Oak Hill Mansion

Originally built as a personal residence by Richard Fitzhugh in 1790 on the 2524-acre Ravensworth land grant, this home is notable not only for its transformation from Georgian-style farmhouse to Colonial Revival-style mansion, but also for its shrunken footprint of less than three acres and the intriguing caveat that in order to maintain its historic easement, it must allow the public to visit and view the property once per year.

Fitzhugh raised his family of eight children on the property and lived there until his death in 1821. Thomas Jefferson visited at least four times when he was President of the United States.

The house and property passed through three generations from Fitzhugh’s widow Suzannah in 1857 to son David (345 acres), then daughter Ann in 1868, and finally to granddaughter Ann Battailie in 1880 (60 acres). A skirmish occurred during David’s tenure as owner of Oak Hill during the Civil War. Three former enslaved people also resided on Oak Hill during the Fitzhugh era - John, Oscar, and Richard P. Newman.

In 1889, William Watt purchased the 50 acre farm and it remained in his family as a working farm until his son Egbert and his wife Grace sold it in 1935.

That same year, lawyer Edward Howrey and his wife Jane bought Oak Hill and remodeled it into a Colonial Revival-style mansion, adding a portico with columns, rooms, appliances, and modern plumbing.

The Hawleys sold the house to the Vienna Development Corporation in 1968, who carved the remaining acreage into a subdivision with less than three acres remaining for Oak Hill.

David and Amanda Scheetz purchased the home in 2008 and received a historic easement to protect the home in exchange for agreeing to show the home to the public four times per year.

In 2017, the Scheetzes sold the house to Joseph Braceland with the easement tenet still intact, though reduced to a one day per year requirement to open to the public.