1 minute read
OATLANDS: House and Gardens
Oatlands Board Member and Loudoun Hunt member Paul Ritsema aboard the appropriately named Steinway. Oatlands has officially opened new equestrian, biking, and hiking trail partnerships with the Sierra Club-Virginia Chapter, Loudoun County Equine Association, United States Trail Ride and more.
OATLANDS: House and Gardens
PHOTOS © Dillonkeenphotography.com
Originally a first floor bedroom, the Eustis family added shelves to create their library. Notable artwork includes the painting over the fireplace of William Wilson Corcoran and the pottery by Maria Martinez, a well-known craftswoman of the black-on-black Pueblo style in New Mexico.
In 1798, George Carter inherited about 3,400 acres of land from his father that became Oatlands. In 1835, he married Elizabeth O. Lewis from Upperville. Today, this couple is interred in the garden within the Carter tomb. In 1903, William Corcoran Eustis, grandson of William Wilson Corcoran, founder of the Corcoran Art Gallery, Riggs Bank, and a prominent and philanthropic Washingtonian, and Edith Livingston Morton Eustis, eldest daughter of Vice President Levi P. Morton, purchased Oatlands. Seeking a country estate, away from their primary home in Washington, they wanted a place to keep their horses and hunting hounds. William was a co-founder of the Loudoun Hunt, and Edith fell in love with and restored the gardens. The property includes breathtaking gardens largely representative of the Eustis era and includes an English tea-house, Venetian well, rose garden, faun statue, and the style represent the 20th century update. The now 400-acre property was donated to the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1965 by Margaret Eustis Finley and Ann Eustis Emmet, daughters of William and Edith Eustis. Originally a first floor bedroom, the Eustis family added shelves to create their library. Notable artwork includes the painting over the fireplace of William Wilson Corcoran and the pottery by Maria Martinez, a well-known craftswoman of the black-on-black Pueblo style in New Mexico.
George Carter, on the left above the door, inherited what became Oatlands from his father in 1798. In 1835, at age 58, he married Elizabeth O. Lewis, a well-todo 39-year-old widow from Upperville
Edith Morton Eustis in the gardens. Her plans were heavily influenced by the revered British garden designer Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932). Today there are breathtaking garden rooms and splendid garden allées.
The 1932 painting by Philip de Laszlo, above the gold settee, is of Margaret Eustis Finley, daughter of William and Edith Eustis. She and sister Ann Eustis Emmet (pictured here) donated Oatlands to the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1965 following their mother’s passing. The image on the right is of their mother Edith Eustis.
The Steinway piano in the octagon drawing room is believed to have been purchased just for Oatlands by the Eustis family.
Loudoun County provided an ideal location for the Eustis’s to have horses. Their love of horses shows in sporting art throughout the house. One such notable painting is by the British artist John Emms (1843-1912) seen above the doorway here.
The crown molding in the drawing room is particularly impressive. The roll-top desk once belonged to William Corcoran Eustis’s great-grandfather, Commodore Charles Morris.
