Loudoun historian Richard Gillespie once told me: “history is around every corner in Loudoun County.” And he was right. Sometimes the heritage of a place is in such plain view that you miss it. For instance, Vestal’s Gap Road. Situated between the parking lot of Dulles Town Center (across from Longhorn Steakhouse) and Nokes Boulevard in Sterling, this short stretch of historic roadbed is...
The Middleburg Christmas Parade is this Saturday, December 4th. To say this is a Loudoun signature event would be an understatement. Since the early 1900s, Loudoun has been known far and wide as horse and hunt country, and nowhere has that been the case more than in the quaint enclave of Middleburg. And each year, during the first Saturday in December, the town becomes...
View Larger Map Drive One: Snickersville Turnpike (15 miles) Follow this historic Virginia byway over rolling foothills and across Goose Creek and its tributaries from the Village of Aldie to the Village of Bluemont. This historic route, only 15 miles long, was traversed by George Washington, and was the scene of clashes during the Civil War. Lucikly, the “turnpike booth” closed in 1915, so...
Once the sun sets, and the warm sunny days give way to the chill and darkness of evening in Autumn, the picturesque setting that is Loudoun succumbs to a whole different experience. The rolling landscape, dotted with stately oaks and elegant manors, become seemingly more remote, stark, and lonely. Charming small towns, alive with people moving here and there in the hours before dusk,...
19th Century Homes, Secret Gardens, Horses, Hounds, and Stables! This weekend and next, the last two weekends in May, you have permission to peek. Heck, you have permission to explore at length and at your leisure. Because for these weekends, you have the opportunity to go behind the scenes, into private places, for a glimpse into spaces not opened to the public except...
Jackie Kennedy’s style and grace epitomized Loudoun County’s horse country and its capital, Middleburg. Today marks the 16th anniversary of her death, so in memoriam, I thought I’d share a little bit about her time in Loudoun, a place she visited on and off for nearly 40 years. In the early 1960s, President John F. Kennedy and his family used Middleburg as a retreat...