Oak Spring Dairy, Upperville VA from Thomas & Talbot Real Estate on Vimeo.
Oak Spring Dairy is an idyllic 156-acre Northern Virginia hunt country property. It was a part of the Mellon estate located near the charming villages of Upperville and Middleburg. Following Mrs. Mellon’s death in 2014, the estate was divided into several parcels with a major portion held in trust by the Oak Spring Garden Foundation.
Adjacent to the Foundation, with natural springs, sprawling meadows and mature woods, Oak Spring Dairy abounds with wildlife—bald eagles, great blue herons, foxes, deer, bees, butterflies, birds and more. Bordered by historic Goose Creek, it is an enchanting enclave anchored by a 19th Century log cabin restored by the Mellons for their friend, former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
In addition to the log cabin, there are numerous farm outbuildings (barns, silos, spring houses) and two other dwellings—the historic pre-Revolutionary War Woolf’s Mill House and the Hill House. The property is under a Virginia Outdoor Foundation (VOF) easement that specifically provides that, in addition to the three existing “secondary dwellings”, the owners have the “right to construct one principal dwelling.”
To protect against the possibility of any view-obstructing construction on neighboring properties, the current owners acquired 38 additional acres to their original acquisition, thereby assuring protection of the spectacular panoramic views of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It is a sanctuary “ . . . set in one of the most tranquil and beguilingly beautiful landscapes of Northern Virginia.” (The Gardens of Bunny Mellon).
Oak Spring Dairy has been given new life by the current owners who have honored the Mellon legacy with a similar passion to preserve the natural state of the Virginia landscape. They have carefully and purposefully renovated each of the three existing dwellings and the two connected buildings that once housed the dairy.
Very little at Oak Spring Dairy has gone untouched. Meticulous care has been taken to upgrade electrical systems, septic, drain fields, roofs. Even the banks of Goose Creek have been restored and stabilized.
Still – in the words of Mrs. Mellon, “…nothing should be noticed.” The dairy farm and all of the properties that were a part of the Mellon estate are under VOF conservation easements and foxhunting easements.
One would be hard-pressed to find a property more immersed in history and tradition, more exquisitely cared for, in a setting unlike anything else in this venerated part of Virginia.
