fame during the War of 1812 when, in 1814, President Madison, in expectation of the capture of Washington, sent many of the more valuable Federal archives, including the Declaration of Independence and, it is said, the Constitution of the United States, to Leesburg for safekeeping whence they were removed to Rokeby and stored for two weeks in its vaults. It is now the home of Mr. and Mrs. B. F. Nalle who, upon its purchase by them many years ago, made great changes in the old building.
Foxcroft
When, in the year 1914, Miss Charlotte Noland purchased the lovely old estate of Foxcroft, four miles north of Middleburg, there began a new era both in its interesting story and in the educational standards of Loudoun. No modern institution of the county has spread more generally knowledge of its charms than the famous school which Miss Noland then founded; and it is particularly appropriate that the institution should owe its inception and development to one who in singular degree is a representative of Loudoun's founders. Those Loudoun citizens of today who trace their descent to one of the earlier Nabobs of the county feel a complacent satisfaction therein; but Miss Noland unites lineal descent not only from Francis Aubrey and Philip Noland but from Colonel Leven Powell and Burr Harrison, the earliest explorer, as well, thus inheriting an early Loudoun background believed to be unique.
Photograph by Miss Frances B. Johnston
Foxcroft, Garden Front.
As is the case with so many of the older houses of the county, the age of Foxcroft and the identity of its builder are uncertain; but the local tradition is that it is one of the earliest of the many old brick houses to be found in that part of the county and that its builder was one Kyle who had married a daughter of the Balls. The story goes on that Mrs. Kyle lost her mind after the birth of one of her children and that for a long time thereafter she was enchained in the garret of the old house until, during the absence of her husband on a journey, she freed herself and fell to her death down the stairs. Another local story is that the building of the house was under the supervision of William Benton, the land-steward and friend of President Monroe who, it is said learned brick-making in his native England, discovered good brick-clay in the Middleburg neighborhood and made the brick for most of the early brick houses in that part of the County.