1,100-Acre Historic Horse Farm in Virginia Wants $27.5M

1,100-Acre Historic Horse Farm in Virginia Wants $27.5M

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With almost as much room for horses as for people, Llangollen holds a lot of history on its almost 1,100 acres off a gravel road in Upperville, VA.

Dating to 1795, what is now a 12,500-square-foot manor house was once a patent house for the land grant of Leven Powell, a founder of nearby Middleburg, VA. The original abode that was quickly constructed in the late 1700s is still there.

“It’s been all restored, and it’s part of the house today,” says listing agent Peter Leonard-Morgan, with Hunt Country Sotheby’s International Realty. “Gradually, the stewards who have had the home have just kept doing bits and pieces to it to bring it up to modern standards.”

The original patent house is now a breakfast room with a large fireplace, one of 17 in the house.

The Federal-style manor house and all of the other structures on the property are available for $27.5 million. The landmark site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Storied estate

The estate has had many owners. Notably, the people who owned the property in the 1930s turned it into a steeplechase and horse breeding facility.

“It became really a place where the rich and famous would go. Clark Gable was there. So were Elizabeth Taylor and Bing Crosby. I found all these photographs of them at Llangollen,” Leonard-Morgan says.

The history of the estate at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains goes back even further. The Marquis de Lafayette visited, as did the country’s first president, George Washington. And it might even have a place in cinematic circles.

“It’s got a staircase in it that is rumored to have been the inspiration for the movie ‘Gone With the Wind,’ because [manor house owner] John Hay was one of the main financiers of that film in 1939,” Leonard-Morgan says.

Homes for humans and horses

The current owners bought the place in 2007 and finished the restoration project the previous owners began.

“It’s just amazing, almost like a museum inside,” Leonard-Morgan says. “It started off as a log cabin with a massive fireplace, and that’s been extended over the centuries.”

There are nine bedrooms, eight bathrooms, multiple staircases, a paneled library, and a parlor, among the home’s highlights.

“Some of the paint colors and the wallpaper are really extravagant, amazing,” Leonard-Morgan explains. “What struck me is how incredibly narrow the house is. Modern houses are built much deeper, and I think a lot of that has to do with the modern heating and ventilation we have. They didn’t have that, so things were much more compartmentalized back in the day.”

Close to the house is a unique barn, shaped like a horseshoe.

“Unfortunately, there was a fire many years ago, and it all looks beautiful on the outside, but they haven’t put the stalls back in, and that’s something that someone could do,” Leonard-Morgan says. “It has amazing bones for re-creating the barn like it was back in its heyday.”

Including the potential 24 stalls in the horseshoe barn, there are a total of 113 horse stalls and other facilities for a horse enthusiast.

“The current owners made it into a really important polo facility, because one of the family members is a really high-ranking polo player,” Leonard-Morgan says. “There are three full-sized polo fields, which is not just like cutting the grass. The footing has to be very special to be able to play polo at a high level.”

There’s even a polo arena to make twilight polo possible, he adds.

The grounds also include a jockey guesthouse with five bedrooms and eight tenant houses.

The perfect buyer “is probably someone who loves horses and, in an ideal world, someone who plays polo or is interested in polo,” Leonard-Morgan says.

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