Oak Ridge Estate
- History
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Date Built: 1730's
Recorded history of the Oak Ridge Estate begins in the 1730s with the original land grant. The earliest owners were two Bristol merchants, John Harmer (ca. 1710-1791) and Walter King (ca. 1714-1792). As British subjects, their property was confiscated in the American Revolution. Some of their holdings were acquired by Col. William Cabell (1730-1798).
Robert Rives (1764-1845), the son-in-law of Col. Cabell, obtained his first tract in 1793. The original part of the present house was constructed ca. 1802 as a nine room Federal-style dwelling. The residence was elegantly furnished, but none of these items remain at Oak Ridge.
Rives was a prosperous international merchant who farmed tobacco and wheat with as many as 200 slaves. Thomas Jefferson was a visitor to the property in 1817. One of Robert Rives' stores sold many items to Monticello. Robert Rives was succeeded as owner by two children: first Margaret Cabell Rives (1792-1862) and then Alexander Rives (1806-1885), later rector of the University of Virginia.
Oak Ridge suffered no appreciable physical damage in the Civil War, but was left in adverse economic circumstances. In 1867 the property was purchased by the rich West Virginia merchant Oliver Beirne (1811-1888) for the use of his daughter and son-in-law, William Porcher Miles (1822-1899). Mr. Miles was a former United States and Confederate congressman from Charleston, South Carolina. As chairman of the Confederate House of Representatives Military Affairs Committee, William Porcher Miles was a key figure in the Southern war effort. He also designed the renowned Confederate battle flag.
Miles' subsequent residence at Oak Ridge was marked by agricultural difficulties and family misfortune. William Porcher Miles left the Estate in 1880 and soon became the wealthiest sugar planter of Louisiana at Houmas House. Many aspects of Mr. Miles' life can be extensively documented through a daily diary and thousands of letters. He will be the subject of a comprehensive biography, researched and written by the Estate Historian, Lee Marmon.
After a 20 year period of absentee ownership, Oak Ridge was acquired in 1901 by Thomas Fortune Ryan (1851 -1928). Mr. Ryan was a Nelson County native who became spectacularly successful as a Wall Street financier in New York. Thomas Fortune Ryan became the wealthiest native-born Southerner of his generation with a net worth of over $130 million. His business interests embraced the Manhattan transit system, the American Tobacco Company, banking, the Equitable Life Assurance, the Thompson Sub-Machine Gun, railroads, Mexican rubber plantations and diamond mines in the Belgian Congo.
Thomas Fortune Ryan was also prominent as an international art collector, focusing especially on Renaissance and contemporary masterpieces. Ryan was an early patron of the French sculptor Rodin. Wall paintings by the French-Canadian artist M. Suzor-Cote adorn the Breakfast Room of the Oak Ridge Mansion.
As a generous Catholic philanthropist, Thomas Fortune Ryan endowed Sacred Heart Cathedral in Richmond, Virginia and St. Jean de Baptiste in New York City, as well as funding churches, schools, and hospitals throughout the country. With properties on Fifth Avenue, at Suffern, New York and in Washington, D. C., Oak Ridge was nevertheless Thomas Fortune Ryan's favorite residence.
He extensively enlarged the Rives house into a fifty room Colonial Revival Mansion on four floors. Although not definitely proven, Ryan's architectural firm was probably the New York concern of Carrere & Hastings. Thomas Fortune Ryan used the property both as a rural retreat and as a model farm employing as many as 300 workers. A wide range of agricultural activities were pursued at this time on Oak Ridge, including an elaborate dairy operation housed in one of the largest stone dairy complexes in the United States.
Saddlebred and thoroughbred horses were maintained on the Estate and entered in competitions and races from California to England. An equestrian history of Oak Ridge is currently being prepared in conjunction with the restoration of Ryan's 1909 racetrack.
Community features were represented by 25 tenant houses, a massive reservoir/water system, a power plant, private Railroad station, commissary, chapel, telephone company, two schools, and even a movie theater. Many of these structures survive.
Thomas Fortune Ryan also devoted considerable attention to gardens and the landscape with the creation of a Formal Italian Garden, Rose Garden, Virginia's only Crystal Palace-style Greenhouse (designed by the New York Pierson U-Bar firm), bog garden, golf course, game preserve and fox hunting course. Many of these garden and landscape areas are currently or will be under restoration.
Following Thomas Fortune Ryan's death in 1928, the family continued to own Oak Ridge for another 60 years. The successive heirs (his widow, son Clendenin, and grandson J. J. Ryan) did not share the senior Ryan's interest in grand estate development and the property gradually began to deteriorate. After J. J. Ryan's death in 1970, Oak Ridge once again reverted to ab
- Tour Information
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Leisurely tours can be scheduled throughout the year by advance appointment for groups of ten or more guests. Visitors will see selected rooms in the Mansion as well as certain Grounds features. The toured areas of the Mansion consist of the Reception Room, Library, Drawing Room, Dining Room and Breakfast Room. Each room is furnished and displays period documents, artwork, and photographs. The Grounds include the Formal Italian Garden, Rose Garden, Greenhouse, storage Tower, Pergola, Cut Flower Garden, Cottage, Ryan Mausoleum, Swan Lake Pond, and Estate Railroad Station.
Other parts of the Grounds and outbuildings will be opened as they are restored.
Guided tours available to groups of 10 of more people. All tours MUST be scheduled in advance.
Tour Rates
Mansion & Grounds Tours$10 for adults
$9 for seniors 65+
$5 children ages 8 - 18
no charge under 8
- Address Information
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Oak Ridge Estate
2300 Oak Ridge Road
Arrington, VA 22922
Phone: (434) 263-8676
Website: http://www.oakridgeestate.com/